My Michael's schedule has been so intensely, overwhelmingly crazy for the past month. I would tell you more details about his work, church and school stuff, but that would require me to relive it and the mere thought of that makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb.
I've never sucked my thumb in my life.
Anyway, in an effort to remind my children of who their sperm donor was, I suggested a day trip to Chocolate Town, U.S.A. That's right, Hershey, PA!
We hit Chocolate World first, to get some edu-ma-cation on how Chocolate is made (and a free sample, of course). Then, we went around the corner to The Hershey Story, a new museum in Hershey more about the man, Milton, himself.
The kids participated in the Apprentice Program which they really enjoyed. They had little book that asked various questions about Mr. Hershey and the inception of his companies. Every page they completed, they had to find a museum worker who would tell them a little story and commemorate their completed page with a stamp, punch, embossing, or coin, etc. The kids were really into filling our their books to get the next token and they loved hearing about the early days of Hershey.
They also got some fake front page of newspapers with their photos on them. They still can't look at those enough!
Another fun thing at The Hershey Story is the Chocolate Lab. We signed up for the "Cobwebs" class. Each of us got to make his/her own chocolate spider web (Mackenna made hers heart-shaped). The kids happily donned hairnets and aprons and really embraced the job of licking the bowls of melted chocolate clean once we were done making our webs. What good little cleaners I have!
While our chocolate webs were setting, we learned more about the different parts of chocolate and what is mixed into each kind of chocolate. We got to eat "nibs," which are the inside of the cocoa bean--in other words, pure chocolate. Let's just say that wasn't as big of a hit with the kids as licking the bowls earlier had been. It's rather bitter. Teensy's face summed it up best:
Even though Dad had to study in the car the entire way there and back, I was so happy to have him spending time with us that I didn't mind. I was just happy to spend the day with my favorite people in the world.
5 comments:
I love reading your posts, they always make me laugh. We've never been up there yet, it sounds like a lot of fun.
Sounds like they have some fun new attractions! Just when I thought I'd seen it all.
I want to sit in a chocolate tub!
Adam says he is offended that we weren't invited. He too has been feeling distanced from Michael due to his busy schedule.
Love that Kenna made a heart spider web--Maddy would have done the exact same thing. Glad you guys got a little family time.
You make me want to go back! How nice that your kids are old enough to appreciate such educational fun without going crazy in public places (I think of how stressful it is to keep track of little ones on such excursions). I'm glad Michael was able to take the time out to enjoy the event, too.
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