Gingerbread House 2012

I think that Day has officially taken over this fun project - a good thing because she tends to have more patience than I around this time of the year (or maybe just any time of the year).

As always, Luke LOVED decorating the Gingerbread House and can remain focused on it for hours at a time (although after some sugar, it tends to become more difficult).  Mia also enjoyed joining in this year and had lots of fun.

The final product was beautiful and completely decorated!

 

 

 

Cookies & Champagne Playdate

Such fun!  I love that the kids and the ladies can ALL have fun at a playdate.  Gina, Jess, and their sweet kids came over the week before Christmas to decorate cookies (and the older girls toasted to the upcoming holiday weekend).  Aidan, Bailey, Jack, Charlie, Luke, and Mia had so much fun ...and our kitchen floor showed it :), but it was so worth the mess. 

Concentrating on the perfect cookie design

Discussion over Gingerbread House design

There "might" have been some sugar consumed...

...okay, a LOT of sugar!

Are we decorating or eating?!

Such a big boy

The girls get in on the Gingerbread action too

The kids also exchanged Christmas gifts, and the dino hats seemed to be a hit!

I loved Jessica's message the next morning that she had never seen Bailey so dirty :).  Sign of a good playdate?  I think so!

2011 Gingerbread House

Luke and Day spent an afternoon this week decorating their gingerbread house together.  Luke has loved doing this project for the past few years, but we were amazed at his focus and attention span for this activity this year.  Literally, they worked on it for more than 2 hours and did not move from their seats.

While the architects and designers worked, Mia and Mommy went out to run some errands.  It didn't make Mia very happy to miss this exciting activity, but we knew that it would be difficult for her to participate this year.  However, once we arrived back home, Mia got in on the action for a while.

...and she wasn't involved for long before she proved us correct ... and started eating the house and gingerbread men before they were even done!

Luke's 2010 Gingerbread House

Somehow, unbeknownst to me, we picked up a Gingerbread House kit that was much more labor intensive than the one we got last year. What this meant was that it turned into a two day project (not such a bad thing when it's raining outside).

Day 1: Mommy and Luke made the icing and constructed the house

Day 2: Day came over and helped Luke decorate his house. This actually went on for more than 2 hours. Last year I found that we didn't have enough candy and I ended up bringing out old Halloween stuff to finish off the house. So this year I bought an extra candy set. Well, needless to say, we had MORE than enough candy!

Luke's "Candy House"

After I saw the Clark family post , I decided that I wanted to try to find a Gingerbread house kit for Luke to work on also (great idea, thanks Jo!). I happened to be out and saw one, so I picked it up figuring it would be a great activity for Luke and I to do ahead of Christmas on one of those mornings that I just needed something (anything) for him to do.

Needless to say, he LOVED it! A few times I did catch him trying to eat the candy instead of putting it on the house ... who can blame him, right?!

This was definitely one of those activities that entertained and was relatively easy, both in set-up and clean-up. And, he's enjoying having a few bites here and there for a treat after dinner!