Candy, Candy, Candy!

Along with everything else, I’ve been trying to get one moving-related task done every day. Last night, I wrangled the kids together to help me get my candy machine moved upstairs and set up.

This project actually began Monday evening with a trip to Sam’s Club. Sam’s is bad enough when you go in the middle of the day and it’s not crowded, but in the evenings, it’s beyond frustrating. I kept my Type A personality hidden in my back pocket for as long as I could, but after waiting in the checkout line for almost 20 minutes, I’d had enough. Mason and I left our cart there at Sam’s and drove down the street to Target. I got a little less quantity than I would have got at Sam’s, but the ability to walk right up to a checkout lane and check out was worth it. When it comes time to refill the machine I’ll probably go back to Sam’s, but next time I’ll go during my lunch break instead of during the evening.

So anyway, here’s my gumball machine.

I got this at an auction several years ago and paid $75 for it. The coin mechanisms still work (two of the machines are set to take pennies; one takes nickels and the last one accepts dimes), but the tops don’t have locks so it’s easier to just lift the lid and grab whatever you want. Out in my old arcade I had taffy, gumballs, and Hot Tamales, all of which melted together in giant globs of goo and had to be cleaned out of the glass containers.

Some of the candy I buy, especially the ones designed to go inside vending machines, comes with small paper inserts to place inside the glass containers. Mason and I spent five minutes in Photoshop and, using the worst pictures of ourselves we could find, slapped these together.

Here’s the final result, with the candy and the paper inserts in the machine. If I thought it was hard to get the kids to sit still for a movie before, just imagine what it will be like with two kids full of sugar!