Elaina’s “Gingerbread” House

Prior to the winter break, Elaina’s class had a “gingerbread” house decorating activity, of which parents were invited.  While Elaina begged me to go, it was all in vain; as I have stated before, I would not have missed it for the world.

Note: If you have not noticed, I am playing a little bit of catch-up on my writing.  The girls are visiting their mother and great-grandmother over the holiday weekend, so it might finally give me a chance to get to some of the bigger events, such as their soccer season, Christmas,  New Year’s.

We started off with our building supplies: an empty milk carton, graham crackers, whipped vanilla frosting (and, yes, I bought the kind that tasted best), and a plethora of candy (we supplied the mini candy canes for the class).

Elaina went straight to work frosting the graham cracker panels to the sides of the milk carton, certainly taking the time to “test” the frosting along the way.

Five minutes of frosting later, we were ready to start on the roof.

Opting for completing the exterior before decorating it, Elaina frosted the roof in place and then decorated the parts where the milk carton was showing through with Froot Loops.

By this time, she was tired of frosting, so I took over the duties for a while.  I ended up frosting the entire exterior of the house and the roof, with her jumping back in as soon as it was time to decorate.  Taking an obvious cue from Dad, she decorated the house very symmetrically, including the mini-M&M door and the matching sides of the house (she let me do most of the roof).  She even added a gumdrop-fenced backyard and a snowman out front.

In the end, we created a cute little graham cracker house together and had a great time doing it.  As I have written before, it means a lot to your child just to be there at their school events.  Whether it is them receiving an award, having lunch with them in their cafeteria, or even just attending a book fair, children really appreciate it just to have you at their school and to be able to spend a little more time with you.  They are only getting older, so I am going to continue participating for as long as they will let me.

Thanks again for checking in on us.

Cheers!