A busy day

So there was a lot going on today. After the girls spent the morning over at Colleen and Dwight's house frosting cupcakes (more on this in a minute), we were off to Abra's dance recital. Here she is with Raven and Deandre doing their tap dance, with their dance instructor, Mr. Moodie, directing them in front:


Well, heck, it's a dance recital, let's see if we can get some action here! Here's a piece of the tap dance:

And here's part of the ballet

After the recital was over, we dashed home and had a quick lunch so that we could be ready for the giant BAKE SALE! Now this was no ordinary bake sale. Colleen had helped the girls (Abra, Thalia, and their friend Lily) figure out a budget and go shopping for ingredients, then they baked and frostened cupcakes, made lemonade and flower arrangements, and set up shop in front of the house.


Lemonade was 25 cents, cupcakes were 50 cents, and flowers (in recyclable bottles for vases!) were 25 cents each. You might also notice that with your treats, you could also help yourself to some free campaign literature the girls made:

(photo courtesy Dwight)

Then the girls went went with Colleen down to the corner and proceeded to direct traffic down to their lemonade, cupcake, and flower stand:

(photo courtesy Dwight)

Their first "get" was a gentleman driving a spectacular old car, who stopped and chatted with us and the girls while he drank his lemonade.


After that, Thalia started targetting Lexuses, smart child that she is:

(photo courtesy Dwight)

Now you are probably thinking "Lemonade, cupcakes, and flower, how nice!" But wait, there's more! While you enjoy your treats you get to listen to a cello concert by the talented Miss Lily:


In fact, let's take a listen. But first, an apology: I forgot that while you can rotate pictures easily, you can't rotate movies (if you know how, let me know!). So the movie of Lily was taken sideways, but you can just turn your head to the side and watch:

Meanwhile, Thalia is laying a trail of acorns to attract more customers.


Here comes our neighbor John to buy some flowers (John was a good customer: he made several trips to buy lemonade, cupcakes, AND flowers!):

(photo courtesy Dwight)

We of course had the rather unsurprising issue that the proprieters of the stand seemed to eat a bit into their own profits:

(photo courtesy Dwight)

And at one point, the four year old treasurer managed to dump the money bag into the grass:


But she managed to rescue the money, and by the time the bake sale was over, they had accumulated quite the haul. They had the shareholders meeting over at Colleen's and produced back their financial report:

• Gross Receipts: $47.50
• Less Baking Supplies: $12.00
• Less Workers' Salary: $3/each girl
• Net Proceeds: $26.50

The girls decided to donate the proceeds to Providence House, a shelter/crisis center for young at-risk children in Cleveland.

We'd like to thank all our friends and neighbors who came to the sale, and particularly say thanks to Colleen for helping the girls organize and run the event. (And thanks to Dwight for taking some of the pictures I've used here...)