Natalie pedals her Bike

Natalie has finally learned how to pedal her bike. Now she needs to learn how to pedal the bike without having to look at her feet.

Today's Track Meet

Taylor ran in another track meet today. This one was local, so some of us went home between her events since they were about seven hours apart. Six of us went this morning at 9am to watch her run the 80m hurdles. See next post for those results. Just Joe and I went back later to watch her run in the 1500m run. I have decided that Taylor does much better running first thing in the morning than in the heat of the day. Both times that she ran later, she ran much slower than when she ran earlier in the day. In two weeks, we head to Dover, DE for the AAU Regional Meet. Taylor will be competing in both the 3000m run and the 1500m run. Both events are at 8am, one on Friday morning and one on Saturday morning. We are turning the meet into a mini vacation for the whole family since we have to stay over night for two nights.

Joseph added this comment when I walked away from the computer while writing this post: Blah blah blah!

More Hurdles

Taylor ran the 80m hurdle event again today. She is to the far right. She came in forth, but improved her time by 1.8 seconds from last week. Her time today was 17.28 seconds.

Up

And Over!

Happy Birthday to Me!

The kids made this screen saver for me today.

Playing in the Hose

Rachel had to hose Freckles off after he got out and covered in mud.
As you can see, Natalie joined him by playing in the hose water too.

The two of them had a great time playing in the water.

Freckles says "Hey, you're blocking all the water!"

Now that's better, water for everyone.

Track Meet - 3 Events

Taylor ran in three events at today's track meet. Her first event of the day, around 9 AM, was the 3000m run. She improved her time from the last meet by 18 seconds. Woo Hoo!!!

Taylor tried the hurdles for the first time today. She had to jump over 8 hurdles over a length of 80m. Before today, she had only ever jumped two hurdles in a row. She run this event about 30 minutes after running the 3000m run. I was expecting a time around 20 seconds. She started great, ran out of steam towards the end, and still got a good time of 19:06.

Taylor also ran the 1500m run later in the day. She did not do so well in this event today, because it was hot and she was tired from sitting around all day waiting to run.

Taylor ended up with a 2nd place medal in the 3000m run, a 3rd place medal in the hurdles and a 5th place finish in the 1500m run. Great job overall!!!

Backyard Camping

We set up 3 tents in the backyard for the kids to campout.

Joseph makes a great scary monster face!

Joseph surprised Bailey from behind.

S'mores

We made a small wood fire in a table top grill to roast marshmallows.

Natalie did not like the sticky marchmallows.

Taylor kept burning her marshmallows.

Yum - S'mores!

End of the Year Party - White Sox

Bailey and Coach Fred

Coach Fred and Natalie

The Lady White Sox

The cake was delicious

Good friends doing what they love best - Eating!

Does this look familar?

I found Natalie alseep like this last night.
Can anyone guess who she looks like?

AAU Track Meet Update

Taylor ended up with two medals from last weekend's meet. A 1st place finish in the 3000m run and a 2nd place finish in the 1500m run. I had originally reported that she had finished 3rd in the 1500m run. Her next meet is in a week and a half and she's going to try a hurdle event in addition to her two long distance events.

Look who can Cook

Rachel is much more than a pretty face.
She cooked dinner for the family tonight.

We had meatballs, fresh green beans, mashed potatos and biscuits.
It was all very delicious.

More AAU Track News

Taylor ran the 1500m run today at 8:05am. She was supposed to run at 7:30am so the events were not running so far behind as they were yesterday. She finished third with a time of 6:15. At this pace she would have finished a mile around 6:35 which is 10 seconds faster than her fastest time during the middle school season. We also got her official time from the 3000m which was 15:05. Her coach will receive all of the medals that the team runners won yesterday and today and will give them to the kids this week at practice. I want to research 12 year old times for the 3000m and 1500m events before we decide if we will let Taylor compete at the regional meet. She qualified to compete in both events at the regional meet.

Baseball Party

Joseph's baseball team had their end of the year party today.
Each kid got a trophy and a special personalized dog tag from the coach.

They also got a baseball signed by all of the boys on the team.

