Gingerbread House

The children had their Gingerbread House contest today.  We belong to Lighthouse Christian Home School Association.  They sponsored the contest along with a Christmas craft fair.  It was a fun time for over 50 kids.

The preparation began last Monday.  That was the day we baked the gingerbread pieces.  After they baked, they were left out to dry out for a couple of days.  H is cutting out the some pieces in this photo.  It was a messy process!

On Thursday of that week, we assembled the house. I didn't get any photos of the house before the roof was attached.  We had cans holding up each wall while the Royal Icing dried.  That icing becomes hard as rock after about half an hour.  At this point, I was holding my breath that it would stay together.

 The children began decorating Thursday evening.  They had a general design in mind but some of it came together as they worked.  There was definitely a LOT of sugar on that building!

The finished product the night before the contest.

Corner view.  The front says "Lighthouse General Store".

H spent a great deal of time on the front of the store.  The "porch" is graham cracker crumbs lined with pretzels.  The windows are melted butterscotch discs that were put in while the piece was baking.  The snowman is marshmallow with pretzel pieces for arms and spice drop pieces for his hat, eyes and nose.

Another view of the porch.  H cut candy fruit slices to be the "vegatables" in the vegatable bin.  She cut candy fruit slices for the bow on the wreath.

Side view.  The twins and B did a fine job of keeping the Sk*ttles straight on the roof.  They also helped with the "fence" of spice drops and candy corn.  The trees were made by H and and the twins out of rice kr*spy treats.

This was the best I could do to see most of it in one photo.

Our gingerbread artists at the contest with their entry.

They each received a green ribbon for participating.  There were eight entries in their age division (it's based on the age of the oldest in the group) and everyone did an awesome job.

When we left the event, we took the gingerbread house by a local nursing center for them to use as a decoration this Christmas season.  Two of the residents were very excited to have it since they had made houses from kits the previous day.  It was a good experience of our children sharing a treasure with others.

If you've never built a gingerbread house, go for it!  It's lots of fun.  Just make sure you have plenty of time because it's not a quick project but makes a wonderful memory.