Welcome to Family Friday!

I am hoping to make this a weekly post.  Here’s the story:

I am a photographer. But first, I am a wife and mother.  I stay home with my 3 kids (ages 5, 2, and 7 months), so that means that most of my time is spent caring for them and for the needs of my husband and home.  Photography is what I do while my kids nap.

For the record, Super Mom I am not.  I see other moms out there who are always doing fun, creative, and educational things with their families and I really admire that.  But I am just not that great at coming up with stuff.

So, I decided to try this feature.  Here’s what I am thinking: each Friday I will feature something related to families.  It may be a craft, recipe, date night idea, game, or anything else that may be helpful to families.  There are so many demands on families these days, so I hope that this feature is in some way a blessing to your family!

And I almost forgot: like I said before, I am not a super mom.  Far from it.  So I may need help with this. If you have an idea, please email it to me (caroline@carolinenicolephotography.com)!  I am learning as a mom, too, and need all of the fun ideas I can get.  I will of course let everyone know where the idea came from

So without further adieu, here is my first Family Friday idea!

Shortly before Christmas, one of my friends from church invited me and a bunch of other moms over with our kids to decorate gingerbread houses, ornaments, pinecones, etc.  It was so much fun – I think there was over 20 kids, and it was fun to fellowship with the other moms and help the kids with various Christmas crafts.  I thought about how there are a few kids that live around our house, and how it would be fun to get them together to do something similar.  I knew that our home and sanity couldn’t do it on as large of a scale as my friend did, so I kept it really simple.  Instead of doing gingerbread houses, I got some ice cream cones and we decorated those as “Christmas trees”.

Before I go any further, I know some of you are saying “ok, great idea – but Christmas is over!”  Yes, I know.  But I think this idea would be pretty simple to adapt – you could make it a “winter” tree instead.  Just make the icing white (snow!) and decorate accordingly.

Here’s the frosting recipe I used:

2 large egg whites (I used meringue powder and water instead.. raw eggs made me a little nervous)

1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

2 tsp water

3 c. sifted powdered sugar

Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and water until frothy.  Blend in sugar on high speed until stiff, 5-10 minutes.  Use immediately or cover and use within 8 hours.

Including my kids, we had a total of 6 over.  And between myself and one other adult, we were able to help the kids that needed it (the gingerbread houses required a lot of adult help for each kid).  I kept it pretty simple – each kid got an ice cream cone, and I put out a few bags of frosting with the corners snipped off and some bowls of “toppings” (m&m’s, marshmallows, sprinkles).  Once the kids put the frosting on it, they just decorated it.. and then in some cases (my daughter Anna) they ate it!

If any of you are able to do this, I would love to hear about it!  I hope this and future Family Friday posts bring you together as a family.