A Gingerbread Village

What was the very first thing in my WalMart cart on Wednesday?  A kit for a gingerbread village! 

I waited until Thursday after school to get this mother/child bonding project moving. 

After assembling the (admittedly simple) pre-cut houses with my very excited/loud potential gingerbread decorators hovering over me, and then having to wait an excruciatingly long hour to let the frosting/mortar harden, I started to question my sanity and that of the WalMart employees. 

(Really . . . shouldn't someone have stopped me from buying such a thing?  Did I really look emotionally stable enough to take on such a project with three children?  They don't let 16 year olds buy spray glitter, but they let a 9 1/2 months pregnant woman buy a GINGERBREAD VILLAGE KIT?  What kind of store policy is that?) 

Looking back on it, it really wasn't that bad, but I think next time I will assemble the houses before they come home since that part isn't all that much fun anyway.

So, fast forward to the fun part.  I turned all three of them loose with the included frosting and candy and the project took on a whole new spin.  They each chose their buildings, shared their decorations, made a huge sugary mess, and had a GREAT time!

 They were working so hard, they didn't even ask to EAT.  David called to say he would be late for supper and I told him it was OK since they were building a gingerbread village.  He didn't think I was serious.  Then he came home and found this:

a village complete with parking lots for trucks and machinery.  What else would a Melius Gingerbread Village include? 
(Landen took this photo and was so proud of the view overlooking the combine hopper.)

And then we ate, but they were too excited telling about their creations to eat much at all!

Will we do this again next year? 
Sure! 
Sometimes crazy ideas can turn out to be pretty good ones!