Happy Birthday Bailey!

Bailey is 7 years old today.

Here she looks much older than 7 thanks to Rachel's makeup job. Of course I think that this picture shows a glimse of what Bailey will look like as a teenager. Watch Out!

Cat Dog?

Freckles acts like a cat sometimes more than he does a dog.

Who's Feet?

Close-up of two pairs of feet.

Silly sisters - Bailey and Natalie!

Hey Mom - Can you give it a rest with the camera?

Happy Birthday Joe!

Happy Birthday!

Joe starts with the little presents.

Natalie clearly wanted him to start with the big one.

She couldn't wait until Joe opened this one. It wasn't very exciting to her, it was a new phone for downstairs. One with a corded handle so the older girls can't run off with the phone and leave nothing for Joe to answer during the day.

More Birthday Photos

This present was from Natalie as she has messed up Joe's current computer headphones by putting them on and off all the time.

Speak no evil, Hear no evil and See no evil?

Making Cheesy Bread Sticks

Joseph, Bailey and Natalie went to the Young Chef's Academy yesterday and learned how to make cheesy bread sticks. They wanted to make them again, so we decided to make them for Joe's birthday dinner and they would be perfect to have with baked ziti.

Natalie helps to knead and roll out some of the dough.

Bailey spreads egg whites on the dough before putting cheese on it.

Joseph puts egg whites and then mozzarella cheese on them too.

Taylor helps make them too. Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Stratton Family Photo Shoot

The whole family. Taylor, Mallory, Karen, Joe,
Natalie, Rachel, Joseph and Bailey down in front.

Dad and the kids.

Mom and the kids.

Just the kids, posing for a silly shot.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today would have been my Mom's 70th birthday!
She passed away just over 9 years ago.

Natalie's Haircut - Part 2

I finally got around to trimming the back of Natalie's hair.
The front was combed back while it was wet. I did not cut it that way.

Natalie gives Joseph a big hug.

Brother and sister making silly faces.

Natalie's Haircut - Part 1

I started to cut Natalie's hair tonight. It needed to be cut all around, but I only got to the front and sides tonight. Tomorrow night I will tackle the back and even it all up.

Natalie hates to have her hair brushed by me, but loves to do it herself.

Is this the haircut I'm stuck with Mom?

Beach Meet

Taylor had another gymnastics meet today. She did not have one of her better meets because she burned all of her fingertips baking lemon squares last night and they were still very sore today. Her best event was the beam with a 4th place finish score of 9.075. Her best score of the day on the bars was a 9.25, but did not earn her any placement. She did not do so well on the vault (8.750) or the floor (8.050), but still had a decent all-around score of 35.125.

Rachel's Volleyball Tournament

Rachel is playing on a travelling volleyball team this spring. Their first tournament was in northern VA this past weekend. They won 2 matches and lost one to place 2nd in the pool of four teams. They lost in the semi-finals, but a good day was had by all.
See the video of Rachel's hit pictured here.

Pinewood Derby

Joseph's Boy Scout troop had their Pinewood Derby tonight. Joseph was very excited about the car that he and Joe made for the race.

Ready, Set, Go!

Joseph's car came in last in this race. The car on the left, just peeking out from under the coat at the end of the track, was the clear winner of every race it was in.

Joseph's car came in first in this race by a nose. The missing middle car flipped off the track about half way down.

Back to Basics

Rachel decided that she didn't like the blonde anymore and went back to her original color.

Rachel Got a Hair Cut

Rachel got her hair cut a couple of nights ago.

Garage Cleanup

I bought some new shelves to store some of the stuff that's been piled up in the garage since I cleared it out of the house when we got new carpet last year. As you can see, they are almost full already.

Here's a picture of the back of the garage before I started to cleanup.

I still have to sort through most of these boxes or just get rid of some of this stuff. Here is a picture of the back of garage after I started to cleanup. This pile may not look much smaller than the one above, but it really is a lot smaller.

More of the Garage

Front of the garage before the cleanup.

Front the garage after the initial cleanup. I still have to sort through the roller blades, skooters and bike helments. Natalie saw the Jeep after I unburied it and climbed into the driver's seat.

Tough Judges

Taylor scored an 8.7 with this vault. She came in second, the highest vault score of the day was just an 8.75. Tough judges.

Taylor's best score of the day was for this bar routine, she got a 9.4, to secure a third place finish.

Taylor scored an 8.15 on the beam. She still came in 8th, which shows how low the scores were for the day.

Taylor also score an 8.15 for her floor routine. It looked good to me, so I don't know why the score was so low. Taylor finished 5th overall for the day, out of about 20 gymnastics.

Medal Time

Second place on Vault

Third place on the Bars

Eighth place on the Beam

Fifth place All-Around

Posing Natalie