Love Shack!

Yup, I said Love Shack!  It's fitting though right?
A couple of weeks ago I was enlightening my daughter on all things of my youth including all the crazy songs that our little brother and I would sing at the top of our lungs as we drove around our yard on the 3 wheeler. I've completely dated myself haven't I?  I'm sure our neighbors thought we were completely nuts.
Well I still want to dance every time I hear the song and want to call my brother and sing it to him over the phone.  I'm sure he's glad when those calls go straight to voice mail.:)

Well Candace and I always love playing around with Valentine candies and I got the best Gingerbread house mold before Christmas that I never got a chance to use.  It's a Pampered Chef mold from 20 years ago!  (Thank you Ebay!)
We decided to use sugar cookie dough instead of gingerbread and it worked great.
Be forewarned though~it takes a lot of dough!  One single batch of our Mom's Famous Sugar Cookie dough makes one house.  Make sure to cook the dough a bit longer so it's nice and brown around the corner and will be extra strong for the house.  I cooked mine about 12 minutes each.

 Gather some great treats!  Keeping them separated in a muffin tin worked great!  The hardest part was keeping Daddy's hands out!

The frosting is the most crucial part!  You have to have some serious "glue" and I always get nervous about the kids licking their fingers with raw egg white in Royal Icing.  You will love Wilton's Meringue Powder!  It contains pasteurized dried egg whites and it's so easy to use.
The recipe is quick and easy too!

Wilton's Royal Icing
3 Tablespoons Wilton Meringue Powder
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
6 Tablespoons of water

Beat all ingredients at low speed 7-10 minutes until icing forms peaks.  Makes about 3 cups.

One batch was enough for us to put together 2 houses.  The frosting dried rock hard and fast!
This was such a fun project to do and the kids had so much fun!

Now to fill up the Valentine advent calendar and get out the rest of the Valentine decorations I procrastinated getting out.....

If you are looking for some fun Valentine printable freebies make sure to check out some cute subway art
for every season by Elise at Halloween Costumes.com

                                                 
and......if you're in the mood for some B-52's.....click the picture!
Happy 1st of February!