Last year, the preschool had a field trip to another grocery store that didn't act very happy to have us there for a tour. And because of feeling as though we were a bother, it looked like a grocery store tour wasn't going to happen this year. But all it took was one phone call to Papa (who's worked with the company 40+ years) inquiring about a possible filed trip to
Stater Bros and we were hooked up!
Yesterday and today were the preschool field trips to the local Stater Bros store and it was AWESOME! The girls from the corporate office really worked hard and rolled out the red carpet for our school and all the kids had so much fun!
We were greeted before we even entered the store by one of the ladies from where Papa works. She gave everyone a colored apron and then explained what kinds of job you would perform when you wore that apron. Rachel's apron was green, which meant she does a lot of customer service work - bagging groceries, collecting carts, putting groceries back on the shelves that weren't purchased.
Our tour started in the produce section of the store. There was a cart of vegetables and Terina showed the kids the vegetables and why they are important for us (carrots are good for vision, etc). She explained that the lighting in the produce section is very similar to that of the sun, and that's to help the produce not go bad so quickly (need to ask Papa about that one!) and how the vegetables are sprayed down every 15 minutes. The kids all got a chance to water the vegetables and I'm sure that particular section of veggies is probably good on the water for the remainder of the day. LOL.
From there, we got to go into the produce refrigerator, into the freezer where they store the ice cream and popsicles, and to the Meat Department where everyone got a special hat! And then we got to go behind the meat counter and watch the Meat guys wrap some packages of meat and another man tell us about what kinds of meat they have. The kids all loved their Stater Bros hats and wore them proudly!
From the Meat Department we headed to the regular refrigerator where all the milk and yogurt is stored. Not quite as cold as the freezer, but it was COLD!
From the refrigerator we stepped into the back room and learned how everything in the dry food area comes to the store in cardboard boxes. The kids got to see the baler compact some boxes and that for some reason was very exciting! At the very end of our tour in the store room, there were two tables set up for decorating cookies! This particular store doesn't have a bakery, but the bakery supervisor brought in sugar cookies and lots of icing and sprinkles for the kids decorate their own cookies! They were in handy dandy little deli containers with lids and once the decorating was done, the lids went on, and into a brown bag to take back to school!
After we completed our 'behind the scenes' tour of the store, we made our way to the front end where a check stand had been reserved just for us! There were some groceries that needed to be rung up and each kid got to scan some groceries. Boy was that ever fun! All the kids loved scanning the boxes of cereal over and over again. LOL.
At the end of their scanning, each preschooler was handed a brown goodie bag! Inside was a Red Delicious Apple, a small bottle of water, a Stater Bros pencil pouch complete with a Stater Bros ruler, eraser, and pencil, as well as an official card that when brought to the bakery counter of any store gets them a complimentary cookie!!! We also went back to school with "I'm a Staters Kid" balloons and coloring sheets!
Rachel wore her "Stater Grand Kid" shirt that we made for Route 66 last summer. You couldn't see it once she was wearing her official Stater Bros work apron. But she looked cute nonetheless.
It was fun to visit this particular store because my Dad opened the store when he was a store manager! I think this might have been the store that I remember Mr Twinkie being at for the Grand Opening?? Or maybe it was the other nearby store. At any rate, our tour was awesome and both Kim and Terina were the best tour guides we could have hoped for! Thanks Papa for hooking the preschool up, and thanks Stater Bros for all the goodies and loads of fun!
Hmmm, I wonder if Papa could arrange for a tour of the corporate offices? We'll save that request for Kindergarten! :)
Our tour started in the produce section of the store. There was a cart of vegetables and Terina showed the kids the vegetables and why they are important for us (carrots are good for vision, etc). She explained that the lighting in the produce section is very similar to that of the sun, and that's to help the produce not go bad so quickly (need to ask Papa about that one!) and how the vegetables are sprayed down every 15 minutes. The kids all got a chance to water the vegetables and I'm sure that particular section of veggies is probably good on the water for the remainder of the day. LOL. 
