"GINGERBREAD" HOUSES

Our day started out pretty rotten. Originally we had a day packed with plans for fun with friends.  But due to sickness those plans fell through and we were left with tears and disappointment.  After a bit we dusted ourselves off and came up with new plans.  It was time to make gingerbread houses!  Thankfully, yesterday I had printed out plans and had asked Dave to pick up supplies for us.  I believe Someone knew we would need them today!  

 Our supplies + a very excited boy

 Cutting up a cereal box to put our house on.

 And covering it with foil.

 Instead of baking gingerbread or buying a kit we used a box for our form and covered it.

 She was memorizing all the flavors.

 The basic form of the house.

 These two enjoyed some breakfast while Boo and I worked on the houses.

 Boo's house.

 Time for Mama to have a waffle break!

 Next we covered our houses with graham crackers. 
 Cheaper than buying a kit and easier than baking gingerbread.  =)

 Mine is all done!

 Boo is finishing up hers too.

 Now for the fun part!  Decorating!

 Boo and Princess teamed up to decorate one house.

 And Bugsy and I teamed up to decorate the other house.

 We made our own bags to pipe the frosting.  It got a little messy but it was fun.  

 Our sick one, Elvis, came down to decorate for a few minutes.  Then he wanted to go back to rest and read.  We are going to do another later when he is feeling 100% again.

 Our final masterpiece!  This is the front of our house.

 Side view.

 The back.  (We were getting tired by then and running out of frosting.  Lol!)

 The front of Boo and Princess's house.

 The side view.

 The other side.

And the back.

These took a lot more time than I thought they would but I haven't made one with this process before.  Next time I will definitely not tell the kids until we are done constructing the houses.  Thankfully, they were entertained with waffles and a game which made the waiting easier.  From start to finish it took us about 3 hours.  It was lots of fun and this might very well become a tradition.  =)

HOMEMADE JAM

It was our first ever attempt at making homemade jam today. Both Dave's Mom & my Mom and Nana too have always made homemade jam. But though I've helped prep as I was growing up I never knew the final process. Today we learned it was much, much easier than we had thought. I am praying it sets because we have some very eager jam eaters awaiting these homemade treats.

I received this little guy for Christmas.  This was his first time out of the box & he worked like a champ!

Do you think he may be a little excited?

Blueberries are squashed in a flash!

After we put together the blueberry jam it was time for strawberries.

Dave worked on finishing up the blueberry jam.

The kids wanted to be right in the middle of it all.

Thank you, Mom!  She got this for us to use in our jam making.

Our official taste testers.

She wanted to help stir & was very happy when it was finally her turn.

Next it was time to taste test the strawberry jam.  What a tough job, eh?

9 jars of blueberry jam

Daddy giving Boo instructions on how to fill the jars.

Boo & I finished up the strawberry jam and filled 12 jars.  This is all freezer jam.  We plan to make some hot jar jam with the rest of the strawberries sometime this week.