#Chapter 284 – Building the Palace

“A castle, mama?” Alvin asks a few hours later, sitting on the kitchen table and combing through some of the plans I’ve sketched out on scrap paper with crayons I’ve borrowed from my boys. “To live in?” “Well,” I say, leaning back and considering. “Maybe castle isn’t the right word. But palace is too fancy. And ‘big house’ is…too small.” “Can we make it from gingerbread?” Ian asks, coming over to us with a pack of graham crackers that he opens and spills out on the table, starting to stack them so that they held each other up, like the walls of a house of cards. “Like this?” “Don’t you think that baked goods would be…problematic? In the rain?” I ask seriously, cocking my head to the side as I study his structure. Ian stands up straight and stares at his building materials. “I didn’t even think of that.” “See?” I say, tapping my temple. “That’s why you need me around.” “But the mice would like it,” Alvin says, leaning forward and playing with the graham crackers himself. “They’d n