Gingerbread Houses Part II

Ever since we went to see the gingerbread houses at the Grove Park, my boys have wanted to make their own. I was a little nervous about the proposition knowing it takes forever to make the ginger bread, glue like icing, and not to mention they would not be able to make something that seemed worth my time in prep. But when I was at ALDI I found a kit for $5.99 which included gingerbread, icing, candy, and a stabilizing tray! I was all in.

Sam helped me put together the houses while Steven was our photographer. These are by far the best two pictures he took.
After "naptime" we got busy decorating. It was a perfect afternoon activity for our rainy week. I will say Sam's ended up being a bit better because he let me put the icing on for him (for a lot of it) while Steven "is good at building lego houses." Which OBVIOUSLY transfers to tubing icing and candy on a gingerbread house. I was very impressed with the kit. It held up really well and the boys loved it!

Picture taken by Sam

Picture taken by Steven

Picture taken by Mama

Totally doing the kit again next year. When we are skilled enough to enter it into the competition at Grove Park, we'll go from scratch. But for now.... kit all the way.

Gingerbread Houses

Today my amazing angel of a neighbor kept Eliza while she had her morning nap and the boys and I headed off to the Grove Park to check out the gingerbread houses. Every year they have a national gingerbread house building competition and the winners are AMAZING. Seriously, they are ridiculous. No idea how long it takes these people to do this or how they ship them here. It's a pretty impressive spectacle.








We started our boy and mommy date by getting some chocolate milk and then headed to check out the Christmas decorations in the lobby of the hotel. It was great fun.

visible evidence for Sam's disobedience. sigh.


We had a really great time. We even listened to our local Christmas station all the way there. We're in the spirit now! And it should be noted that they thought This one is for the Children by New Kids on the Block was worth playing. Sad.

This igloo was simply decoration.... not edible.