Ginger Bread Houses

This afternoon the kids finally got to decorate their ginger bread houses. We constructed them last week. We wanted to wait a few days so the frosting was good and hard. Phedora's house fell down 3 times while constructing it. Then the days were just a little too short and we didn't get to them. They were very happy this afternoon when we finally started decorating. They had a great time. Hayden particularly liked the feel of smooshing frosting in his hands. He has become quite the messy child. Some days I wish he would go back to being a neat freak but at the same time I like that he enjoys making a mess. Especially when they go out to play in the mud.

Ready

Set

Decorate!

Mmmm

So intense

Candy and Frosting

There's a smile

And then its gone

This is so fun

Yes it is

Concentrating on their houses

Oh No! Now I have to lick it off... hehehe

She thought she was being sneaky

Careful!

Trying to get the peanut to stay on

Big smiles when I ask for them

Cheese

Look at my house!

Trying not to laugh

This side is all done!

I'm gonna eat it... When your not looking

Very happy with her house

Hmm what next

Look at my house

I'm very pleased with it

Me too

"I like your house Hayden"

Being cute

Cookies

On Sunday afternoon the kids and I made some yummy treats. On Friday, Nicole brought these yummy pretzel candies to the museum and we just had to have some of our own. So we went and got the stuff and made them. They are delicious and addictive. Just a warning if anyone wants to make them. You take pretzels and top it with a Rolo. Then you put it in the oven to soften them up. Just a few minutes will do the trick. Then while they are warm you press a nut into the Rolo. We used pecans but you can use whatever you have laying around. Once they set up enjoy! We had to put them in the freezer to set them as it was just too warm after having the oven on.

Then Hayden made Mexican Wedding Cakes while Phedora watched Sleeping Beauty. She was so cute. She got all dressed up in her Aurora dress and crown to watch the movie.

Unwrapping the Rolos

This is fun

Getting started at the unwrapping

Putting the Rolos on top of the pretzels

Neatly placing the Rolos in the bowl, making sure they are all standing up right

Putting her half of the Rolos on the pretzels

This is kinda fun.

The finished product. Sorry no pics of putting on the pecans

I'm ready to make some Mexican Wedding Cakes

Looking over the recipe

Checking out the dough

Ready to roll

Ready to roll in the powdered sugar

Look at how messy he is! He had powdered sugar everywhere!

Phedora's turn. She's pretty messy too...

Time to watch Sleeping Beauty

Mom! Its on leave me alone

Santa

After the kids' nap we headed over to the San tan Village to see Santa and we also heard this rumor that it was going to snow. We went and saw Santa first. The kids were excited to tell Santa's brother what they wanted for Christmas. Hayden was questioning how Santa could be at so many places. So we told him that Santa's brothers helped him out and told Santa what all the little boys and girls wanted for Christmas. That seemed to satisfy him. He's too smart for his own good and I don't know how long we will be able to keep him believing in Santa. He asked me last month if Santa was even real. Hayden asked Santa for a Razor scooter and Phedora asked for the big bear at Sam's club that she wants. I hope they are happy with what Santa brings them this year. They have decided to go and ask for something completely different than they originally wanted.

After seeing Santa they went and played for a few minutes in the play area and then it started snowing. Everyone ran for the snow and enjoyed it. Hayden on the other had pointed out rather upset that it wasn't really snow it was just bubbles. So he was a little let down about the snow. But they still had a fun time trying to catch the "snow bubbles." We are going to go to Chandler Mall and see the other Santa. Phedora and I saw him last weekend and he looks much more realistic than this one did. Plus I like the way Chandler did their Santa set up better.

Phoenix Children's Museum

Back in June, the Phoenix Children's Museum opened its doors. We have been meaning to go but never made it up there. Well we finally went yesterday and we were not disappointed. We went with my friend Nicole and her two kids Kelsey and Bennett. We all had a great time. The museum is housed by an old school house. Its 3 floors and very open and inviting. Its an old historic building in Phoenix. I loved how open it was and even though there were 3 buses in the parking lot and a bunch of cars it didn't feel overwhelmingly busy like the Everett Children's Museum did when it was busy. On the bottom floor they had a play area with the tubes that you can crawl through and these tubes that had air flowing through them. The kids all had fun putting balls and scarfs in to see where they would come out at. My favorite was the scarfs. I loved seeing them gracefully float to the ground.

On the second floor there was tricycles of all sizes and a car wash for the kids to drive through. They all had their favorite trike and of course there was never enough to go around. There was also an art room where the kids painted the house and made gingerbread men. Phedora also did some stamping and traced her hand print to put on the wall as the birds tail feather. I should have taken a picture of the bird but I didn't.

On the third floor there was a grocery store complete with the checkout isles and cash registers. Next door to that was the restaurant and the kids spent quite a bit of time in this room. They had 3 kitchen stations set up and a wood fire pizza oven. There was also a bunch of tables around the outside for the parents to sit at and be waited on. Nicole and I got a lot of food brought to us. I guess we looked hungry. Next door to the restaurant was a ball room. Very similar to the one in Everett. They had a little tree house that the bigger kids could climb into to let the balls roll. Outside of the ball room there was a car area. It was a couple of big race tracks with cars to let roll. The boys had a lot of fun in here. In the main area of the third floor there was a bunch of those pool noodles hanging from the ceiling. It was a little weird wandering through hundreds of pool noodles. You just didn't know where you were going to end up at and that was a little unsettling for me. Once you made it through it opened into a sitting area. The kids had a great time running through and trying to find each other. I think it would be pretty cool to have a room like this for the kids. Then have an open area in the back of the room for toys of some sort.

The kids are anxious to go back so I am sure we will be back soon. It was definitely worth the $9 a piece to get in. Plus we were there for 4 hours. On the way home Hayden started to fall asleep so I told him no please don't fall asleep. He said I'm too tired I cant stay awake. He made it home though and that was nice. There's no way I could have carried him into the house and he gets really mad when you wake him up.