Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The dreaded ice cream truck

One evening as we were sitting outside with our neighbor, we heard the sounds of the ice cream truck making its way through our neighborhood.  The boys always perk up thinking this might be the time we finally cave in and buy them ice cream.  Fortunately for us, the truck never turns towards our house.

Our neighbor told us about telling her nieces the ice cream truck is out of ice cream when you hear the song.  It was the drivers way of notifying everyone they didn't have anymore ice cream to sell.  Of course, we started spouting this phrase to the boys anytime the ice cream song was heard in the air.

There have been discussions about how the ice cream truck should plan better so they don't run out of ice cream.  Even the suggestion of talking with dad since he's a logistician so he could teach the ice cream truck drivers how to plan more efficiently.

During all of this I knew the day would come where I'd be caught telling the ice cream truck lie.  Little did I know this would happen at the playground.  I notice Jake and a few other kids going towards the parking lot.  I call out, asking him what he's doing.

'Mom!  The ice cream truck is here and he has ice cream!'

'Jake, I don't have any cash on me to buy ice cream.'

'But mom!  The song isn't playing!  They have ice cream!'

'I don't have any cash on me to buy ice cream.'

You can see where this is going as I dragged Jake away from the ice cream truck.  Yep, dashed my kids wee hearts in denying them ice cream the one time they were around when the truck wasn't playing its song.  Seriously, though, I didn't have any cash on me to buy them ice cream.  No, really, I'm not lying about the lack of cash on hand part.

I will say, telling your kids the ice cream truck is out of ice cream when you hear the song works.  They won't bother asking for ice cream every time they hear the song jangling around the neighborhood.

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