Tuesday, January 20, 2009

6th file folder, 6th photo... I've been tagged!

Hiya folks! LaTeaDah over at Gracious Hospitality has tagged me! As many of you may know, you're to go to your photo files and look in the 6th file... then choose the 6th photo there, whatever it may be~ and share it!

Ok, so I looked on my pc and frankly the photo was rather boring. It was a photo of some scroll work that I had saved to my decorating files. Trust me, not that great, not worth sharing.

So, I went to my flickr files instead. And this is what I found.
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Deja vu, it's Kevin's gingerbread "outhouse". You can review it along with my gingerbread house in this post.

But I thought you might like to see the houses on display, on my kitchen island tablescape...
Just take a look at that homemade cheesecake, compliments of my sister. And Christmas cookies baked by my mom.... along with chocolate cracker candy that Kevin likes to make. All of this with Santa staring at you as he "does his business". Great huh?
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Ooo, let's zoom in on that cheesecake!
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Before Christmas, I whipped up a little "Gingerbread Subdivision" for the kiddos at Nova's preschool. I was to bring them on a Thursday, and his Christmas Program was that Wednesday. I had to work that Wed. as well. If I had made these little graham cracker houses up too soon, they would go stale. So yah... I was up late Wed. night slapping these puppies together! I cheated and used Poptarts for the rooftops, which turned out really cute.
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Normally, you take a razor blade and cut the front and back of the house out of the large rectangular graham crackers. But the crackers I bought were already divided in squares... so, there's big gaping holes under the eaves... oh well, the kids certainly wouldn't mind!
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I gave each one a gumdrop chimney, and used M&Ms to get the most color. Besides, is there any child who doesn't like M&Ms?
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Eek! Looks like one house is missing some M&Ms! Pretty shoddy construction.... it was a rush job. Unfortunately that is how many real "cookie cutter" subdivisions are, eh?
I didn't get my builder's permits either... shhh... don't tell anyone!
I always make extras, so I hope none of the kids got the unfinished one!
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Finally they were dry and I could bag 'em and go to bed!
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Nova's teacher recently sent me some photos of that day, and I would gladdly stay up and do it all again. The kids were so cute eating them!
I'm not sure who's kids these are.... thus the heart faces!
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Awww man!! Looks like this poor boy got the incomplete shack! You guys don't know how much that realllllly bugs my anal self! He still looked happy though!
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What I found to be funny was that is seems that every kid picked up the entire house and tried to eat it like a sandwhich or something.... I expected them to pick off the M&Ms one by one, lol!

You can find directions for graham cracker houses here. I used Royal Icing on mine, but this recipe calls for white chocolate chips melted.... that probably would've been much easier on the little one's teeth, as royal icing gets very hard. I wanted to be sure they'd stay together though! You can google royal icing recipes, or buy the little can of meringue powder to make it where cake decorating supplies are sold. I bought mine at Walmart.

I've seen the 6th photo game going around a lot... so if you'd like to join in on the fun, just tell us in a comment here and we'll come visit!

If you want a good laugh (or many!), you must check out Cake Wrecks. I spend hours there, I get lost in their archives. TOO much fun!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh Nikki! You are always just one notch further than anyone else would go. I'm sure that these kids LOVED the individual houses. They are sooo cute. Great ideal about the pop tarts!

~Liz

~Jonna~ said...

Mmmm...Cheesecake!! Love ya Sis!!

La Tea Dah said...

What fun! Nikki, you outdid yourself! I loved reading all about "Santa in the Outhouse" and his picture! And your tablescape is beautiful AND yummy! And as a former teacher, I can say that your son's teacher is very fortunate to have such an involved, loving, and creative student's parent --- YOU! Your subdivision is really cute and I can tell the children loved their treats!

Thanks for participating in this. It really was fun to come and see what you came up with.

Enjoy a lovely day!
LaTeaDah

Yellow Rose Arbor said...

Love that subdivision!! I'm going to send this to my daughter, that's something she would stay up late and do too!

Katherine

Unknown said...

Oh, look at those darling "gingerbread" houses! I used to do that when I was a kid with my nieces and nephews...we'd make little houses out of graham crackers! It was fun and EASY!
I loved your comment on my blog today "My whole life is a WIP"! LOL! Good one, Nikki! Isn't it true for all of us! :)

Jaede said...

Your graham cracker subdivision is beyond cute. You are so creative.

Justine said...

Those gingerbread houses came out SO cute, and to be honest, I'd rather eat one made out of graham cracker than actual gingerbread!

Justine :o )

That Crazy Ajumma said...

Aw,those little houses turned out cute!
I'm sure not one child even noticed the opening under the eaves.Thay were probably thinking where to start eating it lol.

Queenie's Vintage Finds said...

That island table scape looks so beautiful and yummy too...now I'm gonna have to go find something sweet to munch on...LOL! The gingerbread houses are soooo cute too...you are the best mom...I bet Nova and his friends really enjoyed those! They are so cute and edible too....you just can't beat that! By the way....I love the vintage Christmas table cloth and how could we ever forget Kevin's outhouse gingerbread house...too too cute!

Lallee said...

Nikki, you are such a good mom! That is so special. Pop tarts! I never ever would have thought of using those. Genius idea! Too funny about how the kids ate these. And.....it was worth it to see Kevin's outhouse again. It proves all guys think alike.