My Children's Summer Initiation

In our little 2 square mile town, there are at least 17 ice-cream trucks.  Most of them looking a little sketchy.  Most of them run by recent immigrants to America who are just trying to make a living.

So far, I have held back on letting my little ones in on the secret of the "creepy music".  I'm not sure I want them to have a salivating Pavlov's dog reaction to the tiny tinkering of "Pop Goes the Weasel".  And I definitely haven't wanted to deal with the incessant whining or begging for the sweet stuff each time one of the 17 trucks drives by.

But I knew that at some point, I would have to introduce them to the sure sign of summer.  And today was the day.

When we heard the music signaling a cold, tasty treat, I ran up to get our change jar.  And we scrounged up $4.

The truck finally pulled up and we asked for four vanilla ice-cream cones.

It was just as perfect as I imagined: four sweet, innocent kids sitting down on the steps of the neighborhood bar eating icecream.  ;)  Oh dear.  {Have I ever mentioned that our little town is also known for the coolest bars?  Yep.  Go Hamtramck.}

It was Clara's first time to hold her own ice-cream cone.

And she only de-coned it once.

Which we quickly picked up and put right back on top.  Ten second rule... don't judge.  {Hubby would like to point out that he scraped off the part that touched the ground... as if that makes it much better}.  In any case, we avoided a serious meltdown on the steps of the bar.  One those steps are probably used to seeing, though - so I'm sure they wouldn't have minded.

And in full Hamtramck style, these colorful women walked by and reminded me once again at how amazing it is to have the world living in our small little town.  And how wonderful it is when the world is out walking the streets together in the warmth of summer.

And our perfect "Welcome to Summer" event ended with another summer initiation:  the skinned knee.

Welcome Summer!

 

 
 

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