From there, we got to go into the produce refrigerator, into the freezer where they store the ice cream and popsicles, and to the Meat Department where everyone got a special hat! And then we got to go behind the meat counter and watch the Meat guys wrap some packages of meat and another man tell us about what kinds of meat they have. The kids all loved their Stater Bros hats and wore them proudly!
From the Meat Department we headed to the regular refrigerator where all the milk and yogurt is stored. Not quite as cold as the freezer, but it was COLD! 
From the refrigerator we stepped into the back room and learned how everything in the dry food area comes to the store in cardboard boxes. The kids got to see the baler compact some boxes and that for some reason was very exciting! At the very end of our tour in the store room, there were two tables set up for decorating cookies! This particular store doesn't have a bakery, but the bakery supervisor brought in sugar cookies and lots of icing and sprinkles for the kids decorate their own cookies! They were in handy dandy little deli containers with lids and once the decorating was done, the lids went on, and into a brown bag to take back to school! 
After we completed our 'behind the scenes' tour of the store, we made our way to the front end where a check stand had been reserved just for us! There were some groceries that needed to be rung up and each kid got to scan some groceries. Boy was that ever fun! All the kids loved scanning the boxes of cereal over and over again. LOL.
At the end of their scanning, each preschooler was handed a brown goodie bag! Inside was a Red Delicious Apple, a small bottle of water, a Stater Bros pencil pouch complete with a Stater Bros ruler, eraser, and pencil, as well as an official card that when brought to the bakery counter of any store gets them a complimentary cookie!!! We also went back to school with "I'm a Staters Kid" balloons and coloring sheets!
Rachel wore her "Stater Grand Kid" shirt that we made for Route 66 last summer. You couldn't see it once she was wearing her official Stater Bros work apron. But she looked cute nonetheless. 
This morning we arrived to the parks before 9:00 in hopes of getting on some rides and doing things before the Spring Break/Birthday Freebies/Friday afternoon-evening passholders started to arrive. Our plan prooved successful as we got to ride and do a lot of things the first 2 1/2 hours we were there. After that, the crowds started increasing and lines were becoming long and sidewalks unbearable to walk on.
We eventually made our way over California Adventure, where it was busy as well. We did a few rides, of course visited the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail for rock climbing and zip lining and enjoyed an ice cream cone. We left the parks and headed for home about 2:00 and were happy with all the things we were able to do today before the crowds hit.
First off, we went to California Adventure. We wanted to see the High School Musical 3 street parade and haven't really seen it from a good viewing spot, so we waited to watch. And of course, our little outgoing of a girl got up and went to dance when they sought out volunteers. She loved it!
Rachel had some naughtiness going on and had to sit out on a few things that Hannah wanted to do. But eventually (a long eventually) she snapped out of it. She and Hannah rode Jumpin Jellyfish together and this kid cracks me up with how she throws her arms up in the air. LOL.
We discovered today that Rachel is now tall enough for Grizzly River Run (the rapid ride) and some other fun things inside The Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, none in which she wanted to go on, mind you this was when she was still in naughty mode. We ran into a longtime "friend' this afternoon, PUSH. We haven't seen him active in a long while and Rachel was excited to see PUSH and ran right up to him. LOL. For some reason, this talking trash can cracks her up. 
We spent the last hour of our trip over in Disneyland. The girls brought their penny pressing stuff and we found some designs the girls wanted pressed onto pennies. We walked through Fantasyland and decided we'd come back one day in the week when hopefully the crowds would be lighter, despite this week being the kick off of the Spring Break season. We'll come back and next time we'll come with friends. Although once we got home this afternoon, I learned through Facebook that some good friends were at Disneyland today in anticipation of their passes being blocked out on Saturdays for a while. We were probably literally following behind one another, not knowing it, and I'm bummed I didn't follow through on my thoughts this morning to give her a call to go with us!
It's only 6:00pm and I've already put her jammies on and she's in bed sleeping, which I know will come back to bite me in the butt come tomorrow morning...
