Mayu's not here

Got an email from Jostens to buy Mayu's yearbook. It was a sad reminder that she's not here.

Pies, pies and more pies

The girls and I went to church this morning to help with the youth group pie-baking fundraiser. Mayu zested limes ...

... while L helped me make filling for key lime pies. For every two pies, we used 12 egg yolks, three cans condensed sweetened milk, 1.5 cups lime juice and a few teaspoons of lime zest.

L's friend, T, slept over last night and helped with the key lime pies.

We made over 20 key lime pies in a couple of hours. We're efficient.

T and L were dancing while waiting for lunch to arrive. I figure we made 20-some pies; we deserve a break. L brought a speaker along and played music for the group the entire morning. Loud music. Very loud music.

After lunch, the group had a Yankee gift exchange. Most of the gifts were candy.

In addition to L's friend, T, she had her friend, A, sleep over last night and their guy friend, B, was over too. They decorated these cupcakes for the youth lunch. L had the Christmas trees cut out of fondant and her friends decroated them with silver dragees. They put them in my cupcake case and by morning, all the trees had flopped over. The ones on the right survived because it sat out all night and wasn't put in the cupcake holder. Despite the fallen trees, they tasted good. L even piped the chocolate frosting on them.

Back to college

We all took a ride to the train station so E could back to college this afternoon. In this picture, she's telling her sister not to hug her so hard.

This morning, E and I filled in for the babysitters at church, who were out sick. We had two little boys to watch. They enjoyed crashing toys cars and "baking" us cookies in the play oven. Makes me remember how exhausting little kids can be.

Breakfast and Costco

It was a late arrival day at school today, so B and Takako met up with some of the other hosts and Japanese students for breakfast at George's before school. The students then went to the Art Institute, while B did his normal school day.

After school, we went to Costco to pick up a chicken pot pie B was requesting for dinner. We were surprised to see all the sample stations that were open and, unlike the weekends, they actually had samples on their trays and people weren't swarming around to grab the samples. It was a nice way for Takako to sample lots of different foods - pita bread, a hot dog, cheesy bread ball, quinoa, a hot dog in a pretzel. Not your normal everyday American foods, but quite an array of foods.

The tree is up

E didn't want us to put the tree up yesterday until she left. OK, she didn't want to carry the decorations in from the garage. So we waited till her friend N's mom picked her up and L and B helped Andy and me bring in the decorations. B did a good job on the lights and fluffing the tree branches. The rest was pretty much left for me to do.

Driving practice

B and I drove around town this afternoon to get him some more driving practice. He successfully got us to lunch.

My boys

Andy and B worked together to make homemade chicken nuggets for lunch. Earlier today L and neighborhood friend, B, made me breakfsat - half a bagel, a microwaved breakfast sandwich, strawberries and a large (plastic!) glass of orange juice. The girls even took the clothes out of the dryer and folded them. Darla decided we should cancel the scrapbooking crop we had planned for next weekend. We had been planning this for months! I'm so disappointed. I've been taking lots of Advil today. My hand feels like it's asleep. Andy did doughnuts this morning with our neighbor whom he learned is an ER doc at Rush. He said the injury sounds like an easy fix and not to worry about it. Let's hope so.

On a brighter note, E scored 36 in her golf meet last night, playing varsity, and came home happy. She was a little shocked when she called to say the meet was over and L said, "Mom's in the hospital." I wasn't actually in the hospital, but E (and the whole golf team) got the story from Allison. They sent along wishes for a speedy recovery. Aww!