Gingerbread House Festival

I've been looking forward to the Gingerbread House Festival for about a month, but I didn't expect to enjoy it so thoroughly. Be warned, I took over 100 pictures, so there are many posted here, so skip if you're not interested, but click on the pics to enlarge if you want to see some cool detail. I'm so glad I didn't have to judge any of them because I loved so many.

1st place winner - under the sea scene

The water surface layer was hard candy and
i'm not sure how they did most of the rest of it.

Possibly my favorite if I had to choose one.
Love the mansion.

"Embrace Diversity" (see Eiffel Tower in back,
Big Ben, Statue of Liberty, and many more)

Mrs. Clause brought candy canes to all the children

Chocolate and candy-covered raisins made great "stones"

Love the cinnamon gum roof

The older boys each got to decorate and eat
their own gingerbread man.
Can you count how many of the
candies made it on to Niko's cookie?

Ollie made a great Christmas Tree :)
I love Baz laughing in the background here!

Sam was thrilled that Tata Ang opened his candy cane

Niko & Ollie were possibly as enthralled with the one
train display as they were with all the other houses.

Can you see the fixation? We're looking
forward to more trains in January.

Niko even got to wear the conductor's hat

These guys sure love each other :)

I totally want to do this train someday.

The hard candy roof was awesome, and
we loved the popcorn for "snow" on this one.

i called this one a cul-de-sac :)

Halloween House - you really should click on this one to see the little orange gumball pumpkins, the peanut butter ground, the waffle cone lower roof, and the 100-calorie oreos for the upper roof, and the sunflower seeds for leaves on the ground.

The following three are part of about a half dozen "Thanksgiving" houses. This one used dried kiwi on the roof!

Sunchip roof

Cheezits roof with peanut butter

i loved this barn with the frosted mini-wheat roof
and the silo made out of cereal and a muffin

"The Inn" and a little nativity stable

The "pub" of the North Pole :)

Tribute to HS Musical 3

We're going to try these with the boys this year

Wow, Sam! Now I see why you've
been so quiet for the last 20 minutes!

Another of my favorites: "rock" wall, wrap around porch, stable with candied horses, pond, chimney, and super cool trees.

Can you see the bench under the eaves?

Tree House - see the rope/tire swing?

The boys loved the "Bunnies' House"

Silo made out of ice cream cone tops.

Winter Wonderland - the ferris wheel actually turned (not cookie)

We finished the displays just in time...
2 inches of candy cane left. :)

These guys had a fabulous time with their cousins and Ang.
Can you tell?

Thank you for such a fun time, guys!

Check out http://gingerbreadfestival.org/ for more info if you're in the area.