A Pregnant Woman Walks into a Chocolate Festival. . .

. . . and spends way too much money on delicious chocolate treats. I believe I bought three cupcakes, a giant dark chocolate covered strawberry, a bunch of chocolate covered pretzels, and a turtle. Now, some of this was for my sister-in-law's birthday, but let's just say that I indulged my cravings as well. In the picture below, he was pointing to the giant candies hanging from the ceiling. The whole school was decorated for the occasion.

Nick got to try chocolate milk for the first time, because they were handing out free samples. He liked it. (Are you surprised? I wasn't.)



Note the glazed look on his face. That's probably due to all of the nice samples he got to eat. My favorite sample was a piece of dark chocolate that just melted in my mouth. It was really, really expensive, or I would have bought some. Yum. Greg and I decided that we need to take Nick to more events like this one. It truly made his weekend. (I'm not going to lie. The chocolate samples kinda made my weekend, too.)

The DuPage Children's Museum was there and they had giant tinker toys for kids to play with. Nick liked building with them for a little while, then he saw the bouncy house, and off he ran.

I'm pretty sure we'll be taking Nick to this festival again next year.





My Famous Little Chef

Yesterday, we took Nick to the Chocolate Festival in Naperville, and he had an awesome time. Honestly, we all had a fantastic time. Think about it: a man who loves chocolate, his pregnant wife who's been craving chocolate, and a two-year-old who can't get enough chocolate, all at a festival dedicated to chocolate. It was a dream come true.

One of the reasons I wanted to go was the Kids in the Kitchen classes, where kids get to do some food preparation of their own, all on a chocolate theme, of course. This festival was held in the home economics room of the Neuqua High School Freshman Center. We rushed to get seats, and Nick immediately discovered that the kitchen cabinets in this place are not child locked. He started pulling out all kinds of cool gadgets.

We sat down and got to work. Nick got to make a "Death By Chocolate" dessert. I asked the organizer if it was okay if he made one, and she said, "Sure, if an adult helps him." I laughed and said, "Of course!" This dessert was a delicious layered concoction of chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, cool whip, and toffee chips. I think Nick is going to inherit his daddy's love of cooking, because he really got into this project. He really tried to follow the steps, and one of the ladies running the event said that he did a great job for such a little guy. I think so, too.

Nick made his dessert mostly by himself, although he made quite a mess. Notice the chocolate all over my arm in the picture below. He needed a total outfit change later that day, due to all of the chocolate.

At the end of the session, the kids got to eat their creations, and everyone clapped. Nick clapped the loudest and shouted, "Yay!" A photographer from the Naperville Sun snapped his picture and asked me if it was okay to put it in the paper. I agreed, and Nick was actually in one of the photo galleries on their website today. He's famous! Here's the link. I think he's the second photo in the gallery. You know, the kid munching happily on his "Death by Chocolate."


That's my famous little chef.  :)  All he needs is one of those tall white hats.

Bouncy House

Today Nick visited his first bouncy house. Needless to say, he was extremely thrilled.

Notice the slightly crazed gleam in his eye, and the chocolate smeared on his cheek. That's because we were at the Chocolate Festival in Naperville, and Nick had plenty of samples before bouncing.  Pardon the poor picture quality, but it's hard to get a good shot while a two-year-old is bouncing.

Poor kid was also losing his pants. His little belly is too big for the 18-24 month pants, but he's too short for the 2T pants. With his shoes off, those jeans just kept sliding farther and farther off his little butt. It made it hard for him to get his balance.

We're going to have to remember how much he loved the bouncy house, and try to take him to another one. Honestly, it was the highlight of his day, and the only way we got him out of there was to get one of the attendants to crawl in and drag him out after almost an hour. I think he would have stayed in there all day!