Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Gingerbread and $5 shopping

We have been having fun with our advent activities this week. Monday we did gingerbread 'houses'. We have always bought a boxed house in the past but I decided it's such a waste to put together a house that is so hard we can't eat it. Every year they get thrown away whole so this year I decided I would make gingerbread in the shape of little houses and we could all decorate one. It worked out great. I broke out the candy and sprinkles and a-decorating we went.
Emily spent a lot of time licking the frosting and piling on candy.


So did Taylor.

Austin's one wish was that his would stand up. It would for a few seconds at a time so he was happy.
Our finished products. Emily and Taylor's have so much candy on them. So much. Mine didn't so that's why it is almost gone. ;O)



Tuesday we had one of the funnest nights yet. $5 shopping night. We each drew the name of another family member and were given $5. We headed to Walmart and had 30 minutes to buy something for that person. I took Emily with me and Rob took the boys. We kept our bags a secret til we got home then we had to say who we had and give them their gift.

I had Rob and I got him some coffee, chapstick, skittles and gum.


Rob had Taylor and he got him a Broncos notebook, nerds and three matchbox cars.


Austin had Emily. I love this picture because she was so happy.

She got a littlest pet shop turtle. She loves littlest pet shop.
Emily had Austin and she got him a hot chocolate set, gum and mechanical pencils, which he loves.
Taylor had me and I got Junior mints, scrapbook tags and vellum sayings.

Only 8 more days...

8 comments:

Alisha Beverly said...

What a great idea! It makes everyone be creative, which I love!

Kelly said...

We do our gingerbread house kind of like that. Nobody in our house likes gingerbread so I make a house from sugar cookie dough. We just one big house though. I'll have to post our pictures. It was quite creative!
I love the $5 shopping idea! Mike and I did that for each other when we were poor college students but how fun to do it with the kids! I'm going to save that idea for track break!

Dionna said...

How fun to shop for each other. I love it. We'll have to do that sometime - just for fun. :)

Anonymous said...

I love your idea of shopping for each other. I'm going to have to pack that one away in the good old memory for next year.

I love you houses too!

SPARKY said...

ohhh. that's so cool. thanks for the update. you're such a great mommy! oh and nice job with the gingerbread houses. that's more realistic!

Erin Boyle said...

Such a fun idea! I also love that elation on Emily's face! You have beautiful children!

Kim said...

So gonna do that $5 trip sometime. What a great idea and love that you had a time limit, how fun! Our pre-assembled gingerbread house is sittin in the pantry unadorned. It'll get decorated before Christmas... really :)K

Rosemarie said...

Hi, Jen and Rob!
It's great fun reading all you've been doing--busy, busy! Your children are precious and I can't believe how big they've grown! It goes by so fast!

All my girls are grown now (Michelle is 20!) and away from my home, so it's a different life!
But it's fun hearing about all they're doing.

Hope you have a Happy New Year!

Much love,
Rosemare