Gingerbread Houses

For our craft this week, still on a christmas and gingerbread kick, we tried our hand at making home made gingerbread houses. I used the same gingerbread dough recipe as I used for our gingerbread men last week. I didn't really let it cool in the fridge for very long, nor did I let the cut house pieces chill in the freezer for the recommended 15min (maybe 5) so if anyone tries this at home...don't skimp on that part. It helps to keep the dough from warping in the oven.

here is the first few steps, piecing the houses together. My icing was really watery but I had run out of powdered sugar. After the third houses third fall...I got the kids and we all ran over to a near by neighbors home and borrowed a cup of powdered sugar. That helped a lot!
perhaps there was more sampling going on then decorating, but the girls had a lot of fun. Ben (not shown) wasn't as excited. Perhaps it was because he had to share a house with his sister and didn't get his own to decorate:-(
here is Jade licking sprinkles off her fingers.
and poor Kyri was just adding the finishing flourish of sugar crystals when her house, once again, collapsed. Poor Kyrie!
Jade's stayed in place pretty well, but she didn't have as many candies on her roof (sampling ya know)

it was a lot of fun but also a LOT of work. I'm glad I'll only be attempting this once every year. LOL