Henry and Erica do cute things and I get in over my head in the kitchen

Last week was Nadine's birthday. Henry thought she needed a new vase for her new house to put flowers in from her new garden. I showed him dozens online and he picked one out. Then he wanted to make her flowers for her new vase. He's making her some violets "because they're purple."

Here it is at her house! I'm glad she found some stems.

Erica is getting goofier (and driving me more crazy) every day. Here she is dipping her potato chips in her milk. She dips anything into everything. "Ah dip it." Right after this she picked up her toothbrush and brushed the chip.

She says funny things. Here are my favorites.

Sorrys = cereal

That's a muff = that's enough

"Goodness, Mama"

"Mama I miss you" while I'm in the shower. She lays down by the door and says this over and over.

Big cuties= Oranges

Bickey = Mickey Mouse, Blankie, or Henry (most often Henry)

And nearly every night after we tuck her in, she cries in a panic and we have to go in and see what's wrong. You never know what it's going to be.

Sun: "My booger fell out my nose" and handed me a booger.

Mon: "My bed is broken" She had pulled the sheet up the mattress side like 2 inches.

Tues: "My foot stuck" She had gotten her foot through the ribbon collar of her teddy bear and couldn't get it off

Wed: "My button broken" The button on her footy pjs came undone and she came unglued!

And she's trying her hand at negotioting.

Erica: Ah fruitsnacks?

Me:  No fruitsnacks.

Erica: How 'bout princess fruitsnacks?

Macey's had chicken for 1.29 lb and that's the cheapest it ever gets. So of course I bought a 40 lb box. It took me just a half hour to cut them, weigh them, bag them, label them and box them back up.

 That was a lot of chicken.

 Erica wanted to wear Dexter's "hemmet" and he was kind enough to let her. She wore it for an hour.

If I can't find my kids, they are usually at the neighbor's porch playing their made up games. Can you see Henry in his basketball shorts and cowboy boots? He went to the Bean Museum later dressed like that.

Erica is beginning to treat Henry like he's been treating her all her life. He complains about it but he deserves it.

Sunday Erica had pinkeye so she and I stayed home from church and got started on Justin's pie of the month. He chose a devil of a pie. Chilled Grapefruit Caramel Meringue Pie. I knew I wasn't going to like it because grapefruit is my least favorite fruit. I knew I was going to struggle making it because I don't have a good saucepan for a double boiler (used for the curd and then the meringue), don't have a spring form pan, don't have a microplane to get 1/2 cup of zest, nor do I know what curd is.

See my sorry attempt at a double boiler? When step 1 of 5 takes you an hour, you know you're in for it. Erica kept herself occupied by playing in the sink and dumping cups of water on herself.

32 hours later we had it for dessert Monday night.

 And the layers are bottom to top: Graham cracker crust, grapefruit curd (apparently curd is egg yolks and zest cooked until it curdles), caramel-cream-cheese-whipped-cream, then topped with 3 inches of meringue. The only response I wanted from Justin was "This is the most delicious pie you've ever made and totally worth the 6 hours it took you to make it. But please don't make it again."

He liked it but he didn't say the rest of that. I will never make it again but discovering a most delicious way to make meringue was the one positive takeaway from the whole experience.

And my nephew Peyton (right) got his mission call to Ohio! I'm so excited for him even though he's much too young to go on a mission. His cousin Tyler (left) will put his papers in next year.