Go Big or Go Home!

So, most of you in the area know our crazy, oh my goodness..what in the world did I do, plan!


...but for those who don't....


After the past weekend's success in raising money to send to Hackleburg Helping Hands, we really felt like we weren't quite done yet....soooo....


I signed us up as a vendor in Winnebago's 4th of July Fest.   


Seriously, this is huge...big time....makes you take some major pause going from a little lemonade stand to an actual Event!


After trying to figure out how many cookies to make...which is completely impossible....Jim just said let's set a dollar amount that we'd like to reach and go from there...


This Saturday we are beginning to start baking..wait for it...wait for it...


100 Dozen Cookies!!! I feel a smidge like Dr. Evil when I say this to people!



The ingredient list alone is so overwhelming!  40 lbs of powdered sugar...6 doz eggs...160 oz peanut butter....44 lbs of Butter!!!  Don't even get me started on flour!


This is becoming so much bigger than anything we can handle on our own...


If you could keep this in your prayers, I would really appreciate it!!!  Already this is spreading like wildfire..who knows what all God will do through this little stand...but He does work mightily through the little guy and you can't get much more meager than us!   Pray for favor, that we could raise unbelievable God sized amounts to help out Hackleburg.  Pray for volunteers that will come alongside us as we bake bake BAKE and during the Festival on the 3rd and 4th---and that the weather will be spectacular and draw huge crowds!  And last, but certainly not least, pray that while we're out there selling, we would have divine appointments to show God's love :)

Best Lemonade Stand EVER!

Friday and Saturday was the day for the boys---


First we set up at my sister's garage sale for the day on Friday.   We prayed over the stand, asking God to just show up and totally bless our efforts to help Hackleburg!


Kim was our first customer--getting there at *yawn* 7:20 a.m.!  (Kim, we seriously need to get together more often....Love Ya Girlfriend!)  She was a sweetheart and bought cookies for her Hub And her coworkers!

Then the waiting began!

I love this shot---can you tell they are already sick of having the camera in their face?!?

By the day's end, we had raised $80 for Hackleburg!!!!!  


From. A. Lemonade. Stand. At. A. Garage. Sale. People!  WOW!


Saturday was gloomy and cold, but we still headed out for our town festival's parade.  So again, the first thing we did was pray that we could have a good day to be able to send a bit of hope to Hackleburg!


Our neighbor boy (can you call a college student a "boy"?....we've been here for 10 yrs so I guess he'll always be a boy!) came over and said that he'd been waiting ever since we put the sign out in the morning!  He bought a doz cookies!

Before the rush...notice the "full" lemonade?!?  Yeah, talk about craziness!!!!  We had baseball teams getting ready to walk in the parade, families waiting for the parade to start (even people dashing across during the parade!), town police officers, some of Jim's fellow Alabama volunteers....tons of people, people, people!


Oh, the cookies that we sold!  On Friday I went to Crystal's with about 9 doz cookies...almost completely sold out!  I had to get up at 5 am (ugh!) to make another 7 or so doz cookies (yes, I was cutting out sugar cookies at 5 AM!)


I don't remember which cookie site I saw the states with a heart at....I looked at so many to find the perfect recipes!!!!!  Needless to say, next time......double the smiley faces!  When I first really looked at them, I thought-- Great, I just made Walmart cookies! :)  But People LOVED Them!  


I adored The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle's sugar cookie recipe!  Best EVER!!!  I halved the amount of baking powder once on accident...both ways turned out fantastic!  One super awesome trick for rolling out the dough (from At Home With The Farmer's Wife) was to tape to your counter 2--5 Gal paint sticks just shy of the width of your rolling pin.  This made a guide for the dough, just shake in some flour between the sticks, plop down the dough and roll out some perfectly even cookies in a flash :)  I know it's like using the gutter guards when bowling, but I whipped out 5 Doz cookies in 2.5 hours....from making the dough to the last pan baked!!!  I'll take the cheater method please!


It took me forever to find a royal icing that I actually liked...3 disappointing batches (but they still sold, I'm just picky!).   This one was hands down the easiest and best to work with from The Decorated Cookie!!!!!  You have to go down a little ways, but it's the Royal Icing (sort of)....amazing...kept it's shine, didn't get crumbly or gross...perfect!

These peanut butter cookies I'm renaming peanut butter crack---over half of our sales were in these and they ran out first!  The recipe was from Food, Folks, and Fun :)

They were able to take a little parade break in midst of the lemonade chaos!

Full bags and Full Bellies!

We sold, sold, sold....even made the front page of a local news paper!


When all was said and done, the boys sold over $200 in two days!

Sunday morning, as I was laying in bed...half comatose from all the Baking...I felt like this wasn't supposed to be the end!!!  If 2 little boys could raise that much from a small garage sale and half a blocks worth of people waiting for a parade, what could we do in a larger event.......We Shall See!  (Details coming soon as we figure them out!)

Lonely on the Outside

...I'm blaming exhaustion, but boy today has been emotional...

Do you ever just have those days when you feel alone?

I've been making my crazy fringe check list today and having a total pitty party!

--crazy people who homeschool..check!

--don't let the boys eat cereal...check!

--what?!? You make everything that you guys eat...check!

--wow, that's a lot of effort to put into painting old furniture...check!

Wallow Wallow Wallow!

Then I remember:

Jim did an awesome job fixing my staining mess!

I got a friend request from someone local, who wants to trade organic info!

My neighbor Loves all of my craptacular crafts!

So, I guess 1 isn't a lonely number...just needed to stop and think ;)


On a totally different subject, Riley is Covered in a rash today---too much junk at the gma's?---allergic to sunscreen?---too much pool time in the past 3 days?

That kid is such a mystery!!!