M&M Fun

We normally don't have a lot of dessert in our house. I figured after jello with a candy cell model, Roman cookie pillars to support our graham cracker roof, and edible sword in the stone models it would be a good week to take off from edible creations. Then on Wednesday, I hear...

Violet: I can't wait until tomorrow's history lesson.
Me: Tomorrow?!?
Violet: You know. We're making medieval churches out of M&Ms.
Me: No we're not. Where did you get that idea?
Violet: It's right here on my check sheet. See. M&M Medieval Church.
Me: M&M means Monks & Mystics not the candy. We're going to read the first chapter in the book which is titled "The Medieval Church".

Needless to say, Violet was crestfallen, so I started thinking. We are studying the Byzantine Empire. They did have a lot of mosaics. If we make them out of M&Ms and use icing to hold them in place, it will make a lot less mess than the plaster mosaic in the activity guide I didn't want to do. I have a cake mix and can of icing already, so we put them on cupcakes then they could make several small ones. DH is teaching tomorrow so we could do it after dinner. Then Jessie and Henry could make some too. This really isn't helping my diet, but at least Target had the M&Ms on sale and I had a coupon too.;)

Here are the finished mosaic inspired cupcakes...

Jessie completed 5 mosaics total.A person, the sky and grass, a burning log, Jack's face, and a kite.

Violet and Benny each made three mosaics and loaded two other cupcakes with as many M&Ms as they could hold.

Violet's smiley face, Cassiopeia constellation, and what I believe is a bear.

Benny made a fish and cross. I'm not sure what the third one is.

Henry placed the 5 of the 6 M&Ms that I gave him carefully on his cupcake while he slowly ate the 6th.

Then carefully pulled the M&Ms back off the icing one by one to eat them.

Everyone enjoyed the tasty results. (I just wasn't fast enough with the camera to get pictures of the girls eating also.) It was great to have an activity that all four kids could participate in.