When we went to Stratsburg back in June the kids managed to come home with a bunch of junk toys from every single store we went into. There was this unspoken expectation (mainly from Kip) that they would get something at every store even if they did not necessarily find something they really wanted. I remember this feeling as a kid, you wanted something so just pick anything. We couldn't reign it in or have deep conversations in the middle of a crowded tourist shop about saving up for something or making sure it's something you want. Dan and I learned our lesson on that trip and our bank took the hit. So, our new strategy for all future trips is to give each kid the same set amount of cash for their own spending. They can buy whatever they want with it but when it's gone, it's gone.
The weekend before our trip to Cape May we participated in the city-wide yard sale. The goal was to get rid of some stuff and to get some spending cash for each kid to take and spoil on souvenirs during our trip. For added earning bonus, Kip got the idea to have a lemonade stand AND charge guests admission to his "amazing toy train layout."
This kid, I tell ya...his imagination is wild and his ideas of what is reasonable or achievable are hard to harness as a parent. We want him to explore and dream big but we also don't want him to set his sights too high because when he is disappointed, the whole house shakes. Somehow we convinced him to only charge for one and settled on free lemonade with a reasonable admission to his layout. He worked on invitations and took them to school the last week - inviting his teachers and classmates. Woof!
Mandy and I spent over an hour with him on a Friday afternoon setting-up his layout, making sure it was worth the cost of admission. It was his design, we just helped. He combined his Lego Duplo track with the Lionel Ready to Play New York Central set and the circle track Stratsburg train he got on our trip. I elevated that set on the color blocks for some added flare. All the trains ran all day long during the duration of the yard sale so it was really something to look at. Kip would blow the whistles and other interactive features on his ready-to-play set whenever guests were around.
Auntie Jagee arrived that night and was a huge help over the weekend with both the yard sale and convincing Kip to flip the approach and charge $1 for the lemonade and then extend the invitation to see his layout for free. Look at this cute entrepreneur and his business partner, Ivy.
Jagee's strategy worked out well and nearly every adult coming by to see the yard sale stopped to get some lemonade and most were easy to convince to come check-out the layout. A bunch of people were super sweet to Kip, ooohing and ahhhing over his layout and talking about how they made layouts in their basements when they were kids. It was really nice to see such encouraging strangers.
One of Kip's little school friends stopped by and his kindergarten teachers actually came as well!!! Ugh, I'm just so grateful for people who show up for him in his interests.
And let me tell you, the kids made BANK!!! Lemonade stands draw a lot of generosity. One guy jumped out of his car handed Kip a $20 bill, didn't even take a lemonade and said something like "gotta support the entrepreneurs" before getting back in his car and driving off! His teachers gave him $15. Like, what??!! When we counted it all up, he made $137.
Us adults made about $200 from the whole yard sale. Mandy got $100 and Dan and I split the other $100 for each kid to get $50 to spend on our trip. Our set cash for souvenirs approach worked smashingly! Each kid spent what they wanted on what that really wanted (no demanding junk from every store we entered) and both returned home with money still in their pockets. Kip was happy to have that leftover to combine with his lemonade/layout earnings to purchase an expensive Lego set to start building his "little" Lego train set collection. Lots of great lessons all around and memories to store as well.
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