Gingerbread House for Little Ones

I've never made a gingerbread house, have you?  Those beautiful, elaborate ones we see in magazines and the White House require incredible decorating talent and patience and time--all in short supply around here!  But I found a GINGERBREAD HOUSE KIT that made it soooo easy, and the finished product was so cute.

Our baby granddaugher (yes, the Chickadee), is four, and I thought she would LOVE to do a gingerbread house.
I'd seen kits for around $10, but had elected to leave them.  When I found this one at Aldi for $6 or $7, I couldn't resist.
But...
I was skeptical about a kit and if it would be as easy as promised.

I wish I'd taken a picture of the contents--it was all perfect and foolproof.
A tray with a "foundation" to help keep the house square, perfect pieces for each side of the house, complete with design outlines, plenty of ready-to-use icing, and plenty of candy, all sorted in their own little packages.
A thing of beauty in and of itself.

I "built" the house and did all the outlines before she came over, because in her case,
patience is not a "birdshoe" (that's what she heard when I said "virtue," LOL!).
So it was ready for decorating.
(Note:  If you're going to do the preliminary decorating, I suggest that you leave the icicles for the very end, after applying the candy, so they don't interfere with decorating the windows and wreaths.)

We pretty much followed the suggested design, so it was also educational, because she was
looking at the box then finding the right candies to apply.

The "model" didn't have a sidewalk, though the platform for it does, so we smoothed icing on the "walkway"
and added crushed gingerbread cookies I happened to have from a dessert I'd made earlier.

Ta-dah!  Her masterpiece is complete!
Now, a tip of you're going to do this with a little one: She's four, and she was a bit more intersted in
eating the candy, but she was quite pleased with the end result.

 Aren't little hands at work {precious}?

I wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas.  Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I read every single one of them!  They encourage me and inspire me.  And if you like what you see a lot J, maybe you’d like to +1 this post too!  Thank you!

I will be joining these fun parties; please stop by to see all the great things there!

 Cozy Home Scenes Gingerbread Party at    http://cozyhomescenes.blogspot.com/2011/11/welcome-to-my-gingerbread-linky-party.html

 House in Roses Show Off Your Cottage Monday at http://houseinroses.blogspot.com/

 Amaze Me Monday at http://dittledattle.blogspot.com/

 Metamorphosis Monday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

 Motivated Monday at http://becolorful.typepad.com/  

 Newbie Party on Monday at http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/

 Tabletop Tuesday at http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/ 

 Wow Us Wednesdays at http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/ 

 Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

 Open House Party Thursday http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com

 Feathered Nest Friday at http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

 Potpourri Friday at http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/

 Inspiration Friday at http://www.atthepicketfence.com

 Show and Tell Friday at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

 Five Minutes Just for Me at http://5minutesjustforme.blogspot.com

 Seasonal Sunday at http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

 Homemaker on a Dime, Sunday at http://www.homemakeronadime.com/p/link-parties.html

From my Chickadee Nest to yours~

    Zuni