As soon as the ice cream truck pulled out of the Gelinas family’s Pembroke driveway, the vehicle’s candy jingle echoing down the street, a group of boys slowed their bikes and waved down the truck, shouting “Ice cream!”

The truck halted, its blue roof lights flashing. Six-year-old Avery Gelinas and her four-year-old sister, Maisie, leaned out the window, eager to take their new customers’ orders. Their parents, Adam and Maddy, stood behind them in the truck with smiles, ready to reach into the freezer to dig out the right ice cream.

Adam dreamed for years of running an ice truck. His wife, Maddy, found one for sale on Facebook Marketplace in the spring and encouraged him to take the leap. They bought a truck but realized it wasn’t quite what they were looking for. Undeterred, they sold the initial vehicle and purchased another shortly after, then set about refurbishing it. They even added a special license plate: SCOOPIN.

The blue truck, which has been riding around Pembroke and Allenstown since May, now boasts sprinkles on its sides along with photos of the ice cream offerings and a logo in the window with the truck’s name, Sisters Scoops, in honor of Avery, Maisie, and their baby sister, Alice.

“So far, it’s definitely way better than I expected,” Adam said. “Driving around, everybody’s happy to see you.”

The family has spent most nights this summer out in the truck, sometimes heading to specific destinations, sometimes driving around, enjoying the summer weather, and finding adults and children alike excited about dessert. Adam wants the truck to bring his family closer together, create magical childhood memories for his kids, and spread joy to others in the process.

“It’s been cool to serve the community, but you see a lot of kids on iPads and stuff and not really spending time with their family in that kind of setting,” he said. “Families are together, but not really doing much together. So it’s something fun for us to do.”

A tip jar lives in the truck’s window, collecting money the girls can put toward their college educations and, in the meantime, trips to Target. Their parents want them to learn responsible spending from an early age while also saving for their futures.

Maddy Gelinas has watched the business transform her daughters since the start of the season.

“I feel like they are better with talking to people now, especially our middle one, Maisie,” she said. “She’s always been kind of our shy one, but I feel like it’s helped her break out of her shyness with kids and adults, really just talking to people in general. Avery really likes counting and math. She really likes to count money, and she’ll try to figure out people’s change and stuff like that.”

The family takes the truck everywhere from birthday parties and baseball games to job sites and employee appreciation events. Wanting to preserve the spontaneous nature of operating an ice cream truck, they also drive around whenever the girls ask to go out.

“We’ll be sitting down having dinner and get a message on Facebook asking if we’re going out, and we kind of take it as a challenge,” Adam said. “It doesn’t feel like work. It’s just an exciting, fun thing for everybody to experience.”

When not driving the truck, Adam runs AutoWorld, a Manchester-based car dealership. He says the prior experience owning and operating a business has proved invaluable in launching Sisters Scoops, especially in navigating the permit process.

Maddy often stocks the truck while Adam’s at work so the family can hit the road with a full freezer if the moment calls for it. Luckily, they have extra freezer space in their house to keep a surplus of ice cream, and they can stop back at the house to fill any empty space in the truck if need be. When the Gelinas’s need to restock completely, they make the three-hour round-trip trek to Chelsea, Mass. for all the classic specialty pops classic to ice cream trucks.

The fun popsicles with different characters’ faces tend to be the most popular. The Gelinas daughters especially love the SpongeBob ice cream.

“That’s a tough one, not eating our own supply,” Adam joked. “We definitely do, but we’re trying to limit it.”

While Sisters Scoops does require a lot of the family, they try to take moments out of the day to appreciate the magic of the ice cream truck.

“We talk about being grateful and how they’re lucky and it takes work,” Maddy said. “We work hard for what we have, but it’s something to be grateful for.”

Adam wants the truck to create an experience not only for his family but also for the people buying from them. Word of mouth and Facebook have both been huge factors in the truck’s success so far. Sisters Scoops has plenty of events lined up for the coming months, even as the weather cools down.

“Something that we didn’t really plan on happening was just the community all coming together,” he said. “We’ve pulled up to people’s houses when they know we’re coming around, and they’ve thrown parties because the ice cream is coming around.”

Avery and Maisie can often be found handing customers their ice cream pops or pointing out potential customers as their family drives around. Their parents hope to run the truck with them, and, eventually, their baby sister, Alice, for years to come.

“It makes everybody happy and it makes me happy, too,” Avery said.

Licking her pink strawberry ice cream pop, Maisie shot her family a grin.

“It makes me happy to eat ice cream,” the four-year-old said.

To learn more about Sisters Scoops, follow them on Facebook at @Sisters Scoops and Instagram at @sisterscoopsnh.

Rachel Wachman can be reached at rwachman@cmonitor.com.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Concord Monitor (@concordmonitor)