Gingerbread Trials

Now that Anna is old enough to participate in "crafts" and not make the world's biggest mess or get too frustrated, I decided we should take some time to do some traditional Christmastime crafts. We did a lot with paper, glue, and paint, but I decided to photograph our adventures building a gingerbread house and then later decorating gingerbread cookies. Needless to say, next year I will be assembling the house without the help of a two year old, as A) I won't have a two year old and B) it is hard to build a gingerbread house, and even harder when the pieces you are building with are broken.

It started all innocent. We laid out all of the pieces. Despite never having made a gingerbread house alone, I figured "how hard could it be?" and Anna Kate figured "how much can I eat?".

Photography stopped while Mommy tried and failed to put together the house. So here, Anna is posing with our broken house that had no chance.

"Ah, whatever, let's just eat the house and candy!"

"And lick the frosting, because that is the best part!" (To AK)

Next up were gingerbread men. In the end, they turned out way better than the house, but the start was a little rocky. Turns out the recipe needed copious amounts of flour to be able to be rolled and cut successfully, which might of well have been a different recipe. Anna slept through that part, so she just woke up to lots of little gingerbread men!

Let's get this party started!

It's a shame she doesn't like M&Ms.

Decorated! With a mouth full of M&Ms.

Done!