Ice Cream Days begins with social and outdoor movie

The countdown to Ice Cream Days is melting away.

Thursday the Le Mars event kicks off with the first melt-in-your-mouth activities, including the annual Primebank Ice Cream Social and ice cold rootbeer floats in the Plymouth County Historical Museum.

First, to amp up your appetite, stop by The Arts Center's outdoor exhibit of ice cream cone sculptures.

You'll be seeing these sculptures again -- later on they'll be auctioned to public bidders to be placed around Le Mars. The money raised will help with 2010 Ice Cream Days expenses.

Ready for something sweet and refreshing? Stop at the 1940s Miller's Lunch diner inside the Plymouth County Historical Museum for an old-fashioned root beer float.

And while you're there, walk through the "Milestone Memories" exhibit featuring historic wedding dresses and golden anniversary wedding photos of Plymouth County lovebirds.

Both The Arts Center and Plymouth County Historical Museum will be open from 1-5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.

At 6 p.m., grab your bike and take your family to the Olson Cultural Event Center to join in the Family Bike Ride through Le Mars, ending at Primebank for another sweet treat.

The staff at Primebank will be scooping up free frosty fun for the 41st Annual Ice Cream Social. As you bite into your cone, relax to the big band and dance tunes of the Mearl Lake Orchestra, playing live. And let the kids have fun with Flutterby the Clown who will keep people laughing throughout the whole ice cream social, from 6-8 p.m.

The night's not over yet.

You'll be wanting to head back to the Olson Cultural Event Center for a grab bag of family entertainment wrapping up in an outdoor movie.

Before the show starts, kids and adults can compete in a computerized hunting simulator to bag small birds or big game. Kid Kar Racing will have kids of all ages revving their engines as they pick their own car to keep and race on a six-lane track.

As dusk falls, dig into some more ice cream and pull up your lawn chair for the outdoor movie "Bedtime Stories," featuring Adam Sandler, who finds the bedtime stories he tells to his niece and nephew start coming true.

Then it's off to bed to rest up for the Friday and Saturday, the second and third dip of Ice Cream Days fun.