Ice cream

The weather has been nice for most of the week. Today we had dinner cooked on the grill while sitting on our back porch. We went for a bicycle ride and noted that Meg has nearly outgrown the bike stroller. Then we went for ice cream (custard actually) We've been going to this custard shop since it opened during the kids first summer. Meg and Drew had their first frozen yogurt there at about 9 months, fed to them by one of their grandmothers. I wasn't completely convinced that it was a good idea at the time, although they were eating regular yogurt at that point. They loved it. I cannot remember if they had their first actual ice cream there as well.

We go out for custard a lot during the summer. The place offers vanilla, chocolate, and two rotating flavors of the day. The cones come with wrappers which if you collect 10 you get a free cone. Today I emptied all of the places we keep the free cone wrappers and we had enough for two free cones.

So we called our usual friends to go with us and so four adults and four kids (ages 3,4,5 and 6) all had custard together.

After the custard we usually go out on the patio. All of the kids like to walk on the short wall around the patio and pretend they are trains. Today was no exception. I couldn't take it. Drew loved to walk on that wall too. I couldn't bear to watch it and started crying. By now of course I'm used to crying in public at unexpected times. Our friends noticed and got all the kids to stop and claimed it was getting cold, which was somewhat accurate, and loaded the kids all in the minivan. Meg had insisted on riding with her friends. So my husband and I sat in the car and cried and hugged and then headed home.

I'm sure it will be easier next time. It was easier after the first time last year. I wish it could remain easy.