Car Card!!

When Ben heard he was able to make a birthday card for Grandpa that featured one of Ben’s favorite cars he was all in!!  I love the Ferrari Enzo drawing, the coloring job and the fact that Ben is wearing jeans for the first time since he was a baby!!  Love the smile too!!

Winter Ball

These volleyball playing, German speaking teenagers went to the winter ball together tonight after a day date of rock climbing and a fancy home cooked dinner at a friend’s house with their group. They danced all night and then went on to another friend’s house for some movie watching that eventually got lame (scary stories to tell in the dark), so they left. Ava drove her and her date and didn’t get home until 12:30am!!  What a night; the conversation never went cold, wonder if there is a second date in the future!

Jeans!!

Jack started wearing jeans in 8th grade, this guy is in 5th!  Why do boys waste so much in elastic waistband pants when they can look amazing in denim!!  Glad Ben relented and wore these since they’ve been sitting in his drawer since august!  Ulli approves! 

Another 2 Inches!

We are ahead of last year’s snow count, but I’m not sure how since it has only snowed 5 inches in over a week!  With so little white stuff, we have to get out every time it snows!  Covid cancelled my institute class this morning and I couldn’t be more grateful to spend a couple hours making some turns with this guy!!

Powder Morning!!

Kyle has been so busy lately, making it hard to go skiing during the day. There hasn’t been any snow since Christmas break, so it’s been easy to stay home, but this morning there was 3 inches on the ground calling my name!!  Ben also headed the call and the two of skied some new terrain off Mary’s lift and had a blast until we were cold and tired and Ben needed to go to school!  It was such a fun morning to spend on the mountain with this skilled 10 year old!!

Moose!

 Jack has been driving every day since Friday and even went home over the divide on Monday with Kyle!  Today he had another first, driving with critters on the road!  We came around the bend at the fork at North Fork and found this calf with her mama!  It was so fun to see them nibbling trees, walking across the road, and back again!  So cool!!  When they went back across the road, Jack pulled away slowly and got us home with a fun video!

Winter Ball!

Ava decided to attend another girl’s choice dance and asked a fun boy in her German 3 class that also happens to be an intense volleyball player!  She came up with this poster and rocked the hand lettering.  We were going to deliver the poster for Ava tomorrow afternoon after she went to Hawaii!  Unfortunately for Ava she didn’t get to go after testing positive for Covid, so she and Ben ran over the poster tonight while Sam and Kaitlin were visiting.

It took Ava’s date almost too long to answer her officially, but he sent her a few positive texts relieving any anxiety about not going. In the end, he and his dad set up these 10-2 liters of soda all over the yard and put this poster with a FIZZ gift card on the doorstep.  Ava was thrilled with the response!

Drive Time!

While Ava and Kyle were at the airport trying to get a legal Covid test, Jack and I were at the DMV trying to get street legal.

 

Wax Museum!

Ben decided a long time ago who he wanted to research and present at the wax museum, Enzo Ferrari. Unfortunately, Enzo does not meet the teacher’s qualifications for subject material. People in the wax museum need to have highly impacted America.  So Ben chose Henry Ford!  Ben’s poster turned out top notch and his quote was memorized easily.  The suit was an after thought, but really represented Henry Ford’s persona. Another exciting aspect of Ben’s project was the 3D button he and Kyle printed out and assembled.  Love this little car fanatic!!

Surprise!!

Jack didn’t see his cake until after it was lit up and in front of him halfway through the birthday song and boy was he floored!!  I kind of think he doubted we could pull off the insane cake he found on Saturday!!

Once he stopped laughing about how insane his cake was, he blew all 15 candles out with greatest of ease!  We enjoyed the cake with some caramel truffle ice cream while watching some birthday fails!  Jack had a great day and ended it watching half of the first Spider Man with Ava!!  Love you buddy!!

What a Haul!!

Jack had a full day of Project Lead the Way, Seminary, English, lunch and then a surprise pick up to go see the new Spider Man movie with his buddy and I!  We were able to catch all the end previews before whisking Jack to practice. Once Jack was finished we raced home for some smoked ribs before Ava headed to practice. 

Once Ava left we finished dinner and then Jack had a birthday parade that resulted in so many gifts!  There was a lot of basketball gear as well as a fun metal earth rover, a b-ball hot chocolate mug with marshmallows, a 12 pack of Mamba Forever Body Armors, a drawing kit and some money from grandparents. Jack loved everything and couldn’t stop smiling!! 

Oreo Cookie and Brownie Cake!!

On Saturday Jack while we were waiting for the Biscoff No-Bakes to set up, Jack was perusing the internet looking for some birthday cake inspiration.  He found this monstrous 5 layer cake with an entire pan of brownies piled on top!  I scaled down to three layers and ended up with this beautiful white cake and brownie layer topped with ganache, Oreo buttercream frosting and a pyramid of brownies and oreos!  Kyle made the cakes last night, while I made the brownies this morning once the kids were all at school. When Jack was at practice I finally assembled everything and could not believe the result!!

 

Cookie Time!!

Jack came up with a new business idea during the break and launched it this past weekend.  Lots of interest came from the slew of texts sent out with Jack’s ad and info.

“ Hey! This is Jack Komenda. I am known for being big, I am also known for making cookies!  That’s why I’m launching Big Jack’s Cookie Shack!  With a subscription you can have different delicious cookies delivered fresh every month!

1 Month/$10 or 1 Year/$100”

Throughout the week he managed to gain 11 yearly memberships and 6 different monthly memberships ranging from 1-6 months. He was so successful that we decided to do two days of baking over the course of two weekends and deliver at the end of each day. 

The first day went great!  Jack multiplied the recipe by 5 and cranked out 9 customers’ cookies, bagged them and then delivered them!  It was a lengthy process with some adjustments needed for the amount of oats in the Biscoff No-Bakes, but the whole experience made Jack realize he could reach his goals and had him smiling so big at each delivery!!