Mmmmmmm, Chocolate

We decided the summer with some fun so we got Tade from his last day of first grade, packed up the car and headed to Hershey, PA.  We had friends who recently visited Chocolate World and it looked like tons of fun.  Thanks Pistorius family for the idea.  It was perfect for the age out kids are at.  They loved and and are still talking about the chocolate tour and the hotel.  Hershey is only about and hour and a half from our house, but we wanted to make it more memorable so we stayed over night.  We lucked out and for $50 got a two room suite so the boys slept on the sofa bed and Andelyne was with us.  I think the whole sofa bed concept was just as exciting to the boys as chocolate world was.  They had never seen a couch turn into a bed and thought it was "totally wicked," as Seth put it.

 There was also a large jacuzzi tub in the bedroom.  The boys also found this pretty cool.

Andelyne really wanted in.

When we got there it we too late to do much so we swam at the hotel then went out to dinner at Friendly's.  I miss the Friendly's we used to have just up the road growing up.  Yeah the food isn't that great, but the ice cream is so fun and it's perfect for families.  Okay so I have a side story for a moment.  All week Tade kept telling me his buddy Max was going to Hershey too.  Usually when one kids says they are going somewhere half the class all of a sudden is going there too.  So I didn't put much weight on his story.  They the day before we went he assured me Max was going to "Great Hershey Lodge."  That explained it.  He was going to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg because people go there all the time.  Tade told me I was wrong once again.  So we went to Hershey.  Tade continued to tell me we were going to see Max.  As we pulled into the Friendly's Tade told Jake that Max was going to be there.  We went in and ordered dinner.  As we were waiting someone yelled "Tade!"  Sure enough it was Max.  Yes I was in shock.  Tade was right and we actually ran into them which was incredible.  They were just finishing and they were in Hershey for the amusement park not chocolate world.  Sometimes it's such a small world.  You can imagine how good Tade felt because he was right and we were wrong.  Anyway, we had a fun dinner then drove around Hershey a little bit.  It's not a huge town, but was fun to drive around as it was getting dark and the lights at Hershey Park were turned on.  The kids loved seeing the ferris wheel and rollercoasters all lit up.  One of the best things we saw while driving around were the Hershey Kiss street lights.

The next day was what we were waiting for.  Chocolate World here we come.

Seth wasn't angry at all because he's at chocolate world which is heaven on earth for a sugarholic like Seth.  I think he's just goofing around.

There were so many "sweet" things to do.  The tour is free, but there are a ton of other things you can pay to do.  We told the boys they could choose two things from the list.  Their choices were Dessert Creations, Chocolate Tasting, Create Your Own Candy Bar, Hershey 3D Movie, and Chocolate Works.  They chose Create Your Own Candy Bar and Dessert Creations which we didn't end up doing because we had way too much sugar by that time.  We started with creating a candy bar.  The boys loved it.  I had to go in with them which meant I had to create one too and it was pretty cool.  We got to pick our chocolate type, fillings and create our own wrapper.

Picking the mix ins for the candy bar.  We had raspberry, chocolate cookie pieces, toffee bits, pretzel pieces, almonds, and mini chocolate chips to choose from.

We all chose milk chocolate as our candy bar base.

Filling up with toffee pieces.

There was an area for Jake and Andelyne to watch.

The boys of course chose sprinkles to top their candy bars.

Wrapping it up.

After that we went on the tour.  The kids thought it was a ride.  We climbed in moving cars and were taken through the world of creating chocolate.  Tade was educated while Seth just thought it was awesome.  He kept asking to go on the tour again and again.  We still hear about the "tour" on a daily basis.

When the tour was done we headed down to the chocolate shop.  Man there was a lot of chocolate to be bought, but we restrained ourselves and only came out with a little.

Yeah that's a 10lb. candy bar. 

Then we headed to lunch.  There was a small food court with some pretty yummy things.  They boys had pizza and giant glasses of creamy chocolate milk.  It was soooo good.

Then we had KitKat milk shakes.  We had a coupon for buy one get one free so we got two, but by the time we got our shakes we were so full.

Even my sugarholic had had too much.  He couldn't even touch the milk shake. 

Sherwin Williams paints the Reeses car.

Little Red Riding Hood

Tade's first grade class put on some plays for the parents.  It was part of their language arts unit in which they studied fairy tales.  During the unit they would read and watch several different versions of each fairy tale.  Some of the older fairy tales are very different from what they have become in modern day.  For instance the original Rumpelstiltskin is scary and has mellowed out over the years.  I was actually glad to hear that Tade's class was studying all versions of the fairy tales.  At the end of the unit they chose two of the tales to do a plays.  They chose Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Red Hen.  Tade got to be the woods man in Little Red Riding Hood.  The morning of the play he told me his teacher said he needed a costume.  I wasn't sure if that was true because his teacher always sends home letters for things they need to bring in and Tade has formed this new nasty habit of fibbing.  He's VERY good at it to unfortunately.  Sure enough Tade was just excited about his part and wanted a costume, but didn't really need it.  When I showed up everyone came up saying how cute Tade was in his costume and how it was a great idea to dress up.

He also made amazing wheat in The Little Red Hen

Soccer: Getting Better With Each Season

Each season Tade plays soccer he gets better and better and the parents on the sideline get a little less board.  Each game is a little more exciting as the ball stays on our side of the field more and there are more scoring opportunities.  This season Tade finally learned more aggression.  In the past he as well as most of his teammates lacked in the aggression department which makes for a not so exciting game.  I'm not saying they need to be pushing and shoving just actually going after the ball.  So this season showed excitement from the parents as there was more actually soccer being played rather than a mass of kids running back and forth.  It was also nice having four other friends of Tade's on the team.  Here's to the end of the soccer season.

Celebrating after a goal.

  

After each game the parents made a tunnel for the boys to run through.  This was one of their favorite things.

They got their trophy's at their last practice.  All I had was my cell phone so these are the best pictures I could get.

There was a kids missing at the last practice so he got his trophy at the last game.  I borrowed it so we could get a picture of Tade with a trophy in his uniform.

  

After the last game we went out with some of the other families for dinner.

Seth was being so cute with Andelyne.  Aren't they the cutest?