Gingerbread Houses

Our neighbor invited us over to decorate these AMAZING homemade gingerbread houses. I was shocked when I saw how big the houses turned out (I think she might have been too!). It was such a fun activity to do with the girls (okay - I'll take that back, it was fun to do, period) The girls were more interested in playing in the giant rice bucket that our neighbors had in their kitchen to dig in, so I did a lot of the decorating by myself. We started before Amelia was out of school, and I thought I had made it clear that morning that she was to come across the street to our friends house when she got dropped off. Well, she forgot. It became a sort of traumatic experience for her when her carpool dropped her off and left, and she couldn't get into the house. She was very good at logical deduction, and checked the garage to see the car was there -- which led her to the conclusion we hadn't gone far. She came over with tears in her eyes, I felt horrible, but the candy decorating quickly erased the sad and scared feelings. Amelia helped quite a bit after she got there. I think Lucy put on a couple pieces of candy - maybe.
And in our house, we believe in eating our house upon completion. It's delicious!