what to do with all that left over halloween candy ..

the kids and i were determined to make the best gingerbread house ever this year .. cash promised that he would not eat any of the candy .. and ellie has been perfecting her decorating skills over the last few weeks ... so we put on the christmas music .. made some hot chocolate and got after it !!!

while we were organizing the "decorations" that came with the kit .. the kids and i were lamenting on the fact that we did not have enough of the colored round balls .. cash says that he knows where some m&m's are .. he saw daddy hide them in the pantry way up high .. and that made me think of all that halloween candy that we don't care for .. so we raided our halloween candy stash and came up with all kinds of fun "decorations" for our house ..

dots .. these things are so dang sticky when you chew them i can hardly stand it .. we don't eat these at our house .. you are guaranteed a cavity if you do ..

peppermints .. licorice .. skittles ..

i am also happy to report that we did not break any of the pieces like last year .. so before we started we got a game plan .. just what we were going to do .. we used pull-apart twizzlers on the roof ..

ellie put gum drops on her side and cash put skittles on his side ..

and then for the front and back .. we outlined the doors and windows

and placed little candies all around ..

this is very delicate work ..

tada ..

yes it is a little over decorated i know .. and yes .. it did crash right after i took this picture .. the roof kept sliding off .. i might just have something to do with the weight of the roof ..

next year .. we are going to assemble just one side at a time .. let the glue like icing that comes with the house dry over night and then put another side on .. it might take a week to assemble but at least it will stay up ..