Santa Houses

After the excitement of opening presents was over, the kids made Rice Krispie Santa houses. Mmm...Mmm...Good!!!

Trey's Creation.

Haunted Houses

Most of you who know my Trey Bear well, know that he loves to cook. He is always wanting to help in the kitchen, make pizzas, cookies, cakes, etc. Christmastime is always his favorite as we spend many hours making cookies and gingerbread houses. A few years ago, some marketing genius decided to come out with the Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House. Trey saw the kit in Walmart and of course we had to have it. So the past few years we've made two gingerbread houses, one at Halloween and one at Christmas. Now, if you've ever tried to make gingerbread houses with kids, you know what a pain it is. But we solider on and just do it because the look of delight on our little ones' faces is worth all the hassle. A few weeks ago I was shopping in Target and came upon the Rice Krispie Haunted House kit. I bought it and surprised the boys with it thinking that it looked tons easier than the gingerbread house and oh how happy I would be to just have to do one gingerbread house this year. Today we made the Rice Krispie Treat houses and you know what....I was right! It was tons and tons easier than the gingerbread house, the kit made two houses so each of the boys had their own, it's a lot easier to eat and much tastier than the gingerbread house, and the pan is reusable so all I have to do is buy the ingredients to make more whenever we want. Yea...this one definitely goes into the win column.

Trey has never gotten to "cook" on the stove before, but today I decided to let him stir the melting marshmallows. He told me he was "like a grown up now".

While Trey "cooked" like a grown up, Jesse read the directions.
Mashing the Rice Krispie mixture into the pan.

Trey's turn!
After using the pan to make the houses, the boys used the leftover mixture to shape windows, shutters, doors, etc. Well, Trey and I did all this while Jesse...
made a bird house!
I helped Jesse with the decorating of his house by doing all the icing work and placing little dots where he could put the jelly beans.

Jesse's finished product.A close up of Jesse's haunted house.

Trey did absolutely all of his own decorating.
Trey's finished product.

A close up of Trey's Haunted House.
The best part...eating the leftovers!
Yummy!