Gingerbread houses

Our house has been a flurry of activity lately. Monday night was gingerbread houses. 

Benjamin actually had swimming practice, so we had planned to get started the minute he arrived home. He ended up coming home much earlier than anticipated because although I remembered to mark which days he still had practice I forgot to note the time change. Since the younger groups don't gave practice, his practice started earlier. So he caught the tail end of his practice and then arrived back at home to decorate houses.

Rachel and Miriam had a bunch of friends over to play games, so they sneaked off to the basement. 

And Phoebe dove right in when Andrew and I were in the middle of setting things out. She opened a container of icing (left over from her birthday), got a knife out, and started smearing icing onto her graham cracker house and plunking candies down. By the time we caught her she was well on her way to making her vision come to life.

And had eaten so many candies.

While Miriam carefully pieced together all the graham cracker houses in the afternoon, Benjamin and I spent a good chunk of time gluing the Millennium Falcon back together. Andrew had picked it up as a kit...but when we opened the box the Millennium Flacon was dashed to bits.

It was kind of sad but we made it work.

Here's Phoebe asking for help opening yet another peppermint swirl for her roof:

Her house was so covered in candy that Auntie Josie remarked it could be the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel!

When she was finished, she grabbed another house and started decorating it. And helped herself to a few cookies as well. 

Did we fail in delivering cookies to neighbours this year? Absolutely we did. 

But did we get some very interestingly decorated cookies? Also yes.

Here is Phoebe decorating a "gingerbread criminal":

He has "handcups" on (and apparently some leg cuffs, too). 

Alexander meticulously decorated the base for the spaceship while Benjamin worked on the ship itself:

Zoë thought she'd try her hand at making a replacement house for the second house that Phoebe took to decorate. She did great (she loves using the glue gun):

Using the scraps, Benjamin pieced together this winter scene, which includes a rope bridge, lighthouse and sailboat:

We used up all the leftover birthday frosting from the fridge, just in time to make room for all the Christmas leftovers!

I thought I had caught a picture of each house, but evidently I did not quite do that. Here's what I have, however:

L to R: Phoebe, Ben/Alex, Zoë...and who did that house? Dad? Alex?

L to R: Phoebe, Phoebe, Ben/Alex

As you can see, we still have a couple of blank houses left to decorate: