Gingerbread Decorating-palooza

Its always so fun and crazy when you have a room filled with toddlers! Throw in LOTS AND LOTS of sugar and it makes for a palooza of sorts. I worried a LOT less during this party because I made sure that all the food that I provided and all the candy and treats were all egg/milk/peanut free! I only had to worry about Oliver stuffing mouthfuls of giant gumdrops in his mouth. geesh! Briggy found his santa suit from last year and has been begging me to wear it--when we tried it on, the top fit okay, but the pants were HUGE in the waist and like floods on his tall legs! We scrapped the pants, but I let him be "santa briggy" and wear the top. He had fun greeting all his friends with a hearty "ho ho ho!"






I had pre-assembled all the graham cracker houses with hot glue. So, not edible, but sturdy! That way the kids could just have fun with the frosting and all the candy! I love the cinnamon toast crunch roof tiles. So cute! Ollie was too busy swiping treats to participate, but Briggy finsihed about half a house. We'll make our own little gingerbread village this Sunday with all the extras.
I made snow men for the kids to decorate too. They were the BIGGEST marshmallows I had ever seen and knew I had to incorporate them somehow. They are the big campfire roasters, stacked together and "pinned" with pretzel sticks. I had initially planned on just using the normal sized marshmallow as the head, but realized I bought mini's instead--so I actually cut the big campfire ones in have to create an oval marshmallow face for the snowman. I thought it was pretty clever--and cute!

We snacked on "Rudolphs Rootbeer Cupcakes" {Duncan Hines Butter Cake mix doesnt contain any milk or ollie-allergens--so in replace of the eggs and oil, you add 12 ounces of soda pop {we added rootbeer} and they came out great!!! They are frosted with pillsbury vanilla frosting {which also doesnt contain milk--yea!}
"Christmas Krispies" are just regular krispie recipe but with soy margarine and I threw in lots of green sprinkles to color the bars, and topped with more sprinkles}
Lastly, I made a vegan mint cookie recipe that were shaped like candy canes.
Heres the recipe if any of you need it!

Candy Cane Shaped Cookies:
2 1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup margarine
1 cup powered sugar
Substitute equivalent of 1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 teaspoon liquid red food coloring
Pre-heat oven to 350* F.

Mix flour and salt together, set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat margarine until creamy, gradually beat in powered sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in egg replacer, vanilla, and peppermint extracts then lower mixer speed and gradually mix in the flour mixture, beating just until blended. Remove slightly more than half of the dough from the bowl and set aside. Add the red food coloring to the remaining dough and beat until evenly mixed and colored.

For each candy cane, scoop out 1 teaspoonful of the plain dough and 1 teaspoonful of pink dough. Roll each dough portion between your hands to make a 4 inch rope. Twist the ropes around each other like a Barber Pole and shape into a cane shape. Arrange cookies on a greased baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake for about 8 minutes until firm to the touch.













For the party favors I copied some cute cocoa cones I saw at the Hallmark store. They had a hefty price tag--$7.95 each! Who on God's green earth would pay that much? BONKERS. So easy to make on your own! My friend Sarah and I whipped them up and she will be posting the quick tutorial on her blog http://alittleofthis---alittleofthat.blogspot.com soon.





Basically its hot cocoa mix, candies, marshmallows and disposable pastry bags!

The kids had lots of fun, and thats all that matters! Ive got a big mess ahead of me --but that can wait til Tom gets home---all I need is one giant garbage bag and make a clean sweep!