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We have been saving this giant patio chair box for over a year now (yeah, about the same time I kind of disappeared from the blogging world). A lot has happened in that time including the birth of our fourth baby! She is toddling around now, and I finally decided to turn this box into a multi sensory Gingerbread Playhouse!
We started by finding a similar box (ours happened to be a car seat box) and cutting half of it into the roof. Before sticking it all together I stuck half of a small multi-color light set through the ceiling. The other half of the lights I left to go around the front of the roof. Next step was to glue the roof on; hot glue worked amazingly well for this! After taping the lights around the roof, I popped the rest through the ceiling. At this point all the kids already loved it!
A missed taking pictures of the next few steps, but they are pretty easy to explain. I glued plain brown paper around the sides to provide a true gingerbread look (at least I have never seen gingerbread with pictures of patio furniture on it. I also cut a small triangle to put in the roof and a small window. Using the part cut out of the window I made a little window box! I also took sheet batting and covered the roof to resemble snow!
The next part was to turn my kids loose with cookie cutters and markers. They drew cookies all over the house! Squirrels were a favorite!
We also made some cinnamon applesauce ornaments (using this recipe) which we strung along the sides just under the roof. This provided a wonderful warm scent!
I also cut a piece of styrofoam to fit in the window box which I filled with candy canes! Unfortunately these had to be removed after the baby pulled most of them out. They were super cute for the big kids though!
To add some wintry sound I strung some jingle bells on ribbon and hung them right inside the door. This was a favorite of the littlest!
So here is our finished Gingerbread Playhouse! With features to appeal to the eyes, ears, and nose. At one point we had a bunch of pillows on the floor to provide some cushion, but the kid's quickly discarded them!
They all (yes even the 8 year old) enjoyed this gingerbread play house, both making it and playing in it! Glad I saved that big box! What is your favorite thing to do with those big boxes?
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