The Candy Cottage

Yesterday my kids had an early-out day at school - - where they get out a couple of hours early so the teachers can do inservice.  Anyways, I wanted to do something fun to celebrate the extra hours home, so we busted out our gingerbread houses sent to us from The Candy Cottage...

So these are a pretty genius idea - it's a thin plastic house that just snaps together.  You can wash it and reuse it time and time again.  Every time I made gingerbread, it always warps in the oven and never fits together quite right.  Plus you need that cement icing stuff.  With this, it just snapped together and I was able to use regular icing to decorate it.

We tried out the Party Pack which comes with 4 houses.  I thought they'd be small since there were 4 in the package, but they were pretty good sized.

The kids had a ton of fun with it.  And it was easy for me - just get some candy and icing out, and let them create.  Perfect!

Trevor helped a little with the decorating.  And then my youngest helped with icing disposal:

 I know we traditionally think of gingerbread houses for Christmas time, but the box came with an idea sheet for tons of holidays - wouldn't it be a fun family tradition to make one every holiday?  The tagline says "Party Fun for Any Day.  Holidays.  Birthdays.  Even Saturdays."  I love that they promote everyday fun.

 She was excited to show off the completed houses:

 And one more up-close, finished photo:

 I was sent the Party Pack from The Candy Cottage but my opinions are my own - they were a fun activity to do something special for an afternoon.  The downfall is that your house won't smell like gingerbread - I guess you'll need to make gingerbread cookies or something for that :)