We didn't make Gingerbread Houses last year (and by that, I mean 2010) because it was in the middle of our "no candy" challenge and I didn't want to deal with the disappointment of loading up a house with candy and then not being able to eat it!
But this year (and by that, I mean 2011), candy was not an issue. ;) And I'd seen an advertisement for this cookie cutter set from Wilton. It cuts out a perfect-sized gingerbread house and it cost me less than $8 at a party store in town. No more templates or bad measuring for me! I made 3 houses and "glued" them together earlier in the day of our event.
Every "team" got a bag of royal icing, which we called glue while we worked. We didn't hold back in our use of glue, just like in real life! Daniel is prepping his work space with glue.
Rebekah and I worked together on a house. She really likes gumdrops and made sure to line the peak of our roof with it. We used Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for the roof shingles.
Nathan, Joseph and Leah were another "team." They also used gumdrops on their roof. It was a popular idea!
Sarah was her own team. She didn't build any houses, she just ate as much construction material as she could. And she stayed in the middle of the table the whole night.
Luckily for her and the rest of us, there were plenty of construction materials to go around.
So how is it that she was running out of something to eat?
Rebekah was dedicated to finishing our house. I took breaks in between snapping pictures to help her. Doesn't it look good enough to eat??
Chad and Daniel were a team and they specialized in using as many M&M's as possible, as well as one other thing.
Chad dedicated his creative skilz to the development of gumdrop/pretzel people. He had even more fun placing them into crazy situations. I had been so tempted to send in a few pictures to his co-workers, but I just never got around to it. (Shucks!)
Here is Nathan, Joseph, and Leah's house. I think it just dripped creativity! Do you see the little car on the right that Nathan engineered?
Rebekah and I had a small zoo in the yard of our house...
...as well as a kid in a large snowsuit riding a sleigh, followed by a reindeer. Rebekah came up with the reindeer after watching Chad make his clumsy people!
What a happy bunch of construction workers! Sarah's face tells the story of her participation.
What a nice contrast to the pictures of December 2008. I had yelled at the kids during most of the activity and you can tell what effect it had the kids. This image has been burned into my mind and conscience and I am happy to say that I have mellowed a bit since then. Maybe they won't need therapy for that night anymore.
So sad. Not one of my better parenting moments!
I've learned that there are a lot of traditions surrounding gingerbread houses. Most traditions seem to not include actually eating the house. What a tragedy! We started eating our houses nearly right away. Here is what they were starting to look like after the kids left for school the next day. They were yummy and we were ready to throw away the left overs when they became too hard to chew.
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