More Gingerbread Houses

As a tradition, Spencer's preschool makes gingerbread houses as one of their activities. Maybe they (the school) are inspired by gingerbread houses? The name of the school would lead me to believe so.

We knew this was on the horizon. We were asked to donate some candy towards the cause. Excellent!

As the time drew near we had discovered more tidbits about this gingerbread house making experience. We are newbie's to this preschool so their traditions are new to us. But Carie volunteer's there regularly, so we are easily in the loopy for information.

We discovered that they would be making the gingerbread houses as part of their kitchen rotation. Each week the class spends time in the kitchen baking snacks. It's a pretty slick system, actually.

We discovered that each class would make one gingerbread house, not each student individually... as we had envisioned. Someone baked them and the teachers were assembling them prior to the class decorating time. Hmmm, we weren't sure about this. We lean towards letting them lead and take ownership.

We discovered that some classes were asked to donate candy, some classes were asked to donate items to make the frosting, etc...

We discovered that the one gingerbread house (per class) would be available for purchase for $15. Oh, and that it's a scramble to get to see who can make that request first. We were thinking... not interested. We have three new beautiful gingerbread houses for the season, we don't really need another. And while Spencer contributed, it was going to be a class project. It wasn't his personal project. Ultimately, it was the teacher's project that the kids helped with. I wasn't concerned about not getting it!

Carie was volunteering on Tuesday and helped out in the kitchen when those classes went through their kitchen rotation. Spencer's kitchen rotation is on Thursday! So Carie and another parent volunteer got to make frosting, help out, and watch the gingerbread houses come to life. She said that those houses turned out incredible.

While she wasn't signed up to volunteer on Thursday, she asked Spencer's teacher if it would be okay to hang back and watch them make their gingerbread house. As it turns out, their kitchen rotation is first thing. Great timing! So Carie stayed, took pictures, hung out with the kids, etc... She and Mrs. W chatted about supplies and whatnot. Mrs. W was decked out with good supplies, many of which Carie has for her cake decorating. I guess the supplies the school had available were too basic for her. LOL

I'm so glad we have picture of this thing. It is amazing! Carie said that Mrs. W's gingerbread house was by far the best she had seen. But of course she had only seen a small sampling. The details were amazing. As it turns out, it sounds like Mrs. W and her daughter make them every year.

Carie is now inspired to make her own gingerbread house next year. Of course the kids will get to continue to make their own as long as they choose to. So far this has been a great family tradition for us. But maybe next year we'll do a little prepping before digging in to decorate the houses. Broadening our decorating supplies would be fun!