I decided that I wanted to make a gingerbread house for the Festival of Trees this year (it's a charity event where Christmas trees, wreaths, centerpieces, nativities, and gingerbread houses are donated and then auctioned off to benefit the children's hospital). My mom said that as a birthday gift, she would help me with it.
Once we decided on a style and shape, I baked and iced all the pieces. Then we "glued" them together, and decorated the house and yard. This makes the process sound simple. It was anything but. It probably took me about 25 hours. And the house, though it only cost about $50 to make, if my mom and I were paid minimum wage for our work, it should have auctioned for about $225. And this is not minimum wage work. But--it auctioned for $135. So, although I'm glad I did it, and it really was fun despite the long hours, I don't think I'll be donating a gingerbread house again. A wreath would take me less than 10 hours to make (probably closer to 5) and they were going for $350 - $500. I'll do that next time.
I also did an activity days activity where we went to the local Food Pantry. It was interesting to see how they worked behind the scenes and understand their goals and needs.
Mira had the toothfairy visit twice in two weeks. I helped with the Thanksgiving activities in both Mira's and Cecily's classes. I babysat for a friend whose baby is in the NICU because of complications with the birth.
For Thanksgiving, we drove down to St. George since Nick and Wilda were going to be down there to close on their new house and my parents were going to be in Colorado for the holiday. It was a fun weekend of good food, "gingerbread"-house making (I made 2 more to give to friends, though they're still sitting on my bookshelf because I've been to busy/overwhelmed to take them), playing games, and enjoying the outdoors. Mira hyperextended her knee on the trampoline our last day there and she's been very sad about that ever since. It seems to be healing properly, but it still twinges every once in a while and she'll say, "I wish I never hyper-extended my knee" in her sad, Eeyore voice.
This week, my mom and I took Cecily and Mira to the Festival of Trees, I did a lot of Christmas shopping, Cecily had a play date, we wrote letters for Family Home Evening, we had eye appointments and a doctor appointment (I'm already dilating--YAY!), and Steve and I went to the temple and out to dinner while my parents watched the kids last night.
I'm hoping this kid comes this week. That may be wishful thinking. And I probably should pack a hospital/diaper bag and get out the bassinet, if I really want that to happen. But today is my birthday, the kids are outside building a snowman, and if we have time before my birthday dinner, I'd really like to decorate our tree.
So have a happy week, everybody!
Baked gingerbread:
Iced gingerbread:
Glued gingerbread:
Mira's class party:
A set of doors and shutters that didn't work, but tasted good(!):
The finished house:
A free apple pie from my mortgage banker that was WAY bigger than I expected it to be.=:
Cindy's house Thanksgiving day:
I decorated the table with Haley's help:
My gingerbread house #1:
#2:
This is Cecily + Steve's. It's the castle in Voltron:
Mira's pagoda:
Emilia gave up on building and just made the symbol from her favorie Manga series.
The infamous trampoline ;) :
My belly is huge and this kid needs to come out.
Cecily is getting so grown-up!
Cecily and Mira spent hours making these paintings the other day. When they finished one, they would hang them up in the hallway. When I asked what they were doing, Mira said they were pretending to be famous artists who were so good, they named a museum after them. I love their paintings and their ideas.
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