25 days of cadnis + twins

day 17: making gingerbread houses

Janis grins at her and kisses her little icing-covered nose, earning herself a giggle. "Thanks, Bee."

"You welcome!"

"Alright, c'mere, then," Cady says, grinning at their interactions. She pulls her chair out and sits with Layla on her lap, and Janis sits with Leo on hers. "Here's your icing, and your cookies. And here's ours, and the directions."

Layla reaches out eagerly and holds the icing pouch. Cady chuckles and brings the cookies closer to start constructing their house. Leo looks eagerly at all the candy dishes around the table and tugs one closer to start eating.

"Lolo, don't eat all the candy yet, we need those for the decorations!" Janis laughs. She hands over a gummy leaf for her to nibble on and moves the rest of them out of her reach. Leo puts it in her mouth and pulls a face before spitting it out onto a nearby plate. "No good?"

"Spithy," Leo whines, refusing to put her little tongue back in her mouth. Janis frowns in confusion and tastes a leaf herself.

"Oh. Minty," she chuckles. "Mama doesn't like mint either. You can have one of these instead."

Leo seems much happier with her cherry flavored gumdrop. Janis chuckles and kisses the top of her little head.

"Alright Lala, can you hold this for me?" Cady asks, offering Layla a gingerbread rectangle. Layla carefully holds it between her little hands while Cady spreads a thin line of icing along one of the edges. She watches curiously as Cady takes it back and props it up against another wall. "One more time."

"Dose the walls?" Layla asks, looking up at Cady. Cady kisses her forehead and nods.

"Yep! Now we just have to glue these corners together and then all the walls will stand up on their own."

Janis is struggling a little bit more, her lines turning out less neat and the walls slightly lopsided. It's working, though, and neither she nor Leo complain.

"Where the roof?" Leo asks. Janis grabs the last two cookie rectangles.

"Here. Can you help me put some icing here?" Janis asks, tapping the edges they need to adhere the roof to. Leo nods eagerly and takes hold of the icing pouch. Janis steers while Leo squeezes, and before they know it, their house is up. Cady follows suit with Layla, and then they have two perfect gingerbread houses.

Or so they think. They pull away carefully so as not to bump anything and make the houses collapse, but to no avail. Leo and Janis' house falls first, rapidly followed by Layla and Cady's. "Uh oh."

Layla looks at her pile of house pieces and whimpers before bursting into distraught tears. She looks up at Cady with a wail. "House fall down!"

"Oh, snowflake," Cady hushes, picking her up and turning her around to cuddle and comfort her. "It's okay, we can put it back!"

Layla's crying prompts a similar reaction from Leo. She tries to put it back up herself first, and bursts into frustrated tears when it falls down with another clatter. Janis holds her close and gently pats her back to try to calm her down.

"Shhh, baby girl," she murmurs, kissing Leo's teary cheek. "Mommy can fix it, it's okay."

"Maybe doing this right before nap time wasn't the best idea," Cady sighs. "Shh, baby, it's okay. Let's go have a nap, and Mama and Mommy will fix the houses while you sleep."

Janis passes over Leo, who cuddles into Cady and cries into her neck. Cady pouts and kisses her forehead.

"Poor little loves, it's okay. I know it's sad," she hushes. Janis kisses each little cheek before Cady takes them upstairs to put down for a nap. In the meantime, Janis sets to work trying to repair the fallen gingerbread houses.