Gingerbread houses (take 2)

As I sat down to commemorate this momentous occasion of creativity that has once again occurred with the children, I was very excited to link up to LAST YEAR'S POST about making gingerbreak houses. However, when I went back to that post, I realized that the slideshow I had created had somehow been hacked and now displays pictures of some mamacita and her boytoy on their cruise to timbuktowhoknowswhere.

Therefore, I am not linking to it. But if you care to go back in the archives and find it, you are more than welcome.

But fortunately for you, I have carefully documented the entire process in picture form and am now prepared to share it all. You're on the edge of your seat, I can just feel it!

The pieces displayed for all to see...


thanks to Wegmans! I seriously. love. Wegmans. Seriously, goodness knows I would have loved to be able to make the pieces myself... but that just wasn't happening this year. These are soooo much nicer than what I rigged last year. We did the whole mini milk carton and graham cracker deal last year... and the frosting did NOT work.

I had great plans of taking andy to school and going out to buy ingredients for frosting/mortar and then booking it back to the house whereupon I would assemble 3 gingerbread houses...


however, the best laid plans are all too often laid to rest when preschool teachers have "classroom gingerbread house making" planned already! So I couldn't get to the store and back to the house and then back to pick him up with enough time so I just went to pick him and his carefully constructed house up after picking up the necessary ingredients.


This would be a picture of me not swearing while trying to keep these houses from falling apart...

Gluing these babies together proved to be a much harder task than originally antipated. The sides kept falling over, and I most surely did NOT let any cuss words slip out of my mouth during that time... nope, I didn't.


Let me tell you, last year I only used confec sugar and milk. That DOES NOT WORK. I found a great recipe this time and while it took awhile to dry, it was hard as a rock and PERFECT. It's all thanks to the egg whites and cream of tartar... seriously KEY ingredients. Here is the recipe I used. Leave the milk in the fridge, and do not use it if you want your houses to stick together people!


Once I finally got the houses to stick together, I moved on to organizing the candy. Look how much stinking candy we had! I may or may not have eaten enough to make a fourth gingerbread house...


There's something about the candy in these little ramekins that satisfies some sort of urge to be ocd. It's like all perfect, and untouched... yah, that didn't last for long.


All while I was preparing for this frenzy, I was playing my current favorite playlist off of pandora.com. And this also, my friends, is where the magic happens. I realized I've never taken a picture of my little lappie. I love that the wireless now works and I have a new battery that allows me to take it all over the house and have oh so much fun with it :)


Soon enough, claudia and syd got home from school and Andy got up from his nap and the decorating began.


The frosting had not completely dried, so I instructed them to be very careful while touching and placing things on it...


Unfortunately, being very careful to a 4 year old is not quite as careful as is necessary...

and we ended up with one gingerbread house beginning to fall apart at the seams.

This made for the beginning of a very sad afternoon. I explained that he would need to wait longer for his house to dry before he finished decorating it... but 4 year olds don't really get the whole waiting thing. Attitude ensued. Crying began. Irrational outbursts of emotion overtook the airwaves.

So I asked him what he would like to do that was special instead of decorating right now. And he said he wanted to play "sink or float" This is a game that we got from his preschool a few weeks back and he LOVES it. He would play it pretty much all day if i let him. And it's exactly what you think... you get a whole bunch of stuff from around the house and sort it into two piles predicting which will sink and which will float.

Well, when he was done playing, he decided that the nice warm water would feel really nice on his feet. So he stood in the tub, and then asked for a chair...


He then proceeded to sit there and ask me for various things such as gumdrops, chocolate milk, a backrub... you get the picture. and he did it all with this look on his face. What a little stinkpot!

I realized after I had left for the day that I forgot to take pictures of the finished works, but they were really nice. I would like to say that I'll take pictures tomorrow and then share them... but I just don't think i will! why make empty promises?

We had a lot of fun though, and I am going to miss doing this with them next year... :(