Opening day at the local ice cream stand is a big deal.   How, you ask, do you know it’s ‘opening day?’  I can tell you how I found out.

Eating Ice Cream at Pied

That particular day while picking Brianne up from pre-school, the only thing we parents could here was clamoring and screaming to likes of “MOM!!!! WE HAVE TO GO TO PIED!  PIED PIPER IS OPEN!  ICE CREAM OPENED TODAY!  PIED OPENED TODAY!!! CAN WE GO NOW?! ICE CREAM!!!!!  YAY!!!!!”

Shortly thereafter, they all show up at the playground with chocolate ice cream mouths…

I mean, who’s going to argue with a screaming mob of pre-schooler’s that are so hyper because it’s warm enough to play outside…let alone the local ice cream joint  is now open?  Forget it.  It’s mad chaos.  One kid gets wind that it’s open and the whole mob suddenly erupts.

Pied Piper is an institution in this town.  When it opens, there’s a line down the street.  We’ve lived here for a little while now, but.this was the first time in my life it’s taken me 2 hours to get ice cream.  I ran into EVERYBODY up there!  Athletes I help coach, friends of mine, friends of my kids, people my husband has sold cars to or that have worked with him, babysitters, other pre-school moms that I run into on pick/drop off everyday…it’s as if the whole town breathes a sigh of relief to just slow down for a moment and talk to one another.

My girls, of course, are a hit whenever we go there.  Whether it’s running into ‘the runners’ or their little friends from pre-school or play group…they are little social butterflies!  To the point where I even noticed them trying to get boy’s attention…yep, that happens already.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VX6zxF5kZg&w=560&h=315]

I have to say, watching how excited my girls get to run into everybody at Pied makes me so excited for their futures here.  My husband and both went to huge high schools…here, the high school cafeteria is the size that one of our classrooms would have been.  Here, every student has their picture on the wall with the rest of their class.

I can just picture Brianne and her best friend walking those halls together…totally running the school…which they will…and walking over to Pied after practice.  Or, hanging out there after a day at the beach in the summer time.  Life in a little lake town…

Happy Ice Cream Eating!

Megs