Mable House Fun

**Due to busy schedules, I'm just now getting around to posting this.

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The Mable House had a Candy Cane Hunt on Saturday, December 5th. The weather was beautiful, but very cold and windy.  We bundled up and headed over to meet cousins Dana, Grant and Bella. 

They had the hunt, cookie and gingerbread house decorating, a station to make bags of reindeer food, s'more roasting station, musical chairs and of course, Santa & Mrs. Claus.

First we decorated a cookie, then met up with our cousins. The Candy Cane Hunt for Stella's age group started at 10:15.

 I didn't bring a bag to put her loot in, but she did have an empty hood on her jacket and it worked just as well. Ha!  Next year we will come better prepared.

She had fun making food for the reindeer.

We started decorating the gingerbread house, but then she decided she wanted to make it at  home with Daddy. So we just took it home instead.

She contemplated the s'more roasting, but ultimately-no.  

She didn't want to stand in line to see Santa, but she did want to say "Hi" to Mrs. Claus. Stella gave her a "pretty leaf" and Mrs. Claus put it in her hat to keep.

She tried to sit down with this teddy bear and, it being full of air, collapsed on her. I laughed a little too much over this one.

Cousins.

We got back to the car and dumped out the hood full of candy canes. She'd collected a ton of them! 

Not knowing that a round peppermint and a candy cane are essentially the same thing, she wanted to try one. She immediately made this YUCK face and said, "It is NOT delicious, Mommy!" Ha. So happy I caught this.

Later that afternoon in comfy & cozy pj's, Stella and Donald decorated the "gingerbread house."  You know how this goes.  Daddy does the work and Stella "helps."  She helped by eating a wall. Luckily, I had a few graham crackers to sub in with.

Kids were given a few "walls" of graham crackers, a pack of Smarties, a big scoop of icing, a few gumdrops and peppermints and an individual milk carton as the base for the house.

Of course Daddy got all precise being a construction major.

Stella also helped by sneaking a few smarties in her mouth.

Finished product.  The house sat in the kitchen for about a month. She'd show it off to guests occasionally. I kind of expected to walk in and see a wall had collapsed or a smartie on the plate, but every piece of this held the entire time. That was some good icing glue!!

This free holiday event was so much fun. Hoping Donald can join us next year.