Katie's Graduation

Katie Graduated on June 1, 2012, also known as Sarah's 16th Birthday and the last day of school. Although I was not there at the actual graduation, I'm sure it was awesome. The only thing was that instead of having the name Katie on her diploma, it said Kate.

Here are some pictures from the party we went to after her graduation.

Katie was very excited to finally graduate from high school, as was the rest of the family!

Summer Has Begun

Summer is here! It is finally at last here! Plus Katie has graduated!

Isn't she just beautiful! Well, summer is off to a good start here at the Stratford palace. We have gone swimming at Cherry Hill, and Sarah has gone off to EFY. It was a great experience for her. Amber right now is nagging me about taking up so much blog space for myself. It's sort of funny. Like rabbits put in a cage that rib out each others throats. Except we're not rabbits and Amber is trying to staple my belly.
Now Amber is getting very emotional about all this. Now here is the real story.

I LOVE AMBER!

Yes, I wrote that. She is my  sister and one of the coolest people I will probably ever meet. She is really understanding and super funny. Plus she is the only one who likes to watch sorta weird anime with me.
Amber is amazing smart as well. In every class she always has an "A". "A" is for Amber!

Amber is also very forgiving. I can't express how much I appreciate her and all she does for the family enough. She is truly awe-inspiring!

There are always tough times when siblings fight. Especially in the summer when one feels all couped up. The great thing about the relationship Amber and I have is that we can laugh and learn from such arguments.

I, Sarah, turned sixteen on the last day of school being June 1st. My sweet sixteen was fantastic!

All the guests had a great time as well. We played pretty wonderful party games and had a blast!
I can't wait to see what else will be done this summer!

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"Oh my gosh Sarah! Nobody cares about what T.V. shows we're watching!" - Amber Stratford
Inspirational words spoken by my younger sister Amber as I began this post. I know that I've all ready made a post about Pokemon. Let's face it. Pokemon is super cool. No doubt about it. Now I believe that the media has a strong influence on a person's personality and understanding of life. Which is why one has to be especially picky in choosing what T.V. programs to watch. Plus this blog's purpose is to document the life of those in the Stratford family, and since I'm pretty sure no one is going to read this religiously I'm posting about Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

Before the family moved from Ogden to Farmington I watched every eposodie of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is an amazing show, with good clean jokes and superior animation. Check this out.

As the video illustrated, these two series are epic! I'm really excited to see The Legend of Korra unfold. I bet everyone is wondering how I got that video clip in this blog. Well, I'll never tell!!! Maniacal laugh... Happy Wensday!

Pokemon

Ah! The tales of blissful childhood days. Waking up early in the dawn to watch children programming while eating Reese's Puffs. The golden days of youth are revisiting the family, in the form of Pokemon. Pokemon was a classic in my day. I was a huge fan and still am. David and Thomas have renewed this fan girls spirit as we watch the first season together every week. It's rather comforting in a strange teenage-young child mix of returning to the old trio of friends. Ash, Misty, and Brock. What friends! As a family we support each other and get angry/frustrated at times. But at the end of the day we all come away with an important message. And since we all know what it is there is no reason to repeat it. (Phineas and Ferb!)

We all have 'characters' who we are from the show. Katie is Misty, Sarah is Jesse, Amber is Officer Jenny, David is James, Thomas is Meothw, Ella is Cinderquill, and Carly is Pickachu. (Of course this line-up changes a lot) In short, here in the Stratford family we are creating Pokemon memories.

-Sarah

Carly's 3rd Birthday

Written from Sarah's View

As birthdays come and go it's nice to have some documentation of that special day. Thus is the tale of Carly's third birthday. A week before the fateful day Carly told Grandma Stratford that what she wanted for her birthday was a talking teapot. This was a surprise since Carly hadn't told anyone what she wanted yet. Then her birthday cards came; one from Grandma and Grandpa Ford, Grandma Stratford, and Bishop Davis. She was so excited. Her little face lit up. She absolutely loves those cards! The one that came from the Ford Grandparents was accidentally sent to the wrong residence. The elderly man who received the card drove over to our house. He had noticed that the envelope was addressed to a Miss Carly Beth Stratford from Grandma and Grandpas Ford. He knew that it was for a special girl on a special day. Carly was overjoyed to have gotten a letter. I was walking from the bus-stop and happened to be there as the man left. It's so nice to think of the trouble that he went to just so Carly could get the card by her birthday.

The making of the cake was originally Katie's duty. My was simply to bake it. So I go down to Katie's room on a Saturday morning. Katie of course is still half-asleep. Carly wanted a pink flower cake. So Katie told me to bake two flower cakes so that there could be a frosting filling in the middle. I did as she said and the finished cake turned out to be gigantic! Anyway, Mom and I ended up frosting the cake and somehow made enough frosting to cover the monstrous thing.

On Saturday, which really was Carly's birthday, Mom, Dad, Amber, Ella, Carly, and I went to Toys R Us to find Carly a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa Ford. They send each grandchild twenty dollars to buy a gift that they would like. Carly choose a cute little baby doll. She also got a balloon from Toys R Us.

We went to Grandma Stratford's house on Sunday for Carly's birthday party. Carly did get a talking tea pot set from Grandma.

Labor on Labor Day

Today is Labor Day and we spent it at the cabin. Grandma thought the cabin looked rather dirty, so we spent several hours cleaning. We cleaned just about every where. We cleaned behind the fridge, on the ceiling, and in the blinds. Well trying to clean the lamp shades my father set them outside on the bench. He went inside for a minute and in that time Ella came along and thought it would be a good idea to sit on them. Both of them. Even though now we need to buy new lamp shades, it was rather hilarious.