Gingerbread Houses

I picked up a few of the ready to go gingerbread house kits at the store. Told Alan we would have a gingerbread house village.  I don't think he was excited about this prospect.  Some days he is such a fuddy duddy.  But the kids enjoyed making them.  And making a mess.  I tried supervising for a while but then the baby needed to eat so the evening's events were turned over to Alan.  I think he just failed to appreciate the point of the exercise.  Or maybe he got tired of having to rebuild the houses when they fell apart under the weight of 10 lbs of candy.  Or trying to keep Robert from eating the hard candy.  Frosting off a knife, sure kid. Go right ahead.  But hard candy is not quite allowed at your age.  Robert says we are mean, terrible, awful parents. First we try to insist on a daytime ban of the pacifier, then we limit his access to choking hazards.  But everyone had a good time I think.  The kids enjoyed it and are asking when they get to eat the houses already.  Yes, this is the important part.  Eating the houses.  Bryan really got into the project and spent time dying the frosting and getting rather creative.  That strange dichotomy of teens.  One minute they seem incredibly grown-up and you'd think they'd never want to participate in something that is so child like. Then you stand back and give them a chance and realize that they still are truly child like in many ways and have many, many years ahead of them of enjoying the simple fun stuff before life demands that they truly grow up.  Please remind me not to force it early and to allow all the kids to enjoy the fun stuff while they can rather than pushing them aside for the younger ones. 

The girls' house

The younger boys' house

The older boys' house

Eating the frosting, yum!

The finished products.