It's Great to be 8

Or at least Gabriel and Elijah think so. This has been a big month for them. Eight years old is one of the birthdays that we throw a big party for. The boys chose a safari theme and we had many little boys and one girl running around the house. We made binoculars, searched for animals, played pin the points on the compass, did elephant racing and other games. The kids seemed to have a good time and the boys got ridiculously spoiled with presents from their friends.

Of course, eight is a big age for other reasons too. In the state of North Dakota being eight grants you some freedoms like not needing booster seats in the car. As an eight year old you can stay at home, the rec center or the library by yourself for up to a couple of hours. Granting some of these new freedoms is scary, but at least we are getting broken in with the twins who have each other. Eight also means that they are old enough to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Both boys decided they wanted to be baptized and passed their interviews with the bishop. On the big day, they were so excited to have both sets of grandparents in town for Thanksgiving, their birthday and their baptism. Things were exciting at the church trying to get ready. The piano was locked (by the way, a locking piano is genius for a house of small boys but maybe less desirable in a church) and there were no medium sized jumpsuits. Luckily, our boys are on the skinny side and fit into the smalls. Before they got dressed, they went to check out the baptismal font. Of course, Gabriel managed to drop his tie tack in the font and at that point it was too deep to reach in and get it without someone getting their clothes wet. Luckily, not everything was crazy. The talks were lovely, the music was nice and the boys did get baptized. I called out "Watch out for the tack!" as they stepped into the font and Gabe got baptized twice because there was an error the first time but in the end it all worked out. I was complimented on "going with the flow" when things weren't perfect. Perfect is nice, but imperfect is more memorable. My little brother, Sam, gave the closing prayer and got me all choked up with his loving words of pride and affection for our boys. Afterward, we served cookies and cupcakes. Everyone was pretty happy.

I made the boys some journals and they both wrote about their experience. As a parent, I hope that they feel loved and guided. I hope that they grow in empathy and love and continue to make good choices, at least most of the time. I love these boys. We can't believe that they are this old but it's so fun that we can play more games with them and discuss good books and watch movies with them that we couldn't before. Watching your kids grow up is bittersweet but over all, it really is great that they are eight.

The Aftermath

After Halloween we have one night in which the boys can gorge themselves on candy. In fact, we have candy for dinner. Whatever is left after "dinner" gets donated or trashed. This is what it looks like.

The boys have a blast sorting and trading and eating candy until they can't eat no more. Of course, there is a price for this night of revelry. It's almost impossible to get them to bed because of the sugar high. The good news is, once they have that sugar crash they sleep like babies. Good night my sweet-toothed boys.

Halloween 2015

So, I went easy on myself for Halloween this year knowing that I would have a state school board conference the Thursday and Friday before and realizing that I would also be getting ready for family pictures, company the first weekend in November, a trip to Baltimore the second weekend in
November, a birthday party the third weekend in November and Thanksgiving and the twins' birthday and baptism the weekend after that. I give all of this as an explanation for the lack of effort which went into this year's costumes. Are you ready?

MINIONS! As most of you know, we already owned the hats so I just had to purchase yellow shirts and overalls and then cut out and sew the Gru "G" on the fronts of the overalls. We are at the local comic book and game store in the picture because we went to the Halloween activities downtown on Saturday afternoon. This was fun and we got tons of comments about our cute minion family. I'm learning that when you have a lot of something, even something that is less impressive, it makes it more awesome. I could probably just dress everyone in grey sweatsuits, but because there are seven of us people would say, "Awww, look at that family of sweatsuits!" Anyway, Marc was a big hit because most of the little kids at the event knew "Dr. Ricks" and were totally tickled to see him dressed up as a minion. He was even waving his black gloved hands and saying things like "Bello!" and "Banana!" That man loves his patients.

When we got home, I made skull shaped pancakes by request of my boys.

 

They informed me that they were "pretty good, but the heads are a little lumpy". Elitists. You try making skulls complete with teeth out of thick pancake batter!

Then, of course it was time to light up the pumpkins and go trick-or-treating. Our friends came over to trick-or-treat with us and the boys were not disappointed by the disgusting amounts of candy they brought home including full-size candy bars and cans of soda.

Here are the traditional before and after pumpkin pictures. We carved these on Sunday so I was happy they made it the six days and were still beautiful, I mean scary, for Halloween.

 

Gabriel went the very traditional route, but I love the eyebrows. Also, can I just say that I love the fall colors outside? So pretty.

Elijah chose a ghost pumpkin this year and went with a Frankenstein theme. It was a labor of love to carve all those stitches.

David John drew a monster with a zillion eyes and three mouths and several horns. It also has a beard way down there at the bottom. I don't know about you but I think that big mouth is pretty scary. The pumpkin is pretty scary too.

Benjamin wanted the tallest pumpkin. He drew a face with two eyes, a nose, a mouth, some hair and a funky hat on top of that. However, the rest of think this looks like a big monster with two lava eyes at the top and a big open mouth showing us the person he just ate. Take your pick.

Tobias drew a bunch of lines which somehow ended up looking like a cool diagram of lungs and heart. Maybe we've got a future doc here.

And here we have the whole lineup of spooky pumpkins. I love how the light shines through the skin of the pumpkins too. Good job on those scraping jobs this year boy-ohs.

The boys have asked that I leave their Gru symbols on their overalls so they can go to school as minions whenever they want to. I'm okay with that as long as they aren't fighting over bananas in the hallways. Happy Halloween!

BONUS FOOTAGE:
Some of the boys were pretty hilarious when I was trying to get pictures of them with their pumpkins. Here are some that didn't make the official cut:

 

Gabe was having a hard time keeping those eyes open. Church will do that to you.

 

Elijah went all Jaws on me. Shark attack!

 

For David John, taking pictures is, apparently, excruciating.

 

Benjamin is very afraid someone is going to steal his pumpkin. He is very concerned. He is worried. He is taking his pumpkin and hitting the road.

"Tobias, take your hand out from between your legs," I said. "Yes!" said Benjamin, "Make your hands robot hands! Like this!"

 "No," I said, "just take your hand and put it on your knee."

Tobias, in montone, "I have robot hands!"

  Facepalm.