Gingerbread

The girls love to do gingerbread houses and have been asking for weeks when they could make them.  For the past three years at day care they've made graham cracker ones, so we've just done a kit together at home.  This year they wanted their own kits though.

Back in my single days, my mom bought me a kit once "for fun."  Following the instructions drove me nuts.  The icing was runny and I pretty much had no luck gluing the thing together with the icing.  As soon as I'd get a side up, the next side would fall over.  It was pretty pathetic.

So the attitude I've taken with the kits is that they're fun to make, pretty to look at, but probably taste pretty awful and stale after sitting out for weeks on end.  I'd much rather make fresh gingerbread with the girls than have them eat the kit mess.  We usually just throw it of the deck 25 feet in the air and watch it smash into the back yard.  That said, I glue the gingerbread pieces together with hot glue before we even get started.  That way all the frosting can be used on the decoration and not trying to hold the thing together.

 Lily was set on eating hers from the beginning.  Of course she reminded me, "Mom, you know you're not supposed to use hot glue on these."

 Madeleine wanted to "snow" her roof, and was more into creating a pattern with the candy.

Lily was determined to eat something and licked a lot of the super-sticky frosting.

This year we learned we probably need some supplemental candy as well.