How Sweet It Is

One of my parenting magazines had information about this website that lists kid-friendly factory tours for every state in the U.S. (see Andy, those magazines are good for something). So, I checked out our good state and found a mine and a whole lotta candy and cookie factories. Fine by me! And definitely fine by the kids! So, this morning at 9am we began our tour of Sweet's Candy Company, and by 9:30 my kids had already consumed more sugar than in the past week combined. But, I didn't care it was all part of educational experience, right?

I have to say, I was really impressed by this tour. I fully expected some less-than-enthused grumpy woman to take us to look through a few windows in the factory then lead us to the gift shop. Ava on the other hand, expected edible wallpaper, Willie Wonka and happy little Oompa Loompas. Let's just say, our our expectations met somewhere in the middle. Our tour guide was a super-perky youngin' named Francesca. The tour took us all throughout the factory: from the storage area, to the room where jelly beans are flavored and colored, to the belt where chocolate is draped over marshmallow eggs, to the taffy room, to the chocolate room... all of which made my nostrils dance... such yummy smells. Francesca was informative and spoke in terms the kids could understand, at each "station" we received a candy sample and, of course, in the end we landed in the gift shop. Where, we kept our hair nets on to pose for this picture:



We walked away with quite the haul: chocolate-covered cinnamon bears, chocolate peanut clusters for Daddy, cherry-limeade jelly beans, some Valentine's candy, saltwater taffy and some gifts. I'll admit, I went a little overboard, but Ava and Jax were literal kids in a candy store. They ate more sugar today than ever before. I'm usually very strict about their sugar intake, but today I was so not me. It must have been the chocolate fumes. By the time bedtime rolled around, the kiddos were bouncing off walls, and asking for more candy. I finally had to cut them off, scrub the sugar layers from their teeth and put them to bed, despite their attempts to do otherwise. However, I think they came down from their sugar highs at just the right time because within a few minutes both were asleep. I'm sure they'll have sweet dreams of giant vats of sugar and a chocolate waterfall. I'm just wondering which one is going to ask for candy for breakfast first!