Day 13: 13 kids for our Gingerbread Party

The whole crew

This is the 4th year that we've done a "Gingerbread House" decorating party.  My kids remember it and now consider it a must for our advent season.  It takes some prep work on my part as I usually put the houses together the night before using graham crackers and the wilton royal frosting recipe.  Once dry, the icing is like cement and holds up really well to kids.  I learned the hard way that it is SOO much easier to have the houses assembled ahead of time. 

Honestly, the kids like the decorating & eating of the candy better than putting the house together.  I did have my kids help me get ready for the party.  They are still willing and excited to help so I put them to work unwrapping leftover Halloween candy and setting out craft supplies.

This year, we had 13 kids.  And yes, I planned that 13 kids for the 13th day of advent (okay, maybe not, pure coincidence).  Its actually 14 kids if you count Caleb (who woke up just in time from his nap to get in on the craziness).  Thankfully our good friend Chris, who came with his 2 children, took over "Caleb duty" during the party so that I could get our games and other activities going.  Many thanks to Chris who also did diaper duty for me when Caleb stunk up the playroom!

First we decorated ornaments and goodie bags (for our candy cane hunt).

Then we headed downstairs for our "Candy Cane Hunt" which consisted of picking up candy canes from fairly obvious places.  But hey, this was for a room full of 3-6 year olds, we can't make it too hard.

Its hard to find candy canes among all those plastic toys.

Next up, we played Pass the Present.  We pass a wrapped present around and when the music stops, whoever opens has the present gets to open it.  Before we started, I assured all the kids that there was a small prize for each of them inside no matter who opened it.  I had wrapped the prize (16 sticky hands) in 5 boxes, so it was opened several times. 

It ended on Aaron and with some assistance from his buddy Brendan, he got it open and each kid was given a "sticky hand."

Quick note here:  It might not be the smartest thing EVER to give 13 kids each their own sticky hand that can be whipped around and made to stick to ceiling, walls or other people.  Since I am a mama of all boys, I had no idea until tonight that sticky hands can easily get tangled in girls' hair.  Now I know.  I gave the kids about five minutes and then decided the sticky hands needed to go back IN the goody bags until the party was over.

Next, we had a "snowball" fight.  Again, this is a game we play every year, so my kids aren't surprised by it.  In fact, I'm surprised that they still think its cool, but I guess when you have a house rule that you aren't allowed to throw ANYTHING, EVER (which we do), you get very excited about being allowed to throw "snowballs".  Even if the snowballs are made out of crumpled tissue paper.


For this game, we divided the kids into 2 teams on opposite sides of the room and told them that they wanted to get all the snowballs on the other side.  It was a free for all.

And my littlest one had a good time getting in the middle of it (no surprise there). 

We cleaned up the snow and played it again.  We also threw in a round or two of the Freeze Dance game just to get the kids rowdier.

Next, we went upstairs where we had a gourmet dinner that I slaved all day in the kitchen preparing.  Okay, maybe not.  I had my wonderful friend Melissa pick up Little Caesar's pizza and more importantly breadsticks (I've yet to meet a kid that doesn't inhale these breadsticks) on her way. 

After their super healthy dinner, we got down to business.  The business of decorating gingerbread houses.  And by "decorating", I clearly mean putting two candies in your mouth for every one that goes on the house and frosting all over your hands.

Each kid got their own dish with store-bought frosting in it (I like to cut corners anywhere I can) and a spoon to spread it on their house.  Then we passed around bowls of different kinds of candy to put on the houses.  Our guests each brought a different type of candy to decorate with and I had saved some of our Halloween candy so there were lots of options.

I think the sugar is responsible for this crazy face.  And if you look closely, you'll see that he pretty much hogged the bowl of kit kats to shingle his roof.  Smart boy!

Aaron's little buddy Brendan, isn't he the cutest?

The girls being orderly and neat with their decorating.

James and his friend Dylan are hard at work.

Our good buddy Joshua.

Andrew with his finished house.

All in all, the gingerbread party was again a success!  Its always a bit loud having this many kids around, but I seriously LOVE how much fun my boys have and I think their friends do too. 

This guy got out the broom and got to work on cleanup as soon as our guests left.  Love this boy!