Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Gingerbread House Fun

The gingerbread making was a huge success....though it took me the better part of today to roll, cut and bake the pieces to make the houses for each child, it was so very worth it. They each commented many many times that decorating the houses was MUCH fun-even better than watching movies!
What was so cool to me was to see the individuality of each house-
Granni & Gramps came over to help and it was perfect to have one of them helping each of the little ones-we decorated the houses for about 3 hours, and nobody had any idea  how much time had passed!
They are on display on my kitchen island at least until Christmas and they are so fun to look at and find all of the details as I study them! Enjoy the pictures...
 I had the houses assembled  about 1/2 hour before they started decorating so the icing could harden
 The key to making it work without falling apart as you go is to use Royal Icing-it hardens very quickly and is very strong. They just piped it out of simple plastic decorator bags.
 Busy hands at work...notice Leah is eating her candy scraps-she finished decorating first.
 Bay's House: there's a bonfire out front with a fish roasting over the fire on a pretzel.
 Eric's House: He took the longest..notice the pink rocking chair on the front lawn!
Leah's House: She put Christmas lights (jellybeans) along the front of the house.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

some Christmas happenings around here...
 Bay and Leah after their Homeschool Christmas program
 Enjoying a break from school and staying up late, sleeping in late, staying in our pj's way too long...
 The crafting bug has hit our house-though I don't consider myself a big crafter, God has given me a lover of crafts in Leah, so I am learning to encourage her-Dennis is too-she even got him to do a craft with her this weekend!
 Eric making a new star for our tree
 Some of Leah's creations-mostly I require her to find crafts she can do on her own, such as making these bows....
 but occasionally she convinces me to do one with her, like help her sew this stocking. She drew and cut out all of the applique, I just stitched them on.
 The product of her crafting with dad
 One of the activities all of the kids really wanted to do this advent was make real Gingerbread Houses-Eric got a cool book from the library for inspiration and the stockpile of goodies awaits.
 The house smells delicious-I mean our house-the gingerbread cooking for the little houses. 
 Eric's finished star-3D popsicle stick art-fun with the hot glue gun
Bay wanted to get in on the hot glue gun action too, so he made a stable for the mud doll nativity set