Buddy Bear and Asher

For a school project, each kid in Asher's kindergarten class took home "Buddy Bear" for a week, wrote about their adventures with him, and took some pictures of what they did together.

I was a little horrified (given our school's tendency to have lice outbreaks and my general germ-phobias) to see children sleeping with Buddy Bear, eating with Buddy Bear, playing at parks with Buddy Bear while I touched Buddy Bear and realized that if he had ever been washed, he would fall apart.

But, I tried to be a good mom, and we had a picture with Luke and Asher having ice cream with Buddy Bear, and then, I tried to be really brave and let Asher read a book to Buddy Bear and Emma.

Imagine my surprise when I downloaded this picture (and a few others), which show Emma munching on Buddy Bear. Sigh...

Baby Asher/Baby Emma giggles

Emma and Luke Love Each Other

And, Asher and Emma love each other, too.

Luke's birthday

When Asher was 3, he got to have a big, fun birthday party at the train park. So, I planned on doing the same for Luke when he turned 3.

But, when Luke turned 3, his mom was in her first trimester of pregnancy. March came and went without a thought to planning a big, fun party for Luke.

So, we tried to make it up to Luke when he turned 4 by having a big jungle-themed party. Doing trains has sort of been a passion Luke picked up from Asher, but animals? Well, Luke has always loved him some animals.

We had Jungle Jill come and she let the kids pet and hold animals. She was fabulous. Seriously, hire her for the 8 and under set. I'm glad we waited a year. Luke's social behavior has come a long way, and I think he enjoyed the party much more this way.

Thankfully, Jessica took pictures of the party. (My kids owe just about all photographic documentation of their lives to Jessica and my sister, Rachel.)

For our family birthday dinner, Luke picked the menu: Mamma Mia's pizza, salad (ok, I picked that), and strawberries. Then, he asked for vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting for dessert (and I thought chocolate cream cheese frosting would be that much better.

Asher's birthday

I decided that having children 9 days apart means that the boys will get a party every other year (Emma will, too, to be fair). One kid gets a party and another kid gets to take 2 friends to do "something fun."

I have to say I think I'll always prefer the "something fun" event. It's fun to let the kid plan the whole time...maybe not as much fun to experience the whole time.

Asher decided he wanted to go see Rango with his two best friends, Mary and Natalie. And, we went to McDonald's before Rango and got Happy Meals (Asher, look! Documentation that I did, indeed, once buy you a Happy Meal.) Mary got Asher a "Cootie" game, which the whole family has enjoyed, and Natalie got Asher 8 puzzles and made him a crown.

Asher also got a much-anticipated bow and arrow. Apparently, the Curtis men are pretty good at shooting those things.

And, for our family birthday dinner, Asher picked his own dinner: spaghetti with meat sauce, berries, roasted broccoli and juice boxes.

He requested a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.