In the Spirit

Several weeks ago, Alexa and I were at Michael's buying a birthday gift for her friend, and the Halloween display caught her eye.  In particular, she was fascinated by a Halloween-themed gingerbread cookie kit - I think she saw it as her opportunity to imitate Buddy Valastro (aka - The Cake Boss).  Since Damon and Alexa have a shared interest in cake decorating and 'The Cake Boss,' I figured it would be a good opportunity for them to live out their cake decorating dreams together.  I was able to defer her request to buy the kit for a few weekends, but yesterday she decided she could wait no longer and begged to make the kit today.  Unfortunately Damon left for Las Vegas this morning, so their shared decorating experience will have to wait until the Christmas gingerbread house; the Halloween house is a nice practice run.

I was very pleased to find the kit included a pre-assembled house, eliminating the toughest part of making a gingerbread structure, so I was more than happy to let Alexa indulge in her decorating dreams.  I began to read the instructions, but quickly realized they were moot for this activity.  I simply dumped the decorating candy into bowls, stuffed the piping bags with icing and left Alexa to her own devices.  For nearly 60 minutes, Alexa worked diligently to decorate the house, tossing aside the examples on the box and using solely her imagination as a guide.  The piping was obviously her favorite part, as demonstrated by the heavy piping on the roof and globs of piped "bushes" next to the house.  This was the perfect Sunday activity for her.

When Alexa proudly showed me her finished product, I made the mistake of calling it beautiful.  She immediately corrected me, telling me the house isn't beautiful at all...it's spooky and creepy.

Hard at work piping icing onto the front of the house.

Very proud of her finished work - a "super-creepy" house.