Faux Gingerbread Houses

I wanted to make gingerbread houses with the boys this year, but I didn't really want to go through the hassle of making actual gingerbread, even the good old Wilton kit kind, because A) we never actually eat it and B) putting those houses together takes both time and patience, which don't exactly go hand-in-hand with eager-to-decorate-and-get-to-the-candy-part preschoolers. Originally I had planned on making a house out of scrap cardboard boxes and a glue gun, but when we went out to dinner at Red Robin for Mitch's birthday they had these fabulous pre-assembled gems just waiting for me on our table ;)



Add a can of pre-made Betty Crocker vanilla frosting, some assorted bowls of candy, and let the kids go to town. It doesn't need to be pretty...trust me, the kids don't care, and it's not really going to be a show-stopping centerpiece in the end, cute as it may be :)



Don't forget to give the frosting a taste test before you get to work.



It was Sawyer's own idea to line the entire base with green apple laces, and he was very proud of himself.



Eating more candy than makes it on the house is always the best part of the process


Sutton ended up getting really into adding the candy, and he ended up doing the majority of the decorating all by himself!