Gingerbread Houses

Last year, I had heard about the gingerbread house kit from Trader Joe's.  However, I found out about it too late - by the time I made it to the store, they were sold out.  This year, I made sure I was at Trader Joe's shortly after Thanksgiving, and I was able to snag two kits for the girls.

Today was construction day.  There was more work involved on the front end to make the icing - I had to whip up some egg whites, add the boxes of powdered sugar that came with the kits and add a bit of lemon juice (to add stickiness, according to the directions) - but it was definitely worth it.  Not only did the icing act like glue, but it also tasted halfway decent, too.  (Icing bags were included!)

 As expected, Evelyn did everything on her own - she constructed and decorated her house without any help.

 Even though the house only consisted of four sections, Julia needed some help getting the sloped roof pieces to attach to the front and back of the house.

 Evelyn cruised along solo . . .

 . . . Julia asked me to help with the icing placement.  But she did all of the designing and decorating with candies.

 Ta da!  The finished products!  Even though it didn't seem like much candy was included with the kits, it really was just enough.  The kits also had little candy people and a dog, too.  From now on, I know where we will buy our gingerbread house kits - so easy, festive and fun!