Bailey liked all of the fresh fruit at the party.

AAU Track Meet

Taylor ran in her first AAU track meet today. The meet was a district qualifier for the regional meet. The top three place finishers in each age group qualifiy for the regional meet. She ran the 3000m run for the first time today and will run in the 1500m run tomorrow.

Taylor was scheduled to run 3000m at 8:00am and we had to be there at 7:00am. The meet was about 30 minutes away so we left early to make sure we got there on time. We got there at 6:30am, you can see, Taylor is not used to being up at 5:30am.

The teams set up tents in the stands to have a shady place to sit. These are the long distance runners in Taylor's club. Taylor's event was delayed due to computer issues so she didn't run until just after 10:00am. The girls run first, than the boys. All age groups together.

I thought that all of these tents in the stands looked very funny.

First Place Finish in 3000m Run

Taylor was one of two 12 year olds running in the 3000m run. She is the one just in front of the girl in blue at the back of the pack. The other girls in this picture are all older than her. She was only competing against the other 12 year old, the girl in blue behind her.

Staying with the pack of older girls and ahead of the competition.

Final sprint to finish line. I don't have Taylor's exact time.
She came in first in her age group at around 15 minutes.

Other Saturday Events

Joe watched Bailey play softball today while I was at the track meet. Taylor and I went to the middle school band end of the year picnic after the track meet. We got there about an hour late due to the meet running so far behind schedule. Boy am I tired tonight.

Beach Volleyball

Mallory, Rachel and Taylor are all playing pick up volleyball at the beach this summer.
Taylor and Rachel on the boardwalk.

Mallory takes of her ankle brace in the sand.

The wind was blowing good this evening.

The sunlight really makes the orange hair very bright.

The ocean looks nice, but I'll bet it's still very cold.

Busy Weekend

Saturday started early with Mallory having to take the SATs at 7:30. Next, Joe dropped Taylor off at the middle school at 8:30 to enjoy a day at Busch Gardens with the school band. Then he took Joseph to his baseball game, which started at 9:00. I dropped Rachel off at her dog sitting job at 8:45 on my way with Bailey and Natalie to watch some of Joseph's game. Rachel walked with the dog to the baseball field to watch Joseph play and to give the dog some exercise. Bailey was picked up from the baseball field at 9:45 by a friend to go to her game. After Joseph hit, I took Rachel back to return the dog and pick up our dog to go watch Bailey's softball game at 10:30. After Bailey's softball game, we got a short rest until we left at 2:30 to go to a Girl Scout bowling party. Rachel, Joseph and I bowled in a lane next to the Scouts while Joe stayed home with Natalie for a much needed nap for them both. We left the bowling alley at 4:50 to swing back by the house to pick up Joe, Natalie and Joseph's boat for the Boy Scout Regatta and award ceremony at 5:00. After the regatta and award ceremony, we went to dinner with one of Joe's good friends who just got promoted in the Navy. We partied as long as we could after such a long day and were home and in bed by 11:30.

Sunday was a BINGO day for Mallory, Rachel and myself. It rained for most of the day so Joe didn't get to work on the pool or outside as much as he wanted to today.

Joseph's Last Game

Joseph's team got into the playoffs this year, but lost the game. Joseph didn't get many hits this year, but tried to stay in the box and swing at more pitches than last year.
He's got such great power, when he gets his timing down, watch out!

Bailey's Softball Game

Bailey likes playing right field because she gets to back up first base.

Nice pitch, nice batting form, Bailey almost got a hit off that one.

Too low, why is Bailey swinging the bat?

Ouch, that pitch hit Bailey's ankle after hitting the ground in front of her.

Bailey did not let a little thing like getting hit by the ball stop her from standing in there and swinging at the next pitch. I'm not sure why she didn't get to walk?

Girl Scout Bowling Party

Bailey had the best score of all the Girl Scouts

She's got pretty good form

Joseph learned to bowl straight to avoid crashing the ball into the bumpers

Joseph was excited to get a spare. Next time he wants to bowl without bumpers.

Rachel played with bumpers too, but you wouldn't know it by looking at her score.