Mythology

The Percy Jackson series created Owen's love of mythology.

Rion's Braid

I cut my braid. Rion

Although we encourage Rion's individuality and try to let him make his own
decisions, we are also not above trying to bribe him into doing what we
want. A while back Rion seemed to be thinking about cutting his Padawan
braid. I asked him what it would take for him to cut it. His response was an
Xbox 360 Kinect and a Dairy Queen. I asked what he wanted from Dairy Queen.
He responded that he wanted his very own Dairy Queen not just an ice cream
cone. Since Mike's will power probably couldn't stand having his own ice
cream shop, that was a no go. Then one day, Rion offered to cut it if he
could keep the braid, choose where we ate dinner, and be guaranteed desert.
Done deal! He cut the thing for a pancake dinner and donut. But, since we
are talking about Rion, he had other motives. The braid is being regrown
from his ear, like all good Padawans. - N

Putting

The Woods

So, yesterday Rion realized that he has enough money to buy his own TV. We discussed how it's not about the money, but about him not needing a TV in his bedroom yet. From there, the conversation morphed into - if he had a bigger room with a door, he could have a bigger TV. I told him that would require us to move to a new house. He says that he'll move anywhere that is a house, not an apartment, as long as it's not in the woods. I asked why he doesn't like the woods. His eyes opened wide and he said, "There are bears there". I tried to explain that the only bears in Chicago were at the zoos, then he started to worry that we live too close to Brookfield zoo. During the same car ride, he also said that if he were in the Olympics he'd be a downhill skier (because skiing uphill would be too hard). And, asked when we were going back to the Rocky Mountains. Apparently, his bear fear has moved from the Mountains to the woods. I blame Brave. :)

All Things Baseball

Owen has spent the entire summer obsessed with baseball. If he wasn't playing, he was watching games, practice swinging and pitching (in restaurants and stores), practicing his umpire voice calling strikes and balls, reading about the history of baseball, learning about the Hall of Famers, and debating with himself and anyone who will listen about who the best players are. Who's better Sandy Koufax or Nolan Ryan? We were just introduced to Strat-O-Matic too. Now he can simulate games with the hall of famers to find out who really is the best. I wonder if this will continue into the fall, or if the debates will change to football? - N

Me and my mom got a new game. It’s called Strat-O-Matic. It’s like a game you use baseball cards and you get to pick your team. My team was Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Johnny Bench, Mickey Mantle, Ricky Henderson, Honus Wagner, Mike Schmidt and my two pitchers were Sandy Koufax and Dizzy Dean who hit a home run in the very last inning as a pitcher. It didn’t make sense. My favorite Hall of Famer ever, ever, ever, I would say would have to be Willy Mays. I don’t know why, but it’s just Willy Mays. Well I’ll give you a list of my favorite 10 Hall of Famers.

1.      Willy Mays

2.      Honus Wagner

3.      Dizzy Dean

4.      Ryne Sandberg

5.      Sandy Koufax

6.      Lou Gehrig

7.      Babe Ruth

8.      Mickey Mantle

9.      Ty Cobb

10.     Mel Ott

I’ve read books about baseball. There is Every day Baseball’s Best, Babe and Me, The Book of Baseball Literacy, and True Stories of Hall of Famers, and The Chronicle of Baseball. All of the books I like and I’ve learned that some people that I never thought were in the Hall of Fame are in the Hall of Fame. Like, what’s that guy's name again? Cal Ripken Jr. That’s his name. Here are the top 5 teams that have won the most World Series.

1.      Yankees

2.      Cardinals

3.      Athletics

4.      Red Sox

5.      There’s a lot of them that had six. But I’m going to go with the Reds because that’s my favorite team.

Owen Day

My first boss had a tradition of having one father-son day a year where the
child got to choose everything they did, just the two of them. I stole the
idea from him and love having the one-on-one time. Owen had lots of ideas
and was very specific with the schedule. Early in the morning he woke me up
mad that I wasn't ready because it was 15 minutes until he wanted to be at
the restaurant for breakfast. I was wasting his time! He only had 11 hours
and needed every minute. It was a great, non-stop day with him! And, since
Owen and I were gone, Mike had Dad and Rion night. - N

I went to see Ice Age Continental Drift. That was it. See ya! - Rion
On Owen day we started out going to Pulp Kitchen. At Pulp Kitchen I got
s'mores pancakes. That was for breakfast. After that we went to Barnes and
Noble where me and Mom bought a few books. And then, after that, we went to
Enchanted Castle. At Enchanted Castle me and Mom got a lot of tickets, close
to like 750 or something. I got 350 of the tickets by getting 110 from
blackjack and 120 from the coin flip thing. And Mom got like half of the
stuff. Mom got like 400 and I got like 350. Me and Mom also did air hockey,
which Mom won. We also did mini golf and we did bumper cars and go carts. In
the go carts, I beat Mom. After Enchanted Castle we went to Wheaton Studio
Movie Grill. There, I got a hamburger for lunch which came with fries. This
is how it works. There is this red button in your seat because there is like
this table thing. And, when you click the button a waitress comes to take
your order. Like I said, I got the burger and the fries. I also got a frozen
hot chocolate. It tastes like a milk shake. At Studio Movie Grill I was
watching the Amazing Spider Man. It was good. Also, after that I went to
batting cages. The batting cages were like really low so I had to take big
upper cuts. I hit a few. They were pretty good hits, but I fouled off a lot.
After that we went to Portillo's. I got a hot dog and Mom got a salad. After
that, we went home. The end. - Owen

