Gingerbread Houses with friends

Sometimes I have an idea and I think it's a great idea, and no one talks me out of it.  I had the idea of having Serafina's school friends over to decorate gingerbread houses.  I thought they would sweetly sit at the table and have so much fun decorating.  Then they would sit sweetly on the couch, maybe sipping some hot cocoa, while watching a Christmas movie. Well, it didn't exactly go like I envisioned, but it was still fun.  Messy, festive fun. 

When I was planning for gingerbread building, I bought three identical kits.  But Leo decided he wanted to do one and picked out a Sour Patch Kids ski chalet.  He wanted to make it with his girlfriend Janeth, but she was unavailable to come over.  He decided to invite Tyler instead.  Oh boy. 

Here's everyone at the table with their houses and candies.  Going around the table from left to right: Mia, Serafina, Purple, Leo and Tyler. 

Tyler and Leo shared the ski chalet and Tyler definitely took the lead on construction and decorating.  Leo didn't mind; he was busy eating the candy. 

There was a lot of smack talk across the table.  Lots of boasting about who's house was superior. A couple of times I had to intervene with a "hey now" because they got a little mean. 

Leo and Tyler were done first.  I think they were motivated to finish so they could play video games. 

Here's their chalet. 

Purple struggled with the house construction.  I had Tom help out because he's pretty good at that kind of thing.  Once the house was assembled, Purple did great with the decorating. 

Here's Serafina's final product. 

Mia was very methodical and patient with her house.  It was impressive.  

Now my kids have been decorating gingerbread houses for a long time, both at home and at school. Never in the history of our gingerbread houses have I let them eat the houses. We always viewed it as a craft project and these are art supplies.  Sure, they are technically edible, but gross.  Well, Tyler proved what I've always said to my kids, "different families have different rules".  He popped the roof off that house and munched away.  

 

It was hilarious and a bit appalling.  I ended up throwing the whole thing away when he got distracted by a movie.  He also sucked down at least one and a half bags of icing, but we got those away from him too.  Ewww.