Our Girls

Where: Bach New Year's Eve Headquarters When: December 31st 2019 We rang in the New Year at home with a house full of friends. There were wrapping paper New Years hats. There were games, there were many many laughs and eventually we said goodbye to 2019. Cheers to 2020!  

When: December 29, 2019  Where: The Fabulous Fox Theatre After a great night of Thomas family yuletide fun, you might think that our weekend of holiday festivity was over. But you'd be WRONG. We packed up everyone (and Jake) and headed to St. Louis to see our friend Nemo perform in the traveling company of WICKED! Jake prepared for the evening by practicing the nap he would take at the hotel during the show. You can't just go into a nap without practice.  Everyone else got ready by finding fancy hairstyles, and dressing up.  Before the show Nemo (whose name is actually Jennafer Newberry) was able to give us a backstage tour! We were able to see the Emerald City set, and the giant robot Wizard head, and we got to see the racks on racks on racks of costumes. Best night at the theater ever! And then we found our seats, which were extremely close to the stage (thanks to Nemo) and we were blown away by how great the cast was - especially our Nemo, who had a few speaking lines ...

Where: The Meyer House, Quincy, Illinois When: December 28, 2019 After Christmas at our house on the 25th, we welcomed Jessica's family for the Kinney-side Christmas. And then the grandparents and all the aunts, uncles, cousins and dogs ... headed north to Quincy for the big extended Thomas Christmas. This is cousin Will's excited face: I don't know what percentage of the Thomas family was able to make it to the annual Thomas Family gathering (Jessica's Mom's siblings and their kids), but the house was full of so much food and laughter; so many cousins to play with and uncles to throw children into the giant bean bag.  Here's the whole party posing in front of a portion of Grandma Betty's famous (infamous) Byer's Carolers collection. Even some cousin dogs were in attendance - here are the Bach girls with Emily Nelson and Murphy.  

Where: Ashland, America When: Dec. 25th, 2019 We are not afraid to travel for Christmas, but this year we had a home Christmas. Ba and Papa came to town and we went to Christmas Eve services at the Crossing, and ordered Chinese for supper. The next morning...Santa Came!!! According to their tradition, the sisters slept in the same room and came out at the same time to see their presents.   The rest of the day was filled with playing, and apple cider and card games. We didn't know it then (foreshadowing allowed since I'm writing this far in the future), but this would be the last "normal" Christmas for awhile. 

Where: Anyplace that Molly is When: Molly's Birthday! We celebrated 8 great years of Molly on her big day, which for better or worse takes place right in the middle of the holiday season.  We had a party at our house for family on the actual day. Unicorns are definitely her jam.  And then we celebrated AGAIN the following weekend when we went to Quincy to celebrate the Bach side of the family Christmas.  Where she got a bike!!!! Happy 8 years to our youngest who never ceases to surprise us, and who keeps us laughing and certainly keeps us on our toes.   

Where: Overland Park, Kansas, and the Boone County Fairgrounds When: Early December 2019 Sometimes during the holidays events start to stack up. This was one of those times. We took Katie to a gymnastics competition in Kansas City, and then rushed back home, did a quick change into formal wear, thanked Ba and Papa for agreeing to baby sit and then headed out to go to Andrew's company Christmas Party.  Here's Katie's competition team wearing their fancy leotards. And here's our girl doing a little flourish on the balance beam. Later on we partied not very hard with several thousand of Andrew's closest work friends, and made it a reasonably early night. It was a great (but full!) December day. We clean up alright, though it does look like we're either at a rave or the surface of Mars.   

Where: The Bach Family Living Room (home to the Bach Family Christmas tree) When: End of November 2019 Every year it seems we have a tear-filled argument about who gets to put the star on the Christmas tree. We tried to keep records on whose turn it was - our efforts failed. So this year we've instituted a new program. We have begun a new cycle: Emily as the oldest daughter will take the first turn. And we will photograph every single tree-topping for the rest of our lives. That way there's photographic evidence for the following year.  Here she is performing the first star-placing of the New Era.   

Where: Southern Boone, USA When: Mid-November 2019  November kept us busy with the usual round of practices, lessons, dance classes and school work. There were a few artsy highlights as well: Katie spent some time with her knitting and made herself a scarf! The color was not a surprise to anyone.  Molly also had her Second Grade Share Fair. We got to go to Ms. Catlin's classroom and see what Molly's been up to (and in Jessica's case try something on). And Molly's class ended the night with a Mr. Rogers themed musical performance conducted by Mr. Naughton (hence her cardigan).  It was a beautiful day in the Southern Boone Primary neighborhood! Jake celebrated the only way he knew how: a nap. 

Where: Eckert's Farm, Belleville, IL  When: Early November 2019 We had a free Saturday, and it turned out so did our Illinois cousins and Aunt Jen! So we piled in the car and took a field trip to Eckert's, which is basically an agricultural play ground with all sorts of apples to pick and kid rides. First, we met the cousins to fuel up before our fruit-picking work - at Chick-Fil-A of course. Then we headed over to Eckerts. There was train riding.  And plenty of fun cousin time. And of course at the Apple farm - there was  apple picking. Here's Aunt Jen and the whole cousin crew. Our smallest cousin got a little bit buried in the wagon by the fruits of our labor.  Here's Jessica taking a turn hauling the cargo. What better way to spend a fall day than with family on the farm. And the applesauce we made later was amazing!  

 Where: Ashland, America When: October 31st, 2019 This year's version of Halloween started off with some crayons on strike (aka Jessica and her team of reading teachers). Later, Molly transformed into Evie from Descendants (which as you probably know is a Disney Channel Movie about the children of famous Disney villains, Evie being the daughter of the Evil Queen from Snow White). Emily and her friends took on a retro video game theme with Ms. Pac-Man, the ghosts and a banana.  By the end of the night Molly's blue Evie hair was beginning to turn her neck, her shirt and really anything that touched her hair - blue. Katie went as a llama in a warm and pretty cute looking llama onesie. Here she is reclining among her massive pile of loot.  Here's the rest of the gang looking over their haul (and making some trades along the way). It was a successful night of tricking and treating for all the Bach daughters!

Where: Southern Boone Capital of Carving When: late October 2019 Every year with a regularity to rival the arrival of the Great Pumpkin, the two Mid-Missouri Bach families unite for a time-honored tradition: Pumpkin Carving with the Cousins. This year the Southern Boone Bachs hosted the event. There was planning and pumpkin gut scooping and the ever present polka-dot pumpkin. As usual, we had a blast, made a mess and had some awesome pumpkin-art at the end of the night.  The tradition lives on for another year!