fun with gingerbread

the past couple weeks the girls have had a lot of fun with gingerbread people. normally i don't think to do too much with gingerbread men at christmas time. sure they're cute and i've always wanted to buy one of those kits to make a gingerbread house but never have. this year, my mom gave the girls a cute foam gingerbread man ornament kit to put together so along with that the help of pinterest (my crafty bff resource) i found some fun things for us to do.

we made yummy chewy gingerbread cookies. i'm not a big fan of gingerbread cookies but wanted the girls to experience them so i searched around for a recipe that had good reviews and when i saw a chewy one i knew this was it. much better than the hard, crunchy gingerbread cookies. here's the recipe link: http://stickafork.net/2011/12/chewy-gingerbread-cookies/

we painted gingerbread people using gingerbread paint. just mixed some brown (and white to lighten) paint with ginger, cinnamon and cloves. it smelled wonderful! and the fact that we could paint outside was an added bonus!

 later that evening when the gingerbread paint had dried the girls decorated their gingerbread people with paint and glitter. sophie remembered that i had mentioned it. i am still finding glitter in my dining room. i think we'll go outside to glitter next time (even if it's freezing).

here are the foam ornaments that grandma gave the girls. molly was set on turning hers into a girl so she opted to place the bow on the side of the gingerbread's head rather than using it as a bow tie as suggested. sophie followed.

 

of course there has to be some learning involved (it's the teacher in me, i can't help it). sophie worked on patterning with gingerbread houses, men, and candy.

molly worked on vowel sounds and spelling words that were on the gingerbread.

both girls enjoyed counting out buttons and placing them on the gingerbread. they also enjoyed just decorating also.

 we made the cutest book that i found on this site called one yummy gingerbread. first the girls decorated their gingerbread people. 

here is the story

finally, today, we made our gingerbread houses. this was supposed to be done last week but molly had a little problem when she was told she couldn't have a sucker after lunch. her behavior resulted in a consequence of no treats for a week. it's tough to make a gingerbread house if you can't eat it so waited. sophie needed a lot of help assembling hers. molly really only needed help on the roof. decorating was a cinch!

 

sophie's finished product

 

and molly's

 

such fun times. oh, and they did eat dinner, no one was sick, and went to bed and fell asleep without any problems. guess they get their high sugar tolerance from me!