I don't want to leave my neighborhood.

Lemonade stands are just the perfect way to kick off a summer, right?  They combine citrus and sugar and sunshine and standing outside, and there's no better way to earn some money.  So, the first warm, clear afternoon in May, we set up shop in the front yard.  

 We live on the main street in our neighborhood, which is just busy enough to keep the business flowing, but not so busy that I don't like the girls to be in the front yard.  Liv and Mimi stood on chairs and waved their sign frantically, earning every penny with sweat and hoarse yelling.

 Maddie and I calmly sat on a blanket, entertaining ourselves.  She had a cup; I had a book.  Every so often, I'd hear the timer go off and I'd pull another batch of cookies out of the oven.

 We sold eight dozen cookies (that's 96 cookies!) for a quarter a piece.  When the profits from lemonade were added in, the girls had made over $30, which they divided up among themselves and the neighbor who came over to help.

 I loved the older couples walking by, hand-in-hand, who decided to stop to humor an exuberant little girl.   I loved the teenagers driving home from school who paid for lemonade and cookies with change from the cupholders and then went home to tell their moms to come buy more cookies.  I loved the slow conversations on the front lawn and the dogs who good-naturedly allowed themselves to be enthusiastically mauled.

 I might have to be dragged from my home and neighborhood kicking and screaming.  I'm sure not going to go willingly.