Jaskowiak Christmas on the Kennedy Farm

For the last number of years, we have missed the Jaskowiak Family Christmas party.  The family always gathers the weekend after December 25th and we are usually in Florida by that time.

This year, Ian and Allison invited the ENTIRE family to their farm fist outside of Kansas City to celebrate Christmas instead of someone around the St. Louis area hosting for just a day. We decided it would be worth the trip to see the family and spend the night on the farm!

What an experience!  Ian and Allison bought the land a number of years ago with the intent to hunt. Since then, they have built a gorgeous home that accommodated our entire family (70 in attendance) while creating a world-class hunting resort that they offer to Wounded Warriors and other groups that need support.  Ian and Allison are really amazing people who make substantial efforts to continually give back to those in need. Bravo!!

Below are a few pictures from the farm and the family. It really is an amazing place and such a blessing for the girls to spend time with ALL of there cousins!

Celebrate

Three spoons in to celebrate the end of school for 2018 and the start of Christmas break!! No better way than not cooking dinner, eating at Taco Madre, and fried ice cream for dessert.

Doing her homework

Day one of vacation and Abby is completing her reading assignment "read under the tree". Check!

Three trees...

Happy birthday Harper! It was a reverse surprise party for the girls as Sophie was kidnapped at 6:45 am and outfitted for a holiday birthday celebration.

Leaves as big as your head!

Story time...

Abby started a story... and while it wasn't finished she was so excited to give it to me. The message, encrypted in her bad spelling, says "I want to put up Christmas decorations". She is definitely a great little helper and clearly my daughter.

Career Speech

Sophie and her classmates had to choose a career and give a speech about it. At first, she was going to pick a professional dancer but after a little research and discussion with Dad, Sophie realized that dancing will not be the best path for her. Instead, she chose to talk about her dreams of being a Disney Pixar Animator. Sophie practiced the speech for a whole week and Dad helped her create a power point of photos and videos to enhance her presentation. She now watches movies and the credits much more closely and has a better understanding of what it takes to reach such a goal!

Macy’s Tree

It's never too early for a trip to the Walnut Room in November to get us all in the spirit of Christmas!

Movie night

Nutcracker movie with the Shufelt girls.

Happy 47th Birthday

We celebrated Rodger's birthday at our favorite family birthday spot... Kiku!!

Frustrated...

This is what happened when I went to run a quick errand. Delivery truck swiped my mirror and drove off... GRRRR!!!!

Not too old...

Even though they are growing up fast, they are not too old for some dress up and pretend. Here they were pretending to be a bride and bridesmaid. Sister love.

Mystery Reader

Rodger was the mystery reader for Abby's class and she was both surprised and elated to see him!

g @ nd

In the crazy blizzard rainstorm of a day, we had a blast at Notre Dame seeing Garth Brooks perform live at his first stadium tour. What a fun experience to do with Lynn and Mike!

Fine Arts Night

Tonight we celebrated the fine arts at Naper School... by wearing a math T-shirt! Sophie and her classmates showed off her artistic and musical skills to the parents.

Girls Night in the City

Dinner with friends, walking around downtown, and a Broadway show.... now that's what we call a great girl's night in the city!

Buddy Walk 2018

It's always a good feeling to be a part of Team Luke and support him on the annual walk!

Fall Premier Soccer 2018

After a rough season last year, we were a little skeptical as to how well Sophie and her team mates would do on the Premier Soccer league. With a new coach and some changes in players, this team turned out to have a successful season of growing and learning. Sophie came outside of her position in goalie and learned a lot about playing the game of soccer. She and her team had a great time and look forward to another season in the spring.

Working for a goal

Sophie is in a stretch and strength class this semester, and came home on Friday night very proud to show us that she FINALLY got her splits. The next morning, Abby was determined to work at this goal as well. After just a little warm up, Abby called me in the room to show me that she got her splits also. The two girls were SO proud of their accomplishments!

Still her birthday?

Sophie celebrated her birthday ONE more time this weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Guebert.... what a lucky girl to have so many people who love her!

New gift, old school

Sophie is super excited to try out this new present from Auntie Lynn and Mike... an instant camera. Watch out pocket, she's gonna burn a hole in you buying film for her selfies!

Mile run

I don't remember being in third grade and running the mile. But, I'm so proud of Sophie for at least trying. We know she isn't a "runner", but she and her classmates went out there and did their first attempts at school one day. Her time was over 13 minutes... looks like Sophie and Mom run at the same pace, and we know there's clearly room for improvement as she gets older!

Thankful...

Thankful for the Kirch's and the many families that helped us when our parents were out of town. This is just one day as the girls enjoyed their walk to school with friends. What a crew!

I may write a book..

Should I start saving the excuses and anecdotes of my students these days... because I don't think that our society realizes the type of young adults we are raising as we let "retakes", excuses, and iPads run the school.

Side note: student did NOT come in for the retake by the chapter test and thus earned a 0 on it. According to the principal, I should give him a 50% to "keep him in the game".

Brownies - September Meeting

Happy to be welcoming in two new members to our Brownie troop and being a part of many girls’ lives as troop leader. It’s also great to have the help and support of the other parents to plan fun events like this one at the Arboretum.