Candy, Candy, Candy!

I read in one of my parenting magazines about this website that lists all the kid friendly factory tours in each state. I was tempted, but Bekah beat me to it and invited us to go with them on a local Candy Factory Tour. Of course we wanted to go...have you seen Charlie and The Chocolate Factory...who could pass up a candy factory.

While I didn't expect lickable wallpaper or edible trees I was pleasantly surprised with our tour. We started by watching a quick video about the history of the company then donned our "Candy Maker's Hats" (hair nets) and headed out in to the factory. Our cute little tour guide did a fabulous job explaining the candy making process to the kids and there was a video at each station. We walked through the warehouse storage area (3-4 million pounds of candy!) on our way to the taffy kitchen. We watched gummy bunnies being made and drooled over the chocolate waterfall coating marshmallow eggs...Easter Candy galore! The taffy elevator and packaging machines were cool, but the best part was the fact that we got a sample treat at each stop! Then we ended our tour in the gift shop where we purchased yummy taffy, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, and a Valentine's Day mix of chewy goodness. Avery even enjoyed the tour. She watched the videos and really wanted to sample a few of the treats...maybe next time sweetie. I was amazed she left her little hat on the whole time! By day's end Ethan was hopped up on sugar and happy!

Thanks for a fun day friends!

Love Is In The Air

We've been making lots of Valentine's Day preparations this last week.

Ethan and Ava made cute little crayon shaving hearts. They had a ball sprinkling the shavings on the wax paper and were amazed to see how they melted, mixed and swirled. After the art cooled we cut out hearts and attached them to ribbon and hung our newly made mobiles in the front window. I smile each time I walk by the door and see them there.

I was inspired by Ethan's love for clay and cookie cutters for our next Valentine's project. Ethan and I mixed up a batch of salt clay, rolled it out and used all our different heart cookie cutters to make cute charms. I used my glue gun to make a stamp that said,
"LOVE U" we pressed into the dough. (Ethan loved this part.) We baked them in the oven and tied on a ribbon so we could attach them to our goodie bags. Ethan had to cut out a dog, bone, butterfly, star and a couple footballs too. He was proud of his creations and is excited to hand them out. He wrote a personal note on the back of each charm. What a thoughtful kid!

Adventures In Babysitting

On Monday Ethan, Avery and I had Cousin Angela over for a few hours. We had so much fun playing. Ethan was a big help. He would lovingly bring a toy over for each of the girls. Then would explain to them just what to do with it. We have lots of baby gear so Avery and Angela made the rounds to each seat and toy. Angela was good to us and ate and slept well...Avery on the other hand took a couple cat naps and blew out her diaper twice in the 4 hours Angela was over. Good thing Bob was home sick so he could take care of Avery's bath and soaking her clothes. I'm not ready to have 3 kids nor wish to have twins (Angela is just 10 weeks older than Avery), but we had a great time.

A Food Note

Avery would like everyone to know exactly how she feels about green peas...

In my defense Ethan loved green peas...it obviously does NOT run in the family!

We Hit The Lanes

A couple of Saturdays ago our little family hit the local bowling alley for some good clean fun! We had a ball. Bob and I tried to help Ethan out at first, but he knew exactly what to do and preferred to bowl on his own. He was so fun to watch.
He would heave his heavy ball up on to the ball guide then tromp back to the end of the lane and take a run at the ball to push it off the ramp. Then he would patiently stand waiting to see the results. There were a few disappointing balls, but lots of good ones too. He did an amazing job and even scored a couple of strikes and spares.

Bob has used Wii Bowling to perfect his ball spin and bowled 5 strikes in a row...needless to say he won! We were all pretty impressed.




Avery loved all the sights, lights, and sounds. She even squealed a cheer or two for her big brother.

Cereal Girl and Dough Boy

The latest super heroes are here...Introducing-Cereal Girl. Avery has been interested in "real food" for quite some time now. It got to the point that I could hardly eat with her around. Either it would distract her from eating or she would be pawing at my plate so we started giving her cereal.
She does well eating it and seems to like it enough. I'm sure she's going to love the next few weeks of trying out new foods.
Ethan loves helping feed her and is so gentle and careful. Avery loves the independence of using a cup all by herself. She doesn't get much of a drink, but is entertained.



Our second super hero is...Dough Boy! Ethan and I used this recipe to make our own play dough. We had lots of fun stirring and kneading our dough. I've been impressed that our clay seems to get better with age...which is great because Ethan has spent a couple of days playing with it for over an hour! I bought a cookie cutter kit after Christmas and told him he could pick 10 cookie cutters to use with his play dough, but when choosing time came around I had to rush upstairs to change a blow out (lucky me!) so Ethan chose all 101 cutters and went to work cutting dinosaurs, dogs, footballs, trees, hearts, and baseball caps. If you like cookie cutters and don't have the WalMart 101 Cookie Cutter Set may I suggest it! It has lots of shapes and different sizes too! Even I got in on the fun and cut out a train, fire engine and big rig.

Our Town

Ethan and I got creative this week and made a replica of our town for his beloved cars and construction trucks...We drew in the roads and some of our favorite places then went to town coloring in each building and street. Ethan could hardly wait to get the cars going down the streets...I carefully colored each of my assigned buildings then quickly and happily helped him fill in the blank spots.


We had so much fun racing our cars and stopping at McDonalds, WalMart, the pool, our house and Gram Cathy's, to name a few. The map stayed taped to our kitchen table covered in cars and street signs for him to play with for quite a few days. We would all cram on to the uncovered side of the table to eat dinner or Ethan would eat at his little table so he didn't have to put the map away. I finally convinced him that when we had our dinner party this week the map would need to come off the table to protect it, but that we would carefully roll it up and put it back out whenever he wanted. Reluctantly he helped me remove the tape and put the map away.

I was amazed at how much Ethan enjoyed driving his cars around the block...I'm glad we made the map big enough for lots of cars and play.

One day as we were driving home I mentioned to Ethan that the new building they are constructing just down the hill from us would be his school. He quickly and sincerely said, "Oh, Thank you mama." Like I had given him a wonderful gift. Every time we drive by the construction site he asks if the men are working on HIS school. Naturally when we finished coloring our town and started to play he piled his Tonka Trucks on the school site and put them to work. He'll get that school built himself!