"Gingerbread" houses already?

It's still October but Clare's favorite book of the past two days has been "Gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett.

I told her we could make a little gingerbread house next month.  "Next month" doesn't mean much to a toddler, because...

...she woke up this morning saying, "Make the house!  Make the house!" 

Here is the Jan Brett illustrated house that she was probably picturing:

And here's what we ended up doing:

I like the simplicity of the "Gingerbread houses" project we used to do when I taught.  The entire elementary would gather in the lunchroom and make these houses.  It was chaotic but fun.

Good old graham crackers, some frosting, a few candies, and voila!  A "gingerbread house"! 

I had to be strategic about this.  We ate breakfast, loaded up on sugar, cleaned up by 9:30 am and had most of the sugar worn off by nap time.  

My cousin was coming over to visit for awhile in the afternoon.  Clare was very concerned that this cousin would eat her gingerbread house while she was napping.  I had to promise her several times that her house was safe.  I can't imagine it looking appetizing to anyone but her anyway...

The best part about toddlers: Clare loved making the "gingerbread" house and didn't care two hoots that it looked nothing at all like the one in the book.