Gingerbread + House = Disaster!

This was my first time making a gingerbread house on my own (well, without my mom's help), and can I just say, it was a MESS! And I mean mess in more ways than one. I made the gingerbread last Tuesday morning. I cut out the pieces and baked it that afternoon. We decided that it was a little late to start piecing it together, and decided to move it to Wednesday. Well, after Phil got home from clinicals on Wednesday, we get the frosting made and get all excited to start putting it up. We get the front and the side pieced together. As Phil goes to grab the back of the house, we realize . . . we DON'T have a back. We forgot to cut two pieces for the front and back. I couldn't believe it. I quickly whip up some more gingerbread, but the dough has to chill in the fridge for several hours. So we take the front and side apart, and again, put the project off until Thursday. In the morning, I cut out the back and bake the gingerbread, yet again. When Phil got home, once again, we make the frosting and start piecing it together. However, this time, the pieces aren't fitting together very well because of how the different doughs baked. Phil then began to shave the edges so that it would work. What a MESS! We finally started to put it together. Oh, and we experimented with the windows. I read online how to make candy window panes. This is how you do it: break up a clear hard candy, like jolly ranchers, place pieces into window hole. Put back in the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes. Take out and let cool. The candy will melt down and then harden around the gingerbread. So cool! I saw one picture where they put twinkle lights inside, and with the windows, it looked so neat. We weren't that brave, but maybe some other year. MAYBE!
Finally putting it together!

Phil didn't want to just do a boring regular gingerbread house. He had to do the harder "Victorian". Here it is with the roof and bay window added on.

Coleman was so funny when we put the candy on. We would put the frosting on the candy, and then he would put it on the house. After every pieced he would clap and declare, "I did it!".

And, as stated before, these are messy! It took me almost an hour to clean the kitchen afterwards.

Finally we were done, and able to enjoy. Here is the back:

Right side:

Left side:

The Front:


I know it isn't anything as fancy or cute as what my mom would create, but once we got over the bumps in the road, we had a lot fun as a family. Even Teegan helped, he stayed fairly quiet throughout the process! :)