"Gingerbread" Houses

So when I was growing up my mom made the most fantastic gingerbread houses. They had it all! A chimney, wall paper inside, windows (so you could peek in), furnishings, landscaping, my favorite part was always the little deer peeking at his reflection in the frozen pond (that was actually a little mirror), and that isn't even the tip of the ice burg!! I am wondering now if my mom ever took any pictures of these wonderful creations?? Any way, if you ever hear me say I do such a small portion of the crazy, creative things my mother did maybe you'll understand after comparing just the thought of her beautiful works of art to what I do with my children :) But we do have fun (and there's a lot less swearing)!

Emily got really into this project and thought through her house before she even started it :)

Olivia took every pink candy she found. She even made Ethan remove one he had already "glued" to his house because she told him that of course it was supposed to be hers--didn't he know that?

Andrew had actually added quite a bit to his house after this picture but then it caved in a bit--his favorite part about his house, "It's sooo big. I think it may be the biggest gingerbread house ever!"

Do you see the longing in Ethan's eyes? It was all I could do to have him not eat the whole thing last night so we could show it to daddy. But this morning as I was hurriedly getting breakfast for everyone Ethan managed to eat about half the candies off his :)