Gingerbread house decorating

I don't want to forget this...better late than never :)

The Friday before Easter, Meg and I decorated a ginger bread house. Meg was so excited. Watching her anticipation as I opened the package with all of the wonderful goodies was adorable. With everything I pulled out, she would inquisitively ask me "what's that?" or "can I eat a piece of candy?" or "can I use the blue?".

To my surprise, she waited patiently while I read the instructions (this was my first time). She also decided to "read" the icing packaging as well. She was concentrating so hard, that I had to break away from the instruction reading to snap a few pics of her studying the icing package.
We started with seven pieces of "house" and slowly started the assembly. We put down the base (or floor as Meg would call it), then started with two pieces. Meg was a great helper. She grabbed the front and one of the sides and we went to work. I would put the icing on the base and she would squish the sides down. It took a while for her to figure it out, but I wanted her to do it by herself.


After only a few minutes, we had a house (complete with roof). Now the fun began. Meg went for the yellow icing first and went straight to decorating the roof. At first, she kept asking to see the picture from the packaging, but then decided her way was better. She started with the "point" of the roof and filled in the small gap.

Then, we were onto the "shingles". The first few minutes as she was squeezing the icing out, it was all going up instead of down. After being a little frustrated by this, she asked for help and I showed her that she needed to squeeze from the top of the lump, not directly in the middle. Problem solved!!!

After the "shingles" were in place, it was onto accessorizing. Meg was very particular about where I should put the icing for her duck candy. After all the dots were to her liking, she carefully placed each duck.

Next we moved onto accessorizing the roof. What roof isn't complete without jelly beans, candy ducks and candy bunnies.

I just couldn't resist posting this picture. She is growing up so fast. I can hardly believe what a sweet "big girl" she is turning into!

A few bunnies on the side and some blue icing....oh, wait - she didn't want that there. So, in come the fingers to get the blue icing off. You can imagine where this is going...

If you guessed into her mouth, you guessed right. The funny thing about this is that Megan doesn't like icing. When we are eating b-day cake or cup cakes (anything with icing, including glazed donuts) I am asked to scrape the icing off. So, I was surprised when she asked (after licking her fingers) if she could pour some into her mouth.

After eating some more blue icing, she decided to go back to finishing the roof.

Isn't this sweet? Meg's first gingerbread house.

On a side note, no one ate the ginger bread house. It met it's demise last night when I was cleaning out the fridge/pantry for the Tuesday trash run. Even if someone would have wanted some, I would have had to disclose to them that Meg may or may not have licked her fingers, then placed a few ducks and bunnies.