Sunshine & Lemonade - The Stand.

What's a lemonade party without a lemonade stand? 

I struggled with how I'd recreate a lemonade stand for Munch's party.

Would Uncle L. build one?
Too much to ask...

Would I order one from eBay?
Too much to pay...

Could I add 2 poles to the sides of tables and hang a banner in between to recreate the wooden lemonade stand look?
Too much to do...

...

While picking up the wedding cake for Deb and Chaz from Misty (my sweet friend and fave baker), I saw it.  In her playroom was a fabulous cardboard store.  She told me that it was purchased from Ikea and only cost her $14.

I was sold.  That was it.

Source

I right-clicked-and-saved the information into my brain's birthday file.  Two weeks before the party, I purchased the "store" and solicited Hubbs to put it together.

Something about Ikea always puts the man in a bad mood.

There's grumbling and fussing, an occasional curse word mixed in with the question, "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO TO IKEA FOR THIS?!"

He loves the prices but hates the instructions (or lack thereof in some cases).

Eventually, after a mere 5 minutes of complaining, we had a lemonade stand.  Once it was together I took a few steps to make it fit our theme and now I'm going to show you how to do the same...

Did you read that last part in *like* a game show host's voice? I totally typed it thinking you would.  NO?!  Whatever.

Lemonade Stand Tutorial

Supplies

- Paint

-Painter's Tape

- Poster Board

- Embellishments (coordinating paper, ribbon, signage, etc.)

- Knife

Step-By-Steps

1.  Tape off the stripes.  I wanted to keep the white stripes so I placed my tape in the center of the white stripe; the painter's tape was thinner than the white stripe but I was okay with having slightly larger pink stripes.

2.  Paint over the red stripes.

3.  Carefully remove the tape.  Learn from my mistake! I rushed to remove the first piece of tape.  It took the card board with it and left behind an awful little tear.

I had to convince myself that it was just a party prop and I should not cry... Yes, you read correctly, I said cry (no sleep makes me sensitive and less-than perfect gives me hives).

4.  Lay your choice of poster board over the front to determine how much you will need to cut.  I bought my yellow board from the Dollar Tree for $.50. 

5. Cut the poster board to fit. It was almost a perfect fit for the height and width of the bottom portion of the lemonade stand.  I just needed to cut 3" off of the width.

6. Glue the poster board to the front of the stand.

7.  From the back of the assembled stand, recreate the slits for the sign by using the knife to slice through the poster board.

8.  Add your own sign to the holder that came with the cardboard store.  Note: It is larger than the standard piece of paper; I used pieces of scrap book paper to create a border.

9.  Adhere the sign to the stand per the directions.

10.  Embellish as you desire.

I added a pennant banner.  I thought it was perfect.  Deb, however, felt like it needed a little whimsy and added the polka dots and curly ribbons.  It was more than I would've done but it was her little signature on the stand - a collaborative effort, if you will.

At the party, I placed the table at the end of a path for guests to drop off their gifts for Munch.  She hung out by the lemonade stand to greet the first few who arrived. I know, I didn't get the picture of her greeting guests from behind the lemonade stand and I totally regret that... But this me.  NOT crying. I did, however, move the lemonade stand around to get pics throughout the party.

Water Bomb fun:

The group shot:

Of course, by my side was Hubbs' best friend and Munch's Uncle, Nunn.  He wanted the kids to take a photo with a silly face.  I thought I was done torturing the kids with photos when this dude starts hollering in my ear for the kids to make a funny face *click*

They weren't really feeling it...

...the birthday girl, however, will do anything for her Uncle Nunn.  When I saw her silly face, I had to get a close-up:

Looks like the lemonade stand helped to bring the party vision to reality and made for a great frame around an AWESOME pic of the birthday girl:)

This mama's mission was accomplished!