Fun in Va

The kids and I escaped down to VA for just shy of 24 hours to spend some time with my SIL and her family. I adore Scott’s sister so a visit to her house was a bright spot in our week.
We arrived in the early afternoon with time for me to take the 4 boys to the park while Aunt Karen took the girls to run a few errands.

Then after dinner we built and decorated gingerbread houses.

Now, I must say we did not have luck with building a sturdy construction of said houses… the nifty little trick on Pinterest turned out to be a bust, to say the least, however not a single kid seemed to mind as they still were able to consume gobs and gobs of sugar throughout the endeavor. I love this picture of my nephew… arm out on the bench, mouth full of graham cracker and icing… he was one very happy little boy. Pretty sure his face says, “man this is the best after dinner activity ever”
Then there’s my youngest… roof falls off mid decorating, no problem, just eat the roof.

While Karen and I struggled to find a way to make the houses stand, we called in for back up with Jim… and as is often the case, he once again proved that dad/uncles rock… “What having problem with your gingerbread houses ladies, here let me take a stab at it”

And he builds a TRAIN…

making this little guy the happiest 5 year old ever.

My oldest son wanted to take a stab at constructing his on his own, he tried using reeses cups to serve as part of the construction…and when it didn’t exactly hold up, he laughed it off.

My 8 year old’s house reminded me of Dr Seuss, couldn’t you totally see this house in Whoville?

And when my youngest daughter’s house collapsed, she embraced it and instead made what looked like a plate of cookies.

Because after all, what are gingerbread houses for anyway? Just an excuse to have fun and eat sugar.
As usual, we had a blast with them and made many wonderful memories!