All flavors and push ups too

It starts softly, from the distance....chimes from the truck can be heard from streets away.  I look at the kids to see if they've noticed and slowly start my distractions and noise so that my children don't hear him.  It never works, the music gets louder as the white truck goes street to street.  Yes, it's Summer and it's the ICE CREAM MAN.  Many of you reading may think I'm a "scrooge" of sorts - a Summer scrooge...how could I take this wonderful tradition away from my little ones?  Well, I do enjoy the idea of the festive truck, coming down our street on a hot Summer day.  Here are the problems as I see them regarding the "fun" tradition:

• Our particular ice cream man tends to come around 5pm, right as I'm getting dinner ready and my kids are in full "witching hour" mode (is it only me or does 5pm tend to be a tricky hour when you have little ones?)  Not ideal and sure to cause meltdowns.
• $2 - $4 per treat....PER TREAT! 
• Bubblegum eyes, 'nuff said
• The toothless ice cream man
• The occasional naptime ice cream man
• Credit cards not accepted
• The rainy day ice cream man visit
• This article, about this ice cream man (although not our ice cream man) who was selling...well, more than ice cream.  Is nothing sacred these days!?

So, even though I'm not a huge fan of the ice cream man, the girls love it - so we'll continue to drop money to make my girls smile and get that evening sugar rush....and crash, because I love them and that's what childhood is all about, right?!