Learning Curve

Lately Jeff has been all interested in helping with the cooking because of scout stuff so when we came home from church I gave him a cake mix and told him to follow the directions on the back of the box.  We needed to make cupcakes for my sister's birthday party this afternoon.  I went off to change Peter's clothes and put things away.  When I got back a couple of minutes later I looked in the bowl and it did not look like a cake mix:
Me: How much water did it say to put in?
Jeff: 1/2 cup.
Me: How much did you put in?
Jeff: 1/2 cup. 
(I thought to myself, this is a test.  Right now I am being tested.)
Me: Can you show me?
Jeff: See, right here on the measuring cup, it says 1/2.
Me: Yes, it does say 1/2.  Can you see at the top there it says quarts?  You added 1/2 of a quart to the mix instead of 1/2 of a cup.
Jeff: Huh?
Me: See right here at the top of this glass measuring bowl, there are the different measurements; quarts, milliliters, cups and ounces.  You have to look at the part with the cups if you want to measure 1/2 of a cup.
Jeff: Well it said 1/2.  I was almost right.
Me:  You added about four times more water than it needed and we used the last three eggs we had.  What do you think we can do?
Jeff: Can we use the strainer?
Me: That sounds like a good idea, but I don't think it will work like we want it to.
Jeff: Add another mix?
Me: Well, we would probably have to add three more cake mixes and another nine eggs to catch up to the water and I don't think we need 72 cupcakes for the party, not to mention the fact that we have zero eggs left.
Jeff: Can we call Grampa and get more eggs?
Me: You can try it.
He tried to call Grampa who was at church, then Aunt Jessica who was visiting teaching and didn't answer, then Uncle Mitch who didn't answer either.  Jess texted and asked what was up.  I asked if we could borrow some eggs, she said to go on over and get some from Mitch.  So we did.  On the way there I called my Mom to see if she had any ideas on what to do with the batter.  She suggested adding some things to it and making pancakes.  So we got the eggs, had a conversation about how essential it is to pay attention when you are following a recipe, mixed up another cake mix, got cupcakes baking and then we fixed the other batter into pancakes and I got to cook flat pancakes for 45 minutes. 
Jeffey loved the new pancake recipe, he says it is a million times better than our normal pancakes and I didn't even strangle him at all!  I am going to make him wash the dishes.

Twofer

I had a great weekend.  Saturday was our 14 year anniversary (aww!) and Sunday was Mother's Day so it was pretty awesome.  On Friday Ryan took me on a date to see the Avengers and go to lunch and I had such a good time.  That movie was really good, I love that Joss Whedon guy, he has skills.  My Ryan is such a great date, he makes me very happy.  I'm glad he let me catch him. 

Saturday was a busy day we had a butterfly birthday party to attend for an adorable little girl in the ward who is a friend of Peter's, Ryan handled that while the girls and I went to a stake activity days Mother/Daughter luncheon.  All three of my girls qualify for activity days now, Alana turns 8 this month so they invite her to come to the activities.  She chose a great month to come, earlier this month we did mother/daughter hair styles for an activity and there is another activity on Wednesday.  She is really getting her money's worth.  I think it is crazy that I have three girls in activity days.  Yikes!  So the Saturday luncheon, we invited my grandmother, Phyllis, to come with us and she graciously accepted.  She is always fun to have around.  They had a little program and then the lunch.  It was very fun and sweet to have all my girls and my beautiful Grandma with me. 

My babies got up at their normal time Sunday and worked and worked in the kitchen to bring me breakfast in bed.  Jefferson was a capable leader, he had a vision of how it was to go and he carried it out.  Unfortunately his sisters snarled his plans a bit so there was a kerfuffle, but breakfast was delivered safely by 6:30am.  They bring me breakfast and I share it with all of them, it's a fun tradition, all my little baby birds lined up for a bite of pancakes or banana bread.  We made it to church on time.  Alana has had a sore throat and a slight temp so she was pretty sure she wanted to stay home but I strong armed her into coming and she survived.  She did end up coming to Relief Society with me and sitting with her sweet gymnastics teacher, Mrs. Katie.  Hopefully that will help her grow up with the impression that RS is a happy fun place and she will be excited to go there for reals in ten years.

After church we went out to Chandler to have dinner with my Mom and sisters.  Whit had a photo backdrop set up and we all raided her closet so we could look cuter and she took pictures.  Or rather, Tyler took pictures.  He was entertained by our silliness and we were entertained by him and his brothers hanging things over the back of the backdrop into the pictures while we weren't looking.  Good times.  It was brave of Whit and Nathan to have us over since it was the very same day as their 15th anniversary!  Nathan is a good sport, who wouldn't want a bunch of weird giggly "grown" women in his closet trying on his wife's clothes and letting their kids run wild in his house on his anniversary?  It was a fun party and some of the pictures were okay.  I like all of our reactions as we see the pics, "Oh my hair! My double chins! My belly!"  Why do we have to get old?  But I love my sisters.  I love my Mom, she is a great lady and I am grateful for her example. 

So, to all the ladies out there, I hope you had a great Mother's Day weekend and that you felt loved!

All About My Ryan

When I picked up Zeke from school today he got in the suburban and said, "Why is this car all broken in here?"  I said, "Uncle Ryan took it apart to fix the rear air conditioning, when the part comes he will put it in and put everything back together and it will work!  Isn't that wonderful?  He can fix anything." 
Zeke, "Oh really, anything?"
 Me, "Yep, anything." 
Zeke, "What about brick walls?" 
Me, "Yep." (sure, why not). 
Zeke, "What about metal?"
Me, "Yep." (as long as Mitch came over with his welding stuff probably).
Zeke, "What about a car with no roof, no windows and no seats?"
Me, "For sure, he's done that lots of times."
Pete, "Dad has fixing powers!"
Me, "Dad has super fixing powers!"
Zeke, "If he had super fixing powers he wouldn't need tools."
Pete, "Dad has lots of tools."
Me, "Dad uses tools and his big muscles and his super smart brain to fix things."
Pete, "My dad can lift the banana chair!"
Zeke, "Can your Dad lift that candy store over there?"
Pete, "No."
Zeke, "I could lift a chair."
Pete, "You and my Dad are strong."

Little boys are adorable and Daddies are wonderful.