Asher's (3rd) Big Day

We had a blast celebrating Asher’s birthday this year. Here are some pictures from the big day so you can follow along and see what we did.

There was, of course, much talk about the big birthday the night before. Asher was pretty excited about going to his “Happy Birthday to you.” I think most of his excitement came from the mention of cupcakes.

I made cupcakes to take to Asher’s school. I was going to splurge and buy the box of cake mix and the tub of frosting. But then I saw how much it cost and I turned to my best source for all thing baking: The Pioneer Woman.

We went to Asher’s school at the end of the day and created chaos when we took cupcakes into a room of two and three year olds.

Asher’s teachers got all of the kids gathered around the table and broke out the candles.

After clearly establishing that Asher is 3 years old one of the teachers lit 4 candles. I still haven’t figured that one out.

All of the teachers and Asher’s friends sang Happy Birthday to him and then one of his favorite teachers prayed for him.

Baby Jack came along for the festivities. He alternated between screaming when he was whisked away from me and giggling because he absolutely loves it when Thai women start going crazy over him.

Asher had to give cupcakes to Roger and I first. This confused all of us, very contrary to the American idea of the birthday boy being the one to go first.

After he served us and his classmates he was taken around to serve cupcakes to all of his special teacher friends. Evidently being the only white boy in school makes you quite popular.

Cupcakes can get pretty messy.

A few of Asher’s school friends. If you look at the far right side of the picture you can see the back of a mullet. That mullet belongs to a boy named Big Boss. Seriously.

School clothes and school shoes.

Asher’s class. Big Boss is on the far left.

Asher and his favorite teacher. He calls her Khum Khum.

Asher and his other teacher. She looks friendly in this picture, but I feel like I am constantly disappointing her. Asher seems to like her.

After school Asher found some presents in his room.

Of course, little brother got in on the excitement.

To end the day of celebration we had waffles and juice with a few friends. I think that might have been Asher’s favorite part of the whole day.

And We're Off...

The Boy is 3

I can't believe that this boy is 3!

Happy Birthday Asher Boy!

Jack and Jill and Pictures from July

One of our volunteers this summer was a photographer.

Her name is Jill. She may be one of the funniest people I know.

Jack and Jill.

Of course there is much to be photographed around these parts.

Mostly my kids.

And the beach.

But she took a few pictures of the Thai life, too.

Jill: I will go ahead and apologize now if I shouldn't have stolen your pictures from your blog and posted them on my blog.

The Friends

Most recently our dear friends Sarah and Woody have held the title of "The Friends." They celebrated their 5th anniversary by coming all the way to Bangkok to sleep on our couch (and go to Phuket).

They played with Baby Jack and introduced him to the iPad.

There are no pictures of them with Asher, but they made quite the impression. Asher even hugged Woody before they headed back to Chicago.

We had a blast taking them to our favorite restaurants, going to get massages and spending lots of time sitting around talking.

The highlight of their trip (for us) was a big date night. We got a babysitter and set off to conquer Bangkok. Or to go to dinner.

Roger and Sarah got the camera ready for some pre-date photos.

Oh, how sweet. It's just like college. Only now we are all married and we live in big cities.

Roger and Woody still accidentally dress alike, just like they did when they were roommates. At least this time it was just matching shoes (bought on opposite sides of the world) and not matching jeans, polos and jackets.

We took them to dinner at Your Mom's House, our absolute favorite fancy-ish Thai place to eat.

They tried to take creative photos of their beverages while Roger and I attacked our food. It's like even though there were no kiddos with us we still ate as quickly as we could before anyone started crying.

After dinner we headed to the Sky Bar to check out the best view of Bangkok.

Amazing.

And even more amazing that these two were here with us!

Mother's Day 2011

Mother's Day was like a month ago...oops.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun celebrating Mother's Day this year. Last year Roger sent me to the super nice spa for a maternity massage day. Lunch by the pool included.

This year I got to celebrate two times.

First, I celebrated at Asher's school. They had a Mother's Day programs that basically consisted of all the older kids singing and dancing while Asher's class sat with their parents and watched. Roger had to work and luckily I had friend come with me to entertain Jack. Overall: pretty boring. But next year when Asher is on stage it will be the most amazing thing ever.

The next day the celebration continued. Since Mother's Day is a public holiday Roger did not have to work and Asher didn't have school. After nap time Asher and Roger went and got me roses!

Jack didn't get invited on the trip to go get the flowers, but he volunteered to take a picture with me.

We finally found Asher driving the Own Car and he (sort of) joined us for a picture.

We ended the day with a trip to the mall in the Own Car (that only happens on holidays due to traffic jams) and dinner at Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen is Asher's most favorite place to eat because they have hot dogs and booths that overlook a busy road. Car and hot dogs! What more could Asher ask for!

8 Months

Baby Jack is 8 months old! We haven't been to the doctor recently, but I would say he's still pretty chunky and probably a little bit longer than last month.

He can't quite crawl, but he can get around. For now he's sticking to the scoot-flop, but I think crawling will be soon. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth before throwing himself towards what he wants.

I still haven't found a food that the boy doesn't like. Tonight he had homemade banana ice cream for the first time and it was a big hit (calling it homemade is a bit misleading, click here for the recipe). Sarah and Woody brought us some of those wonderful Puffs and Jack figured out how to feed himself pretty quickly. Puffs have changed my life. I get to eat dinner without Jack crying and trying to steal my food.

Sleep has been a bit of an issue over the past few weeks. Jack has been sick several times and really hasn't been sleeping well. The other night Roger and I finally gave up and moved downstairs and let Jack cry himself to sleep. Since then we have slept downstairs on the couch and Jack has slept all night long in our bedroom. I guess he was waking up during the night and seeing us and crying. Either way, I am very thankful for a comfortable couch and we are praying even harder that we can find a place with three bedrooms.

Four of Jack's top teeth are coming in. It looks like the right side will be through any day. This has definitely made him fussy (or at least we are blaming the fussiness on teething).

Enjoy a video of Baby Jack trying to crawl!