My wife and I took our kids to the First Annual Pflugerville Pfireworks Festival, which was held yesterday evening at Lake Pflugerville. The weather was absolutely perfect, and it cooled off a lot after the sun went down, with a nice breeze as well.
Normally, it would take us about 7 minutes to get there, but with the crowd and parking, it took us about 30 minutes from the time we left the house to the point that we were seated (we brought our own chairs).
There were buses provided from Hendrickson High School, but we chose to scope out the parking situation before committing to the bus. I am glad that we did, after we ran into a friend who complained about the bus. Also, I think we might have had a hard time getting all five of our portable chairs on board.
We were the last car allowed to park in the closest lot, which turned out to be a huge blessing, because we were parked near the back entrance, and able to leave quickly after the show ended.
The kids enjoyed the real juice popsicles that were for sale, and I loved the sausage wraps. All of the 
food was very inexpensive. I think the wraps were $2/each, and the popsicles were a dollar a piece.
A few days ago, my wife had purchased a canister of 100 glow sticks at a local craft store for the kids to enjoy. They came with connectors, so you could string them together and make a necklace, or one giant, multicolored stick. One child was so entranced with them that he kept wandering over to see. I told my wife that if his mom asked about them, to sell her one for a dollar (hey, times are tight).
I am glad that I told her this, because we ended up selling about 30 of them to a number of "customers". Had I known that they were so popular, I would have arrived earlier and actively tried to sell them. As it was, we just sat there and collected money.
In the end, even taking into account our parking fee, food, gas, and the cost of the glowsticks themselves, we ended up turning a small profit, plus we have a lot of glowsticks left over for the kids to enjoy. They were very excited about the sales, and it proved to be a fun entrepreneurial lesson.
As for the fireworks themselves, I was highly impressed. I have probably seen 30 or more fireworks displays in person, and this one was the best that I could remember. It went on longer than I would have anticipated, and they clearly didn't spare any expense to make the inaugural festival something to remember.
As I alluded to above, after the show we were able to make it out of there quite fast, and we were home at a reasonable hour. Overall, I can't wait for next year's Pfestival!
Next time, I am buying TWO containers of glow sticks.
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So glad you and your family had such a great time and a profitable one too. :)
Nothing wrong with making a profit while having fun......... good for you.... bring several packages next time. Hey how about taking pre-orders??
Always the businessman Jason, that's great making money at the fireworks display. Those glow sticks are cool. I saw more of them last year in the park I was at. But like you, I thought this year's presentation and the whole event was one of the best. It's nice when they get better each year.
Sounds like your crew had a fun one! We enjoyed ours a lot also.
Jason,
Great Post,
You are in the wrong business. You could work 1 day a year and clean up. :)
Saw the glo sticks a few years ago in Hawaii and they were quite popular. Our fireworks here in the mountains were quite enjoyable and made for a nice slideshow for posting. It is the first time I watched the fireworks here in WNC.. fireworks against the mountain backdrop are much different from fireworks in Chinatown in downtown Honolulu!
Sounds like you're working too much on a holiday! FUN about the glow sticks... I would have had a hard time if I'd only had a dollar though... popsicle or glow stick... popsicle or glow stick...popsicle or glow stick.. tastes better or lasts longer? Ok, glow stick! (now who will let me have a bite of their popsicle?) Glad you & your family enjoyed the evening of fireworks fun.
Always thinking Jason. I am glad you all had fun and ended up in the Black for the evening. Those glow sticks are great for kids. Great job with the parking too. Have a great Sunday.
Jason,
Be careful you may need to have a vendors license to sell the glow sticks next year.:-))
Glad to hear that you had a wonderful 4th of July.
Don R.
Jason, sounds like fun. Stock up on those glow sticks. You may want to bring some coolers of nice cold beverages along for sale too.
We brought glow sticks to our fireworks display, and were approached by quite a few about where they could purchase them. I only had enough for my 5 kids plus a couple of friends, or I would have sold a few too!
It sounds like you had a great evening. I especially like that you were able to get out rather quickly...I really don't like crowds. Oh, and I can't forget about the money making part. That sounds like a good idea for next year... :)
Hi Jason, sounds like you had a Pfabulous Pfourth in Pflugerville! Glad it was a fun event for y'all!
Happy 6th of July, Jason! Glad to hear the Crouch Family had so much fun!
I am sending you the info of the company I order my glow jewelry from. When we take the motorhome out on camping trips we usually have several children that come along. It's hard to see the kids after dark so all the kids wear glow necklaces like little tracking devices. I am stocking them on the boat to use with sunset cruises that run past dark now, too.
Glad you had a good time at the fireworks and made some money while you were at it. Maybe if you ever get tired of real estate, you could sell glow sticks. LOL We all went and saw our fireworks here also. It was slightly rianing so we did not know if they were going to be postponed, they weren't. It was not real crowed though due to the weather.
Jason, That is great that your family and you enjoyed the firework festivities so much. Firework displays are just so beautiful. Those flow sticks sound neat.
I think I might have seen some of these on my way home from my brother's house.
Jason, you are a true entrepreneur! Glad you had a good time with your family.
Too cool Jas....I held my own display in my backyard. I didn't get paid, but we had a great time. Afterwards, the commute was all of about 20 steps back to our home....A little drinking and walking suited me well on the 4th.
Jason~It's got to be good to know that if you ever decide to leave RE, you'll have a business to go to...selling Glo Sticks to the spectators at July 4th! Maybe you should think about camping out at that new shopping center and selling them there as well...or at the water park...gosh, I think you're onto something here :)
Glad to hear your holiday was fun...and to know you made a few bucks too!
Just the name Pflugerville makes me think "friendly!" Next year I would buy two boxes but attach my business card and give them out for free. Meet & greet my friend! :)
Hi Jason...I have a dozen gross on order. I can always up the number. Will gladly strike up some type of business arrangement with Crouch, Inc.
Kate
President, CEO, COO, and CFO
The Elim Team
(Elim rhymes with team)
Jason- I am glad you had good weather. It rained and thunderstormed so much that by the time it stopped, the park fields were so sopping wet you could hardly walk. But it was still fun. Our son hates to get dirty and he saw how muddy all the kids were and would not do any of the bounce house type activities. There was mud flying everywhere and he is OCD about getting dirty;)
Jason, It sounds like you had another great experince with the family. Keep up the good work.
Way to start those kids in sales at a young age!!
Real estate...glowsticks...same difference right? One things for sure, location, location, location! Those glow sticks were valuable at that spot that night!
What a great idea! Years ago when we were first married, my husband worked in Downtown Boise, ID. At that time they had the Boise River Festival in Mid June and had fairly big names come in town to do concerts. Well, the concert (Eddie Money) was being held close to my husbands job and was starting about 6pm. All his co-workers left at 5pm. At about 3pm, he called me and said "Meet me down here at quarter till 5 and bring some poster board and markers. We made signs, and charged $5/car for parking in the company lot. We made about $300+ dollars in about 45 minutes!
Sounds like you and the fam had a great time! Unfortunately Carrollton didn't have any fireworks this year and most of the cities had the fireworks the night before! Go figure! Next year attach Business Cards to them!