Got Lemonade?

When we moved in our home there was a small lemon tree on the side of our house. And when it grew, it really grew. For three years now it has produced so many lemons that it has become famous among our family, friends and neighbors. Folks stop all the time when walking by and ask if we do anything special that makes it grow so many lemons. The secret is, we don't do a thing. We have never even pruned it. I think the answer is that it is planted where there is a perfect combination of sunshine, shade, soil and water. 

At the end of each October we hold our annual Lemon Picking Day where we get out the cutters and start picking. Brett usually does this part as there are large thorns, and the kids are responsible for putting them in the buckets, bags, pots, pans.....whatever we can find to hold them all. We held our little harvest last weekend. 

Here we are posing with the tree in a few before shots. 

And the picking begins.

Taking a break with PaPa Ed.  I like how in the one of him in the car you can see Jude in the side mirror and Conor is holding her arms up!

And so what do you do when life gives you so many lemons? Make lemonade, of course. This weekend, the kids had their first ever beside-the-road-lemonade-stand, and it was seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen. So many people stopped, bought lemonade and a few people even bought a bag or two of lemons. Chapel and Eli raised $20 in 2.5 hours. Not bad for two small kiddos. They really worked hard for their money - waving and smiling at potential "cussomers" as Eli called them. It was a treat to watch them and hopefully they learned a little lesson about being successful entrepreneurs.