Christmas Advent Calendar: Days 10 & 11

Make a gingerbread house. Sounds simple, right?

WRONG.

Yesterday's activity called for gingerbread house making, so I bought a kit from Target (basically this, but on sale for $8) to do just that. I found a few ideas online showing how to build a gingerbread house from scratch, but for $8 I couldn't have bought all the ingredients, frosting and candy to decorate it as inexpensively as this project presented itself.

Truth be told, this activity was mostly for me. I've never made a gingerbread house before and it looked fun! Plus, I thought the finished product would look so adorable on my dining room table. Obviously, Tory wasn't going to be much help so I planned to get the base of the house built and let her help decorate the rest. I set to work.

During Tory's afternoon nap on Monday, I put together the house frame, just as the package directed. It was simple enough and I waited the recommended time for the frosting to dry. Everything seemed to be coming together nicely, so I frosted the roof and gave Tory a few candies to add on top. She proceeded to shove two gumdrops directly into her mouth. (Which resulted in a trip to the sink where I squeezed her cheeks and pried the candy from her teeth. Girlfriend has a serious sweet tooth, just like her Daddy).

Half-way through decorating, the roof began to slide off and ruined our masterpiece. Darn it! I tried to re-apply it using more frosting, but it just made a big mess. Once Tory realized she couldn't eat any of the candy, she was over it and so was I. Into the trash our gingerbread house went. Project FAIL.

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Today's advent calendar activity was a much better success. Tory and I visited the Mall of America for Wonder Pets! Save the Nutcracker. We've never actually seen the show Wonder Pets!, but I thought it seemed like a fun Christmas activity to check out. Plus, it's free as part of the mall's Toddler Tuesday events. I invited my friend Val and her kiddos Kasen and Linden to tag along with Tory and I.

We were graced by a visit from Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming in the flesh. They took photos with all the kids at the event, but I didn't push Tory to get one. She seemed a little nervous when we got close to them and (spoiler alert) we're going to visit Santa tomorrow so I don't want her to be too afraid of strange people/characters.

There were also coloring stations for all the kids which Tory and Kasen enjoyed. It's an amazing luxury to be able to experience all these moments with my little girl. She really had a lot of fun.

We ended our holiday play date with lunch in the food court where Tory sat with her buddy Kasen and ate a cheese quesadilla. My little girl is growing up so quickly. She sat at the table (mostly, when she wasn't crawling on and off the chair a hundred times) and ate her meal so nicely. I was so proud! It's becoming easier by the day to take her places like this and she really enjoys the social interaction. We'll definitely be back to check out another toddler activity at the mall.