Gingerbread House Party

Adam's last day of school was this past Friday and to celebrate they had a fun afternoon decorating gingerbread houses.  Actually they celebrated for several days in a row, which included a movie and pajama day and all kinds of fun stuff, but Friday was the day of the big party where parents were invited to help out.

My brother and Colby came to the house to babysit so I could sneak away for a few hours.  Of course I had to cook them a delicious lunch, but it was well worth it.  I knew that between Matt (who comes home for lunch most days), Alex, and Colby, they would put that meal away in no time so I had a Lean Cuisine for my lunch so there'd be enough of the good food for the 3 of them.  Is that true love or what?!

A few of the parents got there early and we worked at getting everything set up.  When the kids came back from PE, their teacher explained how it was all going to go down and I found out that she'd used a picture Adam colored for her a couple of weeks ago (when he was home sick) as a way to teach the kids about gingerbread houses.  Way to go, Adam!

I spent most of my time on Friday with Adam and 3 of his classmates (whom I'd never met before).  They were all very sweet and one of them told me repeatedly that I was so nice and towards the end of the afternoon she said she wished that I could be her mom too.  I didn't know whether to smile or to cry!  I opted for a big bear hug.

The whole event was a huge candy extravaganza and all the kids had so much fun snacking and decorating and making enormous messes.  I was surprised with how many parents came, but one little girl and her dad absolutely blew me away with how seriously they took this gingerbread house business.  He insisted on doing all of the icing and then he told her what candies needed to go where and in what pattern.  When he decided to let her do a few portions, he stood behind her and would stop her if she started to put any piece of candy in the wrong place.  Their finished product was a masterpiece and seriously looked like it could have come out of a magazine, with imaginative details even I wouldn't have thought to do.  Now maybe this little girl actually wanted her dad's help and maybe he knew she'd be happiest if she had the most beautiful house there.  And I certainly give him credit for being an involved parent, but all I could think the entire time was YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

As you can see I had no plans of an award-winning house from my Adam.  In fact, it probably looks like it was found at the bottom of a dumpster...and that is fine by me.  Especially since he had about half of it eaten by the time we made it home anyways.

Loved getting to spend the afternoon with my biggest boy.  And thankful that Big Bub and Colby survived the chaos of our house, so they can hopefully do it again soon!