No permits needed: Children build 'cracker shacks' at museum

Alan Musgrave was meticulous covering the roof of his graham cracker house with Sweet Tarts. While he was building, his sister Alexis wanted to eat her new creation.

So it is when your building materials consist of sweet treats, and your construction workers still are in elementary school.

To help celebrate the holiday season, kids at the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada on Saturday could decorate "cracker shacks," the graham-cracker equivalent of a gingerbread houses.

"This is a great thing," said Jeff Hevener of Dayton, who watched as his son Dominick worked on his cracker shack. "They were doing this at the school yesterday, but some of the schools in Dayton were shut down. So he had to miss his gingerbread house."

Kris Pradere, a volunteer at the museum, was busy setting up the candies for the kids to use to decorate their shacks.

"I really should have set out some coffee and milk for all these sweets," she said.

Pradere said her family donated the materials for this year's event.

"My kids have done this in the past, so this year I'm helping out by putting it all together, and it's a lot of fun," said said.

Pradere said more than 40 kids took home their sweet creations, most after spending time burning off their sugar consumption by taking part in the other activities the museum offers. She said one child managed to eat all his candy decorations before they made their way on his sack, which didn't settle too well with his stomach.

Of the materials left over from the event, Pradere said she will use them for her Books & Brags class Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the museum's basement.

"For a lot of our events, people donate most of the stuff," Pradere said. "We really appreciate any donations."

To make donations or to volunteer, contact the Children's Museum at 775-884-2226.