Halloween 2013

So, I thought I would spread out the Halloween fun by posting this two days late. It has nothing to do with me being too exhausted Halloween night and too frazzled yesterday to post this... nothing at all.
Our Halloween fun started on Wednesday. It was Tobias' first Halloween so we took our traditional baby pumpkin pictures. He was not a fan, but we still got a few cute ones.

Then it was time to carve those giant pumpkins. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although the skins were so thick that carving the details was a little rough. Gabriel complained that I didn't carve his design perfectly. Sorry, kid. It also took quite a while to clean those giant pumpkins out. They were sitting on the floor on newspapers while I scooped and scraped. At one point, I picked up my hand to find that the word "Help" had been stamped on it. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something? I need help?

Here are before and afters of all the pumpkins and pumpkin masters.

A note about David John's: there are three gravestones on the top, a boat on the bottom and a small spooky face off to the side. We aren't sure what the boat has to do with Halloween. Maybe it ferries people across the river Styx?

We had bat-shaped pancakes for dinner that night. David John was very excited about this. He had been requesting "mixed-up meal day" for a while. So we had lunch for breakfast (pbjs and applesauce), dinner for lunch (corndogs, salad and fruit) and breakfast for dinner (pancakes). The boys were even impressed with my bats which made me happy.

Finally, here are pictures from Halloween night of all our boys in their Star Wars gear. That's Elijah as Darth Vader, Gabriel as Captain Rex, David John as Anakin, Benjamin as Yoda, and Tobias as an Ewok.

In case you are wondering, yes those light sabers were a very big mistake. We have already had a number of light-saber related injuries in less than 48 hours. If I could do it over, I'd go with cardboard cutouts.

Happy Halloween!

The Zombies Are Coming!

Our boys have long been fans of the game Plants VS Zombies and Zombies in general. So, when the opportunity came to dress up like zombies and scare runners for a good cause our boys were ecstatic! Dickinson's first annual Zombie 5K to benefit special olympics happened on October 18th and conveniently came right through the park behind our house. I was on the committee for the run and Rebecca, Marcus and Kaleb were in town for the occasion. Rebecca ran it, Marcus "ran" it and Kaleb helped scare the runners.

The boys had a blast. David John would yell "Runner alert! Runner alert!" when he saw people coming and then Elijah would yell, "Get them!" when they were close enough to jump out and scare.
Most of the runners at least pretended to be scared, but some couldn't help laughing when they saw four miniature zombies rushing at them yelling "Brains!"
Despite the giggles, our boys were convinced that they were very very scary. They bragged about how many people they had scared, "I scared a whole family at once!"
Gabriel even wrote a song for the occasion. (You can tell it's a song because it has music notes at the top.)

In case you can't read it, here is a transcript:
Brains are so tasty
Zombies like brains and I do too
They are for me and you
Brains
Burp
Yay
By Gabe

Making a Joyful Noise

I briefly mentioned in my post about David John, that he loves to sing the Joy School songs. What I failed to mention is that most of the song recordings are, well, bad. Just bad. I feel guilty even writing that down, because I love the Joy School curriculum and I think the Eyres are amazing but wow, the songs are special. One of the songs in Earth unit has the following lyrics:
"Let's take care of the Earth 'cause it's ours;
And it's so much better than Mars!"
That last line is sung with an ascending run and then a sustained high note. It's very dramatic. I almost choked on the water I was drinking the first time I heard it. Really? That's the best we can come up with? It's better than Mars? That's not hard. We could drop a few atomic bombs on the Earth and it would STILL be better than Mars for sustaining human life.
The most ridiculous song on the CD, though, is the one that all the boys love about what animals give us. My first issue with this song is that it just sounds rude. It goes:
"Oh cow! Oh cow! What use are you?"
If I were a cow and someone sang that to me, I would roll my eyes and stop producing milk on the spot. What USE am I? Really? Oh, I don't know. I only supply the basis for one of five major food groups. You know, provide calcium that you need for your puny skeletons. Ingrates!
Anyway, then the cow sings back in a deep BASS voice. What?!?! Cows, by definition cannot be male. If you try to milk a male bovine, I guarantee you will not get milk. You will probably get a hoof to the face. So, who's singing? My best guess is that it is a bull masquerading as a cow. That's right kids, you are being sung to be a cross-dressing ungulate! Anyway, this confused individual sings:
"I give you milk, that's what I do." and then he/she bellows out a painful sounding moo.
The song continues, asking various animals "What use are you?" and the animals give their answers complete with terrible sound effects. We learn that a hen gives us eggs, a bee gives us honey and a sheep gives us wool. This is all fine. Then, we get to the pig.
"Oh pig! Oh pig! What use are you?"
"I give you bacon, that's what I do!"
When my boys heard this, they were incredulous. "What? Mom! That doesn't make any sense! If the pig gives us bacon he would be dead! He can't just 'give' us bacon!"
Good point, boys. You are right. If the song is trying to teach kids the facts of life, then maybe the pig should sing, "I am slaughtered for bacon! That's what I do!" There are probably Joy School children across the country imagining happy pigs frolicking about and dispensing bacon to the masses without any deleterious side-effects. If they wanted the pigs to be useful in a non-lethal way, they could have always gone with: "I dig for truffles, that's what I do." As it stands, we now have a pig singing from beyond the grave. This song just keeps getting more and more strange.
Moving on. The horse tells us that he gives us rides (Why are ALL of the animals in this song male? Also, note that the horse does NOT say, "I give you glue.") and then the songs asks:
"Oh dog! Oh dog! What use are you?"
The voice that answers is so deep and garbled and weird that what he says is pretty much unintelligible. I *think* he says, "I give you love, that's what I do." but I will never be 100% sure that he isn't saying "I bite your leg, that's what I do." To be honest, he sounds so creepy that I would probably prefer for him to bite my leg than give me love. The bite would heal, but his love might scar me forever.

