Valentine Houses

Saturday morning Tuey called me and extended an invitation to come make "gingerman bread houses."

Madame 4-year-old works on her house. She's wearing a dress that I wore as a child and that my sister wore before that, making it about 35 years old.

Madame 6-year-old with her nearly completely decorated house. She's wearing a dress my mom made for me when I was in the first grade. If she'd had her way, Madame wouldn't have been wearing clothes on Saturday, but she had a friend over so her mother prevailed in keeping her dressed.

Tuey was way into artistic expression. He worked on his house longer than anyone else and by the time he was done, he had a gingerbread cut-out glued to his chest with frosting. My favorite part was when he was working with a little gingerbread man cookie, his "gingerman bread kid."

My sister's house is on the left and mine is on the right. I kept the decorations to a minimum, because attaching too much candy to a work of art just makes it a target for scavenging little marmots. As it was, most of the m&ms had been pulled off my house and eaten by little children by the time I left. And I'm pretty sure I saw Tuey licking the side of my house.