Gingerbreading 2011, Q5's house

Well, we almost didn't get to gingerbreading, because our gingerbread was dry and crumbly, but once I made a new batch all went well. Easy to roll out, easy to cook. Tasty. Well, the dough was, I haven't had any cooked yet.

Q5 asked for a castle that she saw in a gingerbread making book. I'd seen this castle before -- but never made it. But I decided OK, we'd do it, figuring it didn't have a roof, it should be pretty easy.

Not so. Not so. Gingerbread houses NEED roofs to keep them together. The castle keep was a miniature little house, but the rest was a crenelated wall. Easy to put together, but easy to fall apart, too, which Q5 and I found out when we started to put candy on it. I ended up re-"gluing" with more frosting and then putting candy all around the inside and outside of the walls to help stabilize. And it worked really well.

Here is Q5's crenelated castle. She's taking this into school for her class to eat, which is why we LOADED it with candy.

Here it is undecorated:





Decorated [from upperleft, front (notice drawbridge with caramels on it), left (notice bombs in wall), back (you can see the back of the keep and the smiley face), right (tree made up of spearmint leaves!)]:






Actually, originally Q5 had asked me to write "Beware!" on the roof, but we forgot. When asked why, she said there was a cat inside who didn't like people.

And the view from above that shows it all:

Guess what is on the porch?

I wasn't sure we'd get one but we did! C42 and C7 picked it out at the Holiday Farmer's Market in Riversdale. Now it is on the porch getting hydrated before we bring it inside.

A date which will live in infamy.

Yes, we had a celebration (um, commemoration) dinner here for the lives lost at Pearl Harbour 70 years ago. C7's obsession seems to be abating a bit, thank goodness. But now she has 2 more months to go to think about Pearl Harbour until she can discharge it at the Talent Show in February/March.

Cookies

'Tis the season for cookies!

I made gingerbread dough for gingerbread houses the other day, but it is really really really crumbly. So instead we made cookies with it today. Very thick cookies. But C7 really wanted to make ship and airplane cookies to commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor tomorrow. We didn't have ship cookie cutters, but we do have airplane cookie cutters, so that is where we started. But we moved onto stars and reindeer and bells.

Here are the photos!













As it turns out I don't even like the cookies, I wonder what I did to the dough??

I promised lights

And, as you can see it is no light extravaganza, but like I said, the kids did it and I think it is perfect.

So, here they are, the pictures of the lights.





And a little video, of course. Can't take out the camera without somebody saying VIDEO ME!

4 park day

After lunch I offered the kids quiet time or the park, and they chose the park. There was a bit of negotiating over which park to go to, and how to get there, but in the end we decided to go to Bladensburg park, in (of all places) Bladensburg. I was hoping to see the newly opened boardwalk, but it wasn't to be. The kids played for a while at the park, and then headed for the gazebos.

Instead of going to the gazebo with them, I walked across the bridge, hoping to get the kids interested in going over the bridge and getting a mini walk in. Well, that worked, somehow, on my way back over the bridge they crossed over and so we all crossed over and we managed to convince them that we should take a little walk. I knew there was another park nearby, because back when we had Big Blue I'd sometimes take the kids there for a long walk.

In the end, it turned out to be about a 2 mile walk, round trip, but there was no complaining, and we hit 3 playgrounds. On the way to the first we met a wooly caterpillar. C7 proceeded to give it what Q5 called a "Thanksgiving Feast" and when C7 reminded here that we were done with Thanksgiving Q5 changed it to a "Christmas Feast"





The girls wanted us to move the caterpillar, or at least stay and watch it, but we promised to check on it on the way back (which we did, and it was gone, but the feast of leaves and dried grass was still there) so they moved on.

The sun was bright so C7 took my hat. It think I need a new hat, because I'm not sure I am going to get that one back.





Once at the playground both girls loved the zip line, and a kind of gopher hole play structure. Q5 enjoyed the merry go round quite a bit, but didn't like sharing. I sat down and C42 took my photo. Ok, he took it twice because once I saw the first I made him take it again. Yes, believe it or not this is the better one.





Then C42 took off over the hill and yelled back to us that there was another playground! Neat, I hadn't known this, so we set off for the new playground. We didn't stay there long, but C42 went over the next ridge and Q5 got a little anxious and worried that she couldn't see him, so she and I set out to find him. Which we easily did. She ran to get him while C7 swung on the swings, then we all walked back.

From Bladensburg park, the area we ended up at didn't look elevated, but the park area is on top of a hill, and it commanded a really really nice view. It was quiet except a faint drone from Kenilworth Ave, and the birds.

After a bit more playing we headed back, made one more stop at a locale neighborhood park, but it was a great disappointment. So back over the bridge and to Bladensburg park. It was a lovely afternoon.

Lights

In an effort to keep the children playing outside I told them they could put up Christmas lights outside.

That was a very wise decision. They did a fantastic job. Really.

This is how it went down.

First C7 had her turn wrapping the railing. She was very good at it, getting every single rung.








Then Q5 wrapped the railing down, and C7 got anxious because she wanted to help, then bossy, and then annoying.










I'll put up a picture later with them glowing. I am sending C42 out to get more lights so they can wrap the other side.