What do you get when you cross....

A mom who doesn't read directions before jumping head first into a rather large project with an excited preschooler with very little patience who's entirely process oriented???












A MESS!!!!


In anticipation of the upcoming two week hiatus from preschool, Yums and I headed down to Michael's to see what we could find in the way of arts and craft projects. Lo and behold, they were clearancing out gingerbread houses and we just HAD to get one!! We told Yums we'd break it out tonight after dinner and he couldn't WAIT! I open the directions, read step one (CHECK!), go on to step two (DOUBLE CHECK!), follow the directions in step 3 to mix the royal icing, do an amateur job of getting it in the piping bag and set off to build us a HOUSE!! "Assemble all four walls and then let sit 1-2 hours before proceeding." Excuse me, WHAT?! Yeah, that's not going to work out...

So I put Patrick to work rummaging through the pantry for things to hold our hastily-built roof onto our crappily-assembled walls! He came back with a can of white beans, a thing of Pasta Pick-ups, and a jar of marinated artichokes...how festive!! But it got the job done and we moved on. "Allow newly assembled house to sit 2-3 hours or overnight before decorating." COME ON...you have GOT to be kidding me!!! He's THREE people...at 26 *I* don't have the patience for a 5 hour craft project!!

So once again, we moved on. I was up to my elbows in royal icing as I slathered it onto the roof for Yums to decorate. He loved that mommy was covered in icing, loved that can goods were holding the house together and loved that the table was covered in a substance that, once dry, will be as hard as cement to scrub off our wooden dining table. It was GREAT!!!

He set off meticulously decorating the house: one gumdrop for the roof, two for his tummy. He thought he was being sneaky, but mommy's always know!! As my mom used to say, "I have eyes in the back of my head!" Daddy joined in and showed him what it REALLY meant to be a perfectionist, but they laughed the entire way through it, so I didn't mind! ;) Overall, he completely enjoyed the process and we definitely formed some lasting memories. Maybe next year we'll start the house way in advance!!

(**Note to self...organize bottom rack of the pantry before taking pictures if you're going to forget to close the doors! ;)  I SWEAR the top shelves are completely organized in baskets :P )