Our Girls

Where: A Lake in the Middle of Missouri (near you) When: The First Lake Weekend of 2017 Lake Days are here again! The girls had a great day tubing and swimming, and snacking and playing and just generally Lake-ing with Ba and Papa. Let summer officially begin!

Where: a Church near you When: June 2017 We began the Epic Events of the Summer of 2017 by judo-chopping sin in the face! In a manner of speaking. It was an incredible week at our church's VBS program aka Kids Club. The theme this year was Ninja, and the kids were loving it.  This was the first year that Jessica and Andrew both volunteered all week. Emily had aged out of being a regular Kids Club kid and moved up to being a Junior Leader. Katie's squad of Yellow Fire Ninjas WON the class cheer competition, with a chant/step routine that defies accurate description.  "Yel-low Fire Ninjas Hyah!"

Where: Blue Shepherd Berry Farm  When: June 2017 We got an appointment to head out to the Blue Shepherd berry patch and we brought in a huge haul of blueberries.  Some of the pickers were not aware that they were supposed to bring home more berries than they ate in the field....

Where: the streets of a a Mid-Missouri mail route near you When: June 2017 The girls had an awesome time walking the mail route with Aunt Mary again this year to help collect food for the mail carrier's food drive. It's a great cause and a great day to spend with a great aunt!

Where: An Elementary and Primary School in a small Missouri town near you When: May 2017 Schools. Out. For. Summer! Another school year came to a close, and there were the usual awards ceremonies, photo ops and this year a DARE graduation for Emily. Here's Em with her gang of friends. Next stop: Middle School! And here's Jessica with her   gang of school friends aka co-workers aka the world's best reading teachers. Awards can lead to silly faces. I can't remember exactly how Katie's face abruptly met the concrete of the sidewalk, but she took a tumble, and as a result the side of her face was scratched up for this year's awards assembly. She also doesn't look terribly interested in what was going on at this particular moment. DARE graduates! Sidenote: the day after the DARE graduation, Emily was at a birthday party where adults and kids were all gathered together in one spot. There were adult and kid beverages. She picked u...

Where: A House full of Girls Near You When: Mother's Day 2017 The girls filled Mother's Day with celebrations, gifts and homemade surprises. Jessica had a great day! Later we went to a Mother's Day brunch with Grammy and Gramps and Ba and Papa and Uncle Scott, Aunt Melissa, Uncle Chris, Aunt Tracy and all the cousins! Of course, we took advantage of the opportunity to torture Uncle Scott (aka Uncle Pookie Parton).

Where: A Dance Hall near you When: May 2017 This was our last year for three girls to be dance recitaling at once. They all did an incredible job! Molly got to tap, Katie danced to Beyonce's "Put a Ring on It" and Emily had a costume that included neon green camo. What's not to love! And of course Grammy, Gramps, Papa and Ba were all in attendance for the big events.

Where: a Nature Center with an unfortunate name near you When: May 2017  The end of Second Grade means a field trip to the RUNGE. Pronounced like Grunge without the 'ga'. Katie had a great time hiking the trails with one of her best buds, and posing with the giant turtle statue. 

Where: A Girl Scouts Court of Awards Near You When: May 2017. Katie "bridged" into full Brownie status this year, and Emily got to cross the bridge to leave Brownie-hood behind and head into the uncharted waters of being ... a Junior Scout. 

Where: The Miss Pat Park (aka Grindstone Park) When: Early June 2017 Every year Miss Pat, who is one of the greatest human beings ever born, in incomparable baker, a friend to parents, a foster parent to our children and so incredibly much more than just a daycare provider, hosts a teeball game and picnic in the park between Mother's and Father's Day. This year's edition was a hit. And as a bonus here's a picture of Molly and one of her best Miss Pat friend's (who looks eerily similar to Molly but I'm 99.9 percent sure is not ours) sharing a comfy seat at the library.

Where: The Bach House of Madness, Hijinks and Tomfoolery When: April 9, 2017  One of the things Katie got for her birthday in March was a set of bars for her to swing and flip on that would be attached to our backyard jungle gym-castle. We spent several hours installing the posts and bars and to top it all off we added a climbing rope! Katie had scurried to the top of the rope almost as fast as it was up.  And not too long thereafter we celebrated our annual April -ish tradition. The April Fool's Day Silly Supper. Our usual special guest for this event, Aunt Mary,  did not show up. Instead some strange bird woman attacked our back door.   As it turned out we knew the crazy bird woman after all, which is a relief since otherwise we probably would have needed to call the police. This year's silly supper had spaghetti on the menu. And Mary was as enthusiastic about it as usual!

When: Easter 2017 Where: A House full of girls near you We stayed home for Easter this year. Which meant we had plenty of time to die eggs with Aunt Mary! And on Easter Morning, the Bunny was in full mischievous force hiding baskets in strange places ... like the dryer. Opening the baskets is probably Molly's favorite part.  Finally, after a quick non-candy breakfast, we got ready for church and had a little extra time to hunt for eggs! The Bachs - Easter 2017 

When: April 2017 Where: Branson MO Every few years, Aunt Jen and Uncle Brady (pronounced "Birdy" if you're Katie) come back to Branson from their sunny Florida home so that they can teach and speak at Young Christians Weekend at Silver Dollar City. When that happens, we usually get to come along! We spent the weekend torturing uncle Birdy with piggyback ride requests, and getting as many snuggles as possible from aunt Jen.  We also got to spend a day at Silver Dollar City with our cousins from Lexington MO! There was a LOT of silliness happening all weekend.