Jelly Bean O-Rama This Easter

I was getting my oven-cleaning clothes on this morning when Dave said, "Hey! Let's go to the Jelly Belly Factory!" Admitting that sounded like a whole lot more fun than the day of house and yard work I had planned, I quickly agreed. We liked the timing of taking their tour and loading up on jelly beans this Easter weekend. The girls had a Willy Wonka moment when we walked into the candy heaven. Jelly bean decorations overwhelm the place and a giant store tempts every sweet tooth that strolls through it. Lots of people had the same idea as we did today, so first up was getting in the line for the free tour.

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The tour has been much improved since the last time we took it (5 years ago, with Dad and Kyle). Now each stop through the factory is enhanced with video explanations of what you're seeing on the factory floor and samples of the jelly beans in each stage of production (jelly center, sugar coated, etc.). The best stop on the tour was the packaging robots doing a synchronized dance to the song "Sugar Sugar". I got to hear my favorite sound in the world: my girls genuinely cracking up over something.

The tour ends with a free bag of jelly beans. After learning all about their production, we were anxious to dive right in!

In the store, we picked up a discounted bag of "Belly Flops" (beans that are funky in shape) to fill our plastic eggs with for tomorrow's epic VM Egg Hunt. Delia, our candy girl, is giving this 2 pound bag some LOVE!
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Another fun part of the Jelly Belly factory is the Sample Bar. Here you can try as many different flavors as you like. We sampled honey (their newest-- Dave's and my favorite!), kiwi, popcorn, cantaloupe, strawberry ice cream and marshmallow to name a few. Ella thought the "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor" line was hilarious (puke, skunk, pencil shavings, dog food...). She begged to try the booger one. Watch her face go from "Look at me, I'm so silly!" to "Get this thing out of my mouth right now!"
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