Graham cracker house

A quick peek at Espen's graham cracker "gingerbread" house. We made these at a play date with some friends last week, and they are a great alternative for kids too young for a full gingerbread house. I thought it was going to be a bit out of his league, but Espen was all about sticking on those marshmallows with frosting! I masterminded the marshmallow roof, and Espen "rearranged" them as we went. The gummy bear door is mine, and the randomly attached piece of cracker and candy on the side is Espen's. It originally went on the roof with the marshmallows, but truly great artists get to change their minds, right?

If I am completely honest, I have to say that I struggle with some of the stickier aspects of parenting, and it can be hard for me to relinquish control and let Espen have at it. But I knew going into this that Espen was going to get messy, so I did some deep breathing and tried my hardest to just let him have fun with it. And he did! I loved seeing how proud he was of his masterpiece, which is now prominently displayed in our kitchen.

If you'd like to make your own, I found a quick tutorial here. I would like to add, though, that if you're doing this with young kids, I'd recommend following my friend's genius idea of putting a little chocolate milk carton inside to help stabilize the house. Definitely a plus when it's being manhandled by tiny hands! We just glued the crackers directly onto the carton with frosting, and it worked great! I'm sure your little architects won't mind drinking the milk :)



PS, I just noticed this was my 300th post! Yay :)