If Wishes Were Fishes

Well, no one asked for a fish for Christmas but what they did ask for is almost as special. You can tell that they wrote these in early November which happens to be shortly after Halloween. For posterity, here are the Ricks boys' Christmas wish lists for 2014 with original spelling.

Gabriel
My Chricmis List
Love Gabe
1. a scatbord
2. a bag of cookeis
3. a box of candy
4. a snoe globe
5. a airplane
6. a robot
7. a monster

Elijah
1. a 400 pes legos at desne land        (400 piece legos at Disneyland)
2. a 700 pees legos                            (700 piece legos)
3. a 100 pes pasl                                (100 piece puzzle)
4. ene star wors legos                        (any Star Wars legos)
5. halwing dinsor toy                         (Halloween dinosaur toy)
6. skre thigs av hlwing book             (scary things of Halloween book)
7. a skletin                                         (a skeleton)
8. is krim tuns                                    (ice cream, tons)
9. kade land gam                               (Candy Land game)
10. ROBOTS                                     (robots)
11. a mot cintrol ras kor                    (a remote control race car)
12. coke robts                                    (cookie robots)
13. choklit dinasrs                             (chocolate dinosaurs)
14. a cling up toy                               (a cleaning up toy)
15. mot cintrl mostrs                         (remote control monsters)

David John
David John's Christmas List
1. Frankenstein monster toy
2. a giant R2D2 toy
3. a giant trash chomper
4. a whole set of duplo blocks
5. a creepy zombie hand
6. Star Wars legos
7. concentration game
8. robot lips
9. robot pencil sharpener
10. a snap and break toy
11. silly monster toy
12. starcraft toys
13. gum
14. Jack and the Beanstalk book
15. Cold Prickly and Warm Fuzzy book

Benjamin
Dear Santa,
I want to tell you what presents I want.
1. a chocolate present
2. a scary blue present
3. a real present
4. a red present that has a ghost and a witch on it
5. a big witch on the wall
6. a big ghost costume
7. a lot of presents
8. a Wild Kratt movie
9. a wild snake
10. a Ghostbuster's snake
11. a real snake
12. a magic paint book
13. a robot toy
14. suction ball
15. car toy like Spiderman car
16. Spiderman toy

Who You Gonna Call?

Ghostbusters! That's right, it's time for the Halloween pictures.

They boys picked out their pumpkins and got ready to carve.

Tobias is still too young to draw, so he used our push-in plastic pieces.

Here are the other boys' carvings. Left to right those are the creative works of Benjamin, David John, Elijah and Gabriel. Lights on...

...and lights off.

The boys LOVE the movie Ghostbusters. David John wanted to be the "smarshmallow man" but we talked him into being Ray Stantz. Here are all of the costumes. The boys helped make their own proton packs and I pieced the rest of the costumes together. I made the Slimer costume out of a green pillowcase, a ball cap and some felt. I'm pretty much MacGyver.

Here they are all geared up and ready to catch a ghost. You've got Egon Spengler (who apparently goes cross-eyed when you take his glasses off), Winston Zeddemore (I already know that Benjamin does not have dark enough skin. The boys told me several times.), Peter Venkman ("Ray, what did you do Ray?") and Ray Stantz ("I thinked of the smarshmallow man!").

Oh yeah, they're packing.

He's small, he's green, he's Slimer! Too bad he's so cute. He's not exactly scary.

The whole gang loved trick-or-treating and our neighbors loved seeing our gang of Ghostbusters. 

They got a sick amount of candy and were on a sugar high for days. I think there was probably as much sugar in those Halloween buckets as there was in the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

Robot Rally

Grandma sent robot masks. This is very appropriate because David John is fond of running up to the microphone at church and saying, "I am a baby robot" in a very good robot voice. It kills the primary children every time.

Running Scared

For the second year in a row, we helped out with the Zombie Run 5K. Technically it's a walk/shuffle/run. Anyway, I wasn't as involved with the planning as I was last year, but my boys and I, along with some friends, dressed up as zombies to scare the runners. This year, Tobias was old enough to help out so he also got zombified. Here we are ready to scare:

For the record, my boys did my makeup which is why I look more like a member of KISS and less like a zombie. Although, now that I'm making that comparison, maybe those two things aren't so disparate after all. Both are definitely creepy. I guess the primary difference is that zombies place a high value on brains.
Anyway, the boys had a blast hiding in the park behind our house and jumping out at runners as they came by. Like last year, some could not control their giggles at the sight of so many tiny zombies, especially Tobias. Others, I think, were genuinely creeped out by the idea of undead children. My friend Amelia thinks that next year we need to set up a cornfield behind our house for the kiddos to run out of. That would be pretty awesome. Then we'd really have them running scared.

Sorry, So Sorry

Poor Gabriel feels criticism intensely. Any slight correction to his behavior often ends in tears and then a sorry note. While I wish he wouldn't take things so hard, I do adore the sorry notes. I thought I would share two of my favorites.

I can't remember what either of these notes was apologizing for but I remember chuckling when I saw that this one had check marks. Gabriel's first grade teacher gives check marks when things are correct, so the check mark has replaced the heart as Gabriel's symbol of love and approval.

I also love what he wrote on the bottom. I'm pretty sure that last word is supposed to read "best" but it absolutely looks like "bust". Having nursed five children, if someone tells me "Mom's are the bust!" I'll take it as a compliment.

Here is another popular Gabriel writing technique: rainbow writing. It's adorable as is his spelling.

I am so glad you appreciate my "kooking". I hope that you still like my kooking when you are a teenager and having a kooky mom can be embarrassing.

Thank you for the darling notes, Gabe. I'm sorry you are stuck with me for a mom, so sorry.

One Point Five

Last month Tobias hit 18 months. The good news is he now old enough for nursery! The bad news is that his naughty antics have definitely increased. He still isn't talking much. He tends to learn a new word, use it for a week and then drop it. For the record, his first word was "trash" which he pronounced "ash, ash". He also enjoys making up his own sign language which more resembles baseball signals. His sign for drink consists of three movements involving both hands and one ear. He's a handful that's for sure. Here are a few personality shots from the last six months:

He loves his technology, a little too much.

He can happily cycle through iPad pages all day.

Also, he loves to pretend he's playing Angry Birds.

He can't get enough of the pool. Bobbing up and down and playing peek-a-boo with the senior citizens is his favorite.

All of his brothers are in gymnastics and sometimes he just can't stay off the mats.

No, this isn't a horror film. It's just pasta for dinner.

Who needs a stick?

We can finally put him down during his naps, but he likes to sleep in strange positions.

Did I mention he LOVES books? I think he was trying to combine his love of swimming with his love of books by creating a book pool. Shortly after this photo, all of the children's books were relocated to some higher shelves in the basement.

This is the "I'm going to jump off the coffee table!" face. He jumps off the coffee table a lot.

Woo-hoo! Just landed on the couch. 

"Wanna see it again? I can do this all day."

I don't even remember what he wanted but I think I gave in. Just look at that pleading face.

Tobias prefers chapter books to his board books. The chapter books make a more satisfying sound when he flips through them. Also, what more comfortable place to read than suspended between the couch and table?

Can you tell that he had chocolate chip pancakes with powdered sugar for breakfast?

Yep, his Grandma spoils him but so do we. He located his own binky, laid down and started rubbing his ears. Time for a nap. Sometimes I wish I was one and a half.

Harvest Time

So, our garden did finally decide to produce. Not a ton, just a little bit but that's okay. The joy the boys felt each time they found a little vegetable to bring in from the garden was worth all the effort. Have you ever seen such beautiful food?