Another Opening Day

I scored some serious fun parent points this afternoon when I took the kids to opening day at our local ice cream shop. It helped that it was a gorgeous day.

Just as robins, daffodils and warmer temperatures signal that spring really is here and summer is around the corner, the opening of the ice cream shop is our local signal. It's almost beach weather!

Like many ice cream stands in New England (and maybe elsewhere), our local shop is somewhat seasonal. It opens in late April or early May, enjoys a strong summer business, cuts hours in the fall then usually closes for the winter just after Thanksgiving. M has been asking since Valentine's Day when it would open again, and could we go on opening day?

When I shuttled the kids into the car today, I didn't tell them where we were going. They had big smiles on their faces when we pulled up to a line out the shop door. Everyone in town, it seemed, wanted to welcome the impending season with an ice cream cone. It doesn't hurt that this ice cream shop is regularly named the best in the region.

C and S both chose mint chocolate chip cones, M chose chocolate, and I picked "Aerochip" - a concoction named in honor of a well-known band, one member of which is a local resident (substitute "smith" for "chip"). Aerochip is mocha ice cream with white and dark chocolate chunks.

We sat out on the back deck of the shop and I regretted not bringing my camera. S had her ice cream everywhere and her mouth: hand, shirt, hair. Just the way ice cream should be when you are three.