As the kids are getting older, we are finding doing family activities are getting less stressful, more fun, and easier to enjoy! I think we tortured ourselves early in the kids' lives by taking them places and expecting them to behave when in fact they weren't ready yet!
We found out that Saturday was Sam's club's biannual massive food sample day and the Gertrude Hawk factory tour (only occurring once every two years). Without much planned that day, we set out for Sam's club. Walking in Josh and I "bet" each other how many times people would ask if the kids were triplets or quads. His guess of 3 was closest as only 2 people asked us. That seemed low to me! However, we did get interesting looks as we asked for six of everything at each booth we stopped. The best booth was the Thanksgiving meal sample which included-- ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, brussel sprouts, and a roll. Now, we only got a tablespoon of each, but it was something! The kids weren't quite filled up on the samples, so we got a couple pieces of pizza to share and called it lunch!
Next on the list was a stop at the Gertrude Hawk factory for the tour. The place is way off the beaten path, but people definitely know where it is! It was packed! Here is the view as we first drove in. The big tent had tons of past-holiday candy they were selling at a reduced rate.
The employees required all people touring to wear hair nets for sanitary reasons. The twins gladly wore them. Tommy and Ethan threw a fit to do so. We were frustrated with Tommy because he is definitely old enough to know, but is extremely stubborn. Ethan is harder to get to understand these things. In the end, we said they couldn't have candy if they didn't wear the hats.
Ethan is in the process of ripping his off here:
This is one of many assembly lines we saw. This one they are boxing up the Frango chocolate mints.
Each dept. decorated their area in a theme. The kids liked the Halloween one where all the employees were wearing costumes.
This is the candy bar assembly line. The lady on the right breaks the bars into 2 rows and puts them onto another belt where they get wrapped for sale. These candy bars are ones that are sold for fund raisers.
My finger got in the way here, but the candy coming out here are the chocolate crosses they sell for Easter. The chocolate is poured in them way down the line and it goes through this machine that we figure must "set" the chocolate. The next picture down shows the crosses and a lady is inspecting them.
We also saw a few other molds and types of candy of the largest chocolate candy producer in our area. We are huge fans of Gertrude Hawk candy, so it was fun to see the different ways it is made. We also walked through the warehouse where it's literally three stories of boxes on shelves of all the candy ingredients. They had tables set up along the way handing out samples. We got so much none of us could eat it all, so we put it in my purse and brought it home! The kids were a little restless by the end, but overall did well and they liked seeing how candy was made. Even Tommy calmed down :)
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