Benjamin Boy

We have been blessed with children who have big personalities and a stubborn streak. Benjamin is no exception. This kid is cute, quirky and LOUD. He's also two and it shows.
Benjamin is in love with the letter B right now. He's recently learned to recognize it and it has only increased the number of items in his every day life that he claims are his. Anything at all with a capital B on it (i.e. the entire box of Honey Bunches of Oats) must be his. "It says B for Benjamin!" he loudly proclaims and hugs it to his chest. Benjamin also holds a strong belief that anything yellow (his favorite color) is also his. "It's my yellow! Mine!" As a result, I am now hyper-aware of things that are yellow and/or are sporting a letter B. Frankly, I think it's a miracle he hasn't hijacked a school bus yet.

Benjamin's speech continues to grow in complexity and, thankfully, clarity. He is still difficult to understand at times but we are usually able to figure it out. He is experimenting with new vocabulary and parts of speech. One of his favorite words to use right now is "pretty". He seems to think that adding "pretty" in any sentence makes your statement more emphatic. Sometimes this works fine like when he says "It's pretty windy out here." but he also says things like, "That candy is pretty mine." and "Yes, you pretty are!" Another favorite word is "also". He just tacks that on to any sentence. "I don't want to take a nap also!" "It's rainy out there also."
Benjamin has always loved things that are rich in flavor and I am beginning to wonder if he has under-developed taste buds. As a baby, he would eat chili, salsa and curry. Recently he licked the measuring spoon that I had used for cayenne pepper. I waited for the extreme reaction but it never came. He just smacked his lips, smiled at me and went on his merry way. Maybe he's unable to detect capsaicins? Regardless, this kid loves flavor and he loves his condiments. Given his way, he would eat whole bowls of ketchup with a spoon. I recently caught him giving himself a hot-wax style manicure with ranch dressing.

It was buttermilk ranch. Buttermilk is supposed to be good for your skin, right?
This kid is constantly eating and sneaking food out of the kitchen. He has also inherited an insatiable appetite for candy from his Opa. He is always asking if he can have some "eyepatch kids" (sourpatch kids). Unfortunately, he is usually too naughty to earn the "eyepatch kids" (children who unstock entire shelves and then have to be carried over my shoulder kicking and screaming while I push the cart with my other hand because they keep running away and then who try to go surfing on the conveyor belt at the checkout counter don't earn candy) but he keeps trying.
We are pretty sure that Benjamin somehow has some camelid properties because he can go for long periods without drinking. In fact, we sometimes wonder why we even bother pouring him a drink to go with his meals. It usually just ends up going back in the fridge to wait to be rejected at his next repast. Marc was wondering aloud at dinner the other night that Benjamin doesn't exhibit any signs of dehydration. I said, "I think he gets all of his water from fruits and vegetables. He eats a ton of those." We both looked over at Benjamin who had apparently been sneaking pieces of watermelon during our conversation.

We couldn't help but laugh. Yep, he looks plenty hydrated to me.
Oh, Benjamin. Sometimes you are so hard, but we love you so much and you give the best hugs. Thanks for being our Benjamin Boy.