A JINGLE & A CLANG

A bright sunny day.  Just minding our own business.  Hanging out on the driveway enjoying a little family time.  Zooming push toys.  Blowing bubbles.  Coloring with sidewalk chalk.  Climbing the front steps.  You know, the usual.

And then it happens.  Out of nowhere...

It's faint at first, barely there.  We perk up a little, crank our necks to try & get a better listen.  It's the slightest little noise way off in the distance--a jingle.

Is it?  Could it be?  No, surely not.  It's not even summertime yet.

As that faint little melody crawls closer & closer, our eyes widen & a jolt of excitement runs up our spines!  We recognize exactly what that little jingle is without ever laying eyes on where it's coming from!   Calliope style music blasting from loudspeakers, paired with the brash clanging of a bell can mean one thing & one thing only...


ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!!

As the ice cream truck inched it's way down our street, I nearly broke my neck racing inside the house to grab my camera!  As I dashed off like a crazy person, I did manage to holler over my shoulder for Jared to grab some cash!  This would mark Jett's very first experience with a frozen sugary treat from the ice cream truck & I'll be darned if I was gonna let it slip by without proper documentation {aka: a million photos}!

The trucked stopped right in front of our house.  That's no surprise considering we were the only nuts running towards it, flailing our arms, waving, jumping up & down, & relentlessly snapping pictures {okay, it wasn't that bad. But looking back, I am a tad embarrassed}.  Let's just say I'm pretty sure the ice cream man caught the drift that we wanted to buy some ice cream.

Jett's very first ice cream truck treat-- a syrupy sweet cherry bomb pop!

At first he wasn't too sure what to think of his sweet treat.  He tasted it with hesitation, & his face puckered when the cold touched his tongue.

But it sure didn't take long before he realized that frozen treats aren't so bad after all!  Before we knew it, he was a sticky faced mess in a state of sticky sugary bliss, & there was no separating him from his new found love!

And this is what he looked like when mean ol' momma had to take the bomb pop away because it had dropped to the ground & was covered in rocks & dirt.  Poor pitiful thing.

Don't worry, little Jett.  There are many more days ahead that we will be minding our own business when suddenly we hear that jingle & clang off in the distance.  Where we will chase after the ice cream truck & cool down from a hot summer's day with a yummy frozen treat.  Where we will sit on the front steps outside our home, dripping cherry bomb pops & orange sherbet push pops until we are satisfyingly sticky messes!

I love days like this that can take me right back to my own youthful summers.  I love how experiencing it as a momma & seeing these moments through my little boy's eyes means even more than it did when I was just knee high to a grasshopper.  I love how a simple afternoon out on the front steps of our house can be transformed into memories of yesteryear & new memories in the making.  I love how life with this little boy comes to mean more with every single passing day & the best times we have aren't the ones that are elaborately planned out, but are the simple ones where we are just living life together.  Just another small reminder to make the most of the little moments.

Little moments like an ice cream truck putting down our street with just a JINGLE & a CLANG.