Elliot and Oona
June 2008 - Elliot is 8.5, Oona is 10.5 (about)
at the Ricky Byrdsong Race Against Hate - Youth Mile.
Oona was 2nd overall, 1st girl. Elliot was 9th overall, out of about 200 (supposedly 13 & under, tho there were a few older kids).
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July 3 2008
Oona is 10.5 and just finished 4th grade; Elliot 8.5, and just finished 2nd grade.
Due to our school system, Oona is moving to a new school for 5th & 6th grade - in fact, E & O won't be in the same school again until Oona's last year of high school (Elliot's soph yr). That's a little sad for them, since they loved seeing each other occasionally at school.
Other than that, they both enjoyed their school years.
Big story for this summer is our coming trip to Alaska to visit Kris & Carrie. They have the BEST CABINS in ALASKA, which they build pretty much by themselves (yes, I'm amazed!).
They both love to read, but Elliot tends to have more free time (especially in summer, since Oona is in camp for afternoons), so reads more. Among his recent favorites:
* The Lightning Thief (and sequels: Sea of Monsters; Titans Curse - all mix Greek Mythology with modern teen life; which led him to whip through an entire volume of Greek Mythology for kids - I'd recommend the book by the D'Aulaires)
* Series of Unfortunate Events
* The Day my Butt Went Psycho and it's sequels
* The Warriors series (about wild cats living in clans, and their struggles for physical and political survival! We read these together with Oona)
He's dying for latest sequels to come out in some other series, such as the Inkheart books, and others. Oona likes most of these books, as well as some of her own, from school or others she's picked up.
Oona still loves doing art work and I still have to put up some representative samples. I LOVE seeing her work. She still plays chess, though maybe not as much as Elliot.
They both still enjoy soccer, both played on Wilmette Wings teams this year; they enjoyed it, and will be back for more next year.
And they still enjoy jumping into the occasional race (see pics above). In my opinion they're still too young to "train," so their main practice is freeze tag, soccer, etc. But they do well in their races. This spring Elliot ran a 5k in 24:48; that's 8:00 pace, but the most remarkable thing was that he actually ran 8:00 +/- 4 seconds for each mile -- good pacing (on a HOT day, too). Oona just jogged that with him, as she'd had a soccer tournament that weekend. Then one very hot Saturday they ran a track meet - AFTER Oona's soccer game. They both ran the 800 followed by the 1500. [Due to their birthdates, they had to compete in the same division, even though Elliot is 22 months younger than her]. Oona ran 2:54 then 5:54 (winning both easily), and Elliot ran 3:14 then 6:25. Both ran very tough on a hot track. Then, a couple weeks ago, the Race against Hate youth mile (pics above), which is a great race for a great cause, right near my work & Oona's summer camp. The only kid to beat Oona was a boy who looked about 15 or 16 (tho I thought the Youth Mile was for 13 & under - maybe he's just big). And only a few others beat Elliot (all looking significantly older than Elliot, except the kid finishing neck and neck with him, above).
Oona has been participating in Girl Scouts; here's a picture of her planting gardens at the school, one of their group projects:
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