Friday, December 02, 2005

Gingerbread houses for the birds

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Here are three of the finished products...made by three-year-olds. So much for perfection!

Today the neighborhood moms are coming by for an afternoon of holiday kid crafts. I've been waiting for the main project for ages--or at least until Andrew outgrew the age of eating the birdseed or tossing in the air like confetti.

This is the year!

Instead of designing gingerbread houses with candy, we are decorating gingerbread houses for the birds! (Sly mommy eliminates sugar.)

I saw a catalog gingerbread bird kit for $50; directions said to spread it with peanut butter for "icing".

The traditional milk cartons are free, though I did spray them brown to cover the logo. I've also cut a variety of cardboard gingerbread people for simpler, 1-dimensional decorating.

Each child gets a 6-cup muffin tin filled with striped sunflower seeds, corn kernals, black thistle seed, a generic small bird mix, fruit loops, and cranberries. Our salvage grocer sells repackaged seed from burst bags very economically.

Supplies cost less than $5, with plenty of seed for our own birds this winter.

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