Gingerbread Houses, Fun and a Great Start to 2013!!

What a fun way to start off 2013!  For the first year EVER, 
my kids made and decorated their very own gingerbread house!  

First, we bought the Allergen Friendly Gingerbread House Kit from A and J Bakery~  

We ordered it on the last day possible to receive it before Christmas.  

As promised, this package arrived on Christmas Eve Day~

We put it together with a basic powdered sugar/water combination.  
We placed 2 small cups on the inside of the house for support, 
and 2 small ones under the roof to keep everything in place.  

I wasn't so confident this easy mixture would hold together the house when it dried.  

We let it sit for over a day, per instructions, and it was perfect!

And then, THE FUN BEGAN!

Climbing on the table makes it easier to get to those 'hard to reach' corners

For those managing food allergies, the ingredients for all of the candies are listed right on the box.  A few of the candies included round mints, gumdrops, and dum dum lollipops.   

My kids made used of all of the decorating additions, such as Santa, the animals, gift boxes and trees.  The trees were immediately inserted into gumdrops, as you can barely see below. 

We added our own allergy~friendly candies such as Skittles (our favorite), Twizzlers licorice, and Festival Peppermint Crunch and Snowflake Sprinkles.  

Check out the walkway to the house!

Look carefully, and you will see snowflake sprinkles!

A little personal touch on the back of the house:-)

And their final display!

For sure, we will enter the AandJ Bakery Gingerbread Decorating Contest next year!!

May you, too, have fun navigating your families food allergies in 2013!