I have talked about it here and here, about Samuel's love of, fascination with, alright, let's just be honest, his obsession with the ice cream man.
We have researched online about ice cream trucks.
Where do you buy an ice cream truck? How much does one cost? Mom, did you know there are different types of speakers that play the song? Did you know you can pick any song you want if you are the ice cream man? Where do you buy the ice cream to sell if you are the ice cream man? Where do you get the stickers that go on the side of the truck? Mom, guess what? When I grow up I want to be the ice cream man. Really. Really??
Well on Tuesday we had our furnace and A/C replaced. When those giant boxes made their way off the workman's truck the wheels started turning in my mind.
We hatched a plan. We took a trip to Michael's to choose the paint for our truck, this was a major negotiation, mind you. Yellow, no I want green and yellow, I want blue, back and forth they went until we settled on this fantastic metallic blue. The whole time we were painting it I couldn't get the image of a super cool Camero circa 1985 out of my mind. It felt like the boys should have been wearing stained, white, wife beaters and some excellent gold chains. It's crazy what certain smells and even colors bring to mind!
Then we stopped by the grocery store and selected our treats. Another time consuming decision. This was important stuff!
After spending the majority of the morning covering ourselves and our box with several coats of wicked cool blue paint, then waiting, waiting so patiently for it to dry enough to glue our box cutouts to the side...
Viola... The end result!
Look at that smiling face!
There was some practicing of the transaction and then they were ready for business!
Thankfully, my kind neighbor took one look at us, two boys, one cooler filled with treats, one ice cream truck wagon, one double stroller stuffed with babies and offered to walk along with us, just in case Samuel got tired of pulling the wagon. Which of course he did. In his defense it was about 1,000 degrees and he really did make it pretty far. But I'm not sure how we would have made it up that last hill home without her!
Everyone thought it was super great. My guys were beaming with pride and excitement. The neighborhood kids were thrilled to get some good treats.
In the end, we sold 18 ice creams, and even sold out of three choices.
With their $9.00 in hand they feel strongly that we should go back to the store and restock our truck. I told them it depends on how well the babies nap this morning.
Honestly, it turned out to be a pretty good business for an operation that really wasn't supposed to be more than some excellent imaginative role-play!
And I think it will be one of those days that they will remember with fondness forever. I hope.