Gingerbread Houses!!

So this year I was in charge of providing a class craft for W's Christmas party at his class.  I had another parent help me. The teacher really wanted us to make gingerbread houses that the kids could decorate with their parents.  The store bought kits were so expensive we decided to put these houses together with graham crackers.  The teacher gave us this recipe for the icing and her words were "this stuff is like crazy glue"   So we figured great...we can do this.  So we carefully crafted 16 houses together for the class party.  They turned out great!! Well mine where a little messy but my friend's looked like Martha Stewart's.  The kids in the class just loved decorating them.  Let me tell you too--the icing was incredible after it dried.  I actually tripped taking some of the houses to my car and they all fell out on  the tile floor.   I froze in that moment thinking what am I going to do?!!   But when I picked up the box, to my amazement they were all still in perfect condition!! I just had to laughed at myself.   So I wanted to share this recipe. 

 Royal Frosting 

3 egg whites

1 pkg  powder sugar (about a pound)

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy and slowly add the sugar.  You don't want the frosting too watery so if need keep adding more sugar until it is stiff enough to not drip off of a spoon.  If too thick add water a drop at a time.  

Like I said this stuff is amazing.  (I thought I would use it the other day to glue some mouths shut....Just Kidding!!)  It dries quick so just hold the graham crackers into place for a few seconds until it starts setting up.  

Suggestions:

--Don't construct the roof until the base of the house is harden about 10 min.

--Pipe icing through plastic bag and then give the kids a little bag of icing to pipe there candy on.  (You can use the store bought icing for the decorating.  The candy will still stick.)

--Store left over icing in an airtight container--add drops of water if too thick

I had an extra house so I took one home for Y to decorate.  He loved it as you can see he ate more candy then he put on the house.  

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

A friend told me about this recipe where you mix cinnamon and applesauce together to make ornaments. The dough hardens and then you can paint them. I tried this with W and it was so fun and easy. I thought I would post the recipe if you wanted to try making them. (Hope it comes though) If not, I'm sure you can find a recipe online. Oh and a couple of tips.... make sure you don't forget to poke a hole through so you can string them. Also don't roll the dough out too thin or they will break when they get hard.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Nov 26, 2008 1:11 PM

Popout

What are you thankful for??  Was curious, what the boys would say.  So I grabbed the camera and asked. Y's answer surprised me who knows if he even understood the question.  But it was one of those moments of did he just say what I think he said.  

 I took a picture of them holding their answers 

because I thought it would be fun to start asking them this every year and see how their answers change.

W was in a Thanksgiving play at school.  He was, as you can see, a pilgrim...Have a Happy Thanksgiving!! 

 Psalms 100.

First Snow......

Nov 14, 2008 12:26 PM

W woke up and saw the snow this morning and couldn't wait to get out.  He tried hard to be patient because it did take us awhile to find  all our snow gear.   

Oh the joys the first snow of winter brings each year....

Ugh--Halloween!

  

Halloween--can't say I'm a huge fan but this time of year can be fun for kids, without embracing the scariness of Halloween. We had a great time at home this last week, after being gone visiting family while Tim went on his annual hunting trip with his dad. We did some fun seasonal activities around the house. W wanted to do a craft--so as you can see we did attempt a "spooky spider"craft that is hanging from the dining lights. We played in the leaves out back and I even made a leaf maze this year. (which I used do as a kid) W & I chased each other through it until the wind picked up. It's amazing how those fun childhood feelings creep right up doing things you did as a kid with your child. W&Y painted pumpkins and then for Halloween they dressed up. My sweet Aunt made W his Indian costume, it even had hand sewn beads on it. Thanks Aunt Kak! I laughed at myself because as we were getting ready to leave on Halloween I was trying to stuff broccoli down their mouths as I just knew the candy they would be inhaling. Oh...the joys of putting kids down on a candy high. Glad it's over..

Scooters

Oct 25, 2008 7:09 PM

W&Y love to ride scooters. Yes even Y. I can't believe it, he's only two. I'm starting to get a real feel for what it's going to be like raising two boys. W has always been the careful one. I eased into it with him. Y is the opposite, he has no fear and is crazy. I really wasn't ready to let him try this, but being the second he wasn't going to have it any other way. So I got him a helmet and let him ride with W in our front yard. He did end up catching a corner, went over the handle bars and scraped his face all up. But of course, he was back on it after a couple of days. They both have become really good at riding scooters. W rides a two wheel scooter and I can't believe how he cuts corners. After watching him, I thought how hard can this be? So I tried it for about two seconds and landed on the cement. Won't be doing that again.

October Fun!

Oct 25, 2008 7:09 PM

Fall is by far my favorite time of year here in Colorado. The colors are just gorgeous all over the city and mountains, especially when the aspens turn. Tim says it's like "liquid gold" running down the side of a mountain. We try to get up into the mountains every fall to see the changing colors. But this year, we have had company every weekend or Wes has had a soccer game so we weren't able to make it up in time. Instead we drove up north to this farm I have heard a lot about. Of course, the only weekend that we had open turned out to be the coldest day we have had so far. So I guess because of the cold, we ended up having the whole place to ourselves. We froze but had fun....

Finally!

Oct 25, 2008 7:09 PM

Yes, finally I started a blog. Like the title says it will be "simple" at least for now while I figure this all out. I thought I would start by sharing some pictures from the last few months. Some of them have captions, just run your mouse over the slide to see it.

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