Is it me or are ice creams becoming really expensive? I'm not talking about fancy stuff - just a regular cone from an ice cream van or local café.

We were far from rolling in it when I grew up, yet we could always have an ice cream on the way back from the park, or on a hot sunny day when the van came around. It was a favourite childhood tradition.

We tend to go to the woods for a lot of our playdates now and I have resisted the natural urge to round it off with a visit to the ice cream van to buy DD and her friends an ice cream. It would make playdates really expensive! I would very occasionally treat the mindees to an ice cream, but not often.

Do you treat your mindees to an ice cream in the hot weather or do you save it for special occasions when it's just your family?