Not even a snowstorm could stop us from attending the Chocolate Festival!

It's no secret in this house--we all love chocolate. We even prefer the dark, less sweet varieties. So we certainly weren't going to miss the Naperville Chocolate Festival this year. The boys had a great time in 2013, and Nick loved him some chocolate back in 2011. The fact that it was snowing rather heavily and that Greg had to work did not deter me from my goal of successfully navigating the festival and having some great treats.

I don't know if it is because my kids are getting older (and better-behaved, relatively speaking), or if I'm just becoming less anxious, but I actually enjoyed myself for 95% of this trip. I interspersed fun for me activities with stuff that was fun for the kids, and I know they had a great time, because they didn't want to leave. We started out with the Kids in the Kitchen room, where we made chocolate snowmen out of marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Check out that concentration!

Nick sat in his chair, listened to the directions, and followed them. For me, this was a HUGE win. I don't care what his snowman looked like, I just care that he was paying attention. I had to help Henry with his snowman, because he ate the Rolo for his head. We improvised with more chocolate chips.

Henry tried to follow the directions, but kept getting distracted by the food and trying to eat it.

We got to dip yummy pretzels into melted chocolate and sprinkles as well, and this was lots of fun, though my shirt has a big brown chocolate stain that will probably never go away. Ahh, well. All in the interest of fun.

After our dessert-making in the Kids in the Kitchen room, we paid a visit to the Children's Entertainment Room.

Henry loved this exhibit from the Dupage Children's Museum. 

The boys stayed here, making the shape of their hands pop out the other side, for quite some time. 

The bouncy house was, needless to say, a huge hit for the boys.

Nick preferred going up the stairs and down the slide, repeatedly. 

Henry got in and proceeded to bounce. And bounce. And bounce. He wasn't getting out of the bouncy house, not for all the tea in China.

The teenagers running the bouncy house asked me, "How do we get him out of there?" I had no ideas, short of dragging his two-year-old butt out by force. They looked horrified at the idea, but eventually acquiesced. Otherwise Henry would still be in there, bouncing happily.

The kids also loved the basketball station, though neither of them could throw the balls far enough to even be close to the hoop.

90% of my pictures are this blurry. Sigh. That's why I had to take 672 pictures on just this one day.

Henry had quite the stamina, though, and just kept trying, over and over and over.

Perseverance is one thing my younger son does not lack.

More about our chocolate-themed adventure tomorrow. It seems that below zero temperatures have led to school being canceled once again.