Mom's Birthday

Vacation Bible School

Their first year of vacation bible school. Well, this was their first year attending church and Sunday school. Since our church doesn't have summer Sunday school, we decided to take a friend's approach and take the summer off, with the one condition being that they had to attend VBS. It was held for 5 evenings and included dinner. They loved going and looked forward to it each night. I had an excuse not to cook my birthday week! The week concluded with an entertaining show and ice cream social, but we hear the songs they learn all of the time. - N

Vacation bible school is very fun. My friends were Wes, Bo, Ryan, and Landon. These were the activities. Art, bible school, music, and lunch. For lunch we had hot dogs, chicken nuggets, quesadillas, cookies, fruit, and mac-n-cheese. But not in all the same days. We had fruit and cookies in the same days. Everything else we had separate days. My favorite part about vacation bible school was the music. It was fun. I liked it because it was just fun. In art we made this rainbow thing on the first day so we could put all of these little animals that represented each day because we watched this movie called Chatter the Chipmunk Catch Some Air. It was about this guy who was secretly trying to hurt people. It was kind of like this tournament thingy and the guy in charge of the tournament was trying to hurt people. His name was Brad Condor. And there was this chipmunk, Chatter the Chipmunk, was one of the contestants. There were two contestants in each group. These are the groups. Chatter and a girl. Tina and Gina. 2 girls. Two old guys. A big hulky guy and a puppet. And two other people who were cheaters. I learned that not all people that look like they are going to win always win, like if they cheat. The show on Friday, we were doing songs and like dancing. And, all of the parents were watching us. The end. - Owen

I like vacation bible school cuz there was lots of activities. The activities were dinner, this is how I did it. There was dinner, and then music, bible school, and then I did the last activity. I don’t know what it was called. It was, I made a craft, crafts. Then I went home. I learned a new song called Zachius. I learned Zachius and I learned Jesus Loves Me and the B-I-B-L-E, and step to the right with the holy spirit… (Rion broke out into song). I had fun. - Rion

Chicago Fire vs LA Galaxy

At the Chicago Fire game they played the LA Galaxy. My favorite player in
that game was London Donovan. He had an assist which was actually a pretty
nice shot by the other person and the Fire lost 3-1. The Fire played good
though but the LA Galaxy are still the MLS champs. I didn't enjoy the game
that much just because there were too many throw ins. - Owen

I went to the Chicago Fire game versus the LA Galaxy. I was cheering for the
LA Galaxy for that one because the LA Galaxy is my favorite team cuz they
have Landon Donovan. He's my favorite soccer player. I don't have a favorite
golf player or a favorite baseball player. The LA Galaxy won. It was 2-3. -
Rion

They are both wrong. LA won 2-0. - N

Baseball

I played t-ball. It was fun because I always, I got most people out in a

game. I got lots of people out. I liked my team because my friend was on it.
I was on the Riverdogs. The same exact team that my brother was on, but not
the same people. And, I ran down a line for my thing, for my trophy. My
trophy was a baseball person, like Owen's when he was a kid. When he was in
t-ball. I hit a ball super, super far. I hit it like a grand slam (swinging
motion). Smacks it way farther out of left field! Home-run! I hit it like a
home run. It was t-ball and coach pitch. I like the coach pitch better
because I've been hitting the coach pitch balls farther and I was hitting
them down the third base line and I was always getting safe at first. I
always got a home run. It was funny. It always came in left field. It was
far. It hit the net. It hit the tippy top. He almost caught that ball but he
missed. It was high up in the air. My dad gave me a pop up before. I may
have catched it. I forget if I caught it. - Rion
Rion had a great first year of t-ball. We were a little worried how he'd
deal with the slow play in the field, but he loved it and stayed focused. He
was a great player and even got to play up on Owen's team for a few games.
During one, he even had a RBI. - N


My baseball season, my team was a really good team. I was an all-star. And,
my best inning of the all-star game would have to be the 1st inning when I
was catching, I would have to say. The rest of my season was really good
too. I had 24 doubles, 3 triples, but no home runs, which is really
surprising. I had 3 unassisted double plays and I almost turned a double
play with my friend Bennett. My favorite position to play was, hmm, that's
hard. I would have to say shortstop. Me and my friend Bennett, when he was
on 2nd, and the other all-star, Max, was on 1st, almost turned 5 double
plays but every single time the person on 2nd made it before the flip to 2nd
or the person running to 1st made it before the throw to 1st. We almost made
it once, the umpire had a bad call. I would have to say that my best hit
would have to be, we were playing the A's. I knocked one right up the
middle, it was a high fly ball. It went over the pitcher's head, over the
2nd baseman's head, and over the center fielder's head. The center fielder
was jugging to get it. When I was rounding 3rd and heading home. Right when
I hit ½ way, the ball landed in the infield right when I was in the middle
but my 3rd base coach said I had to go back. I learned not to get frustrated
or it's going to let your whole team down. Once we found out who the
all-stars were, I just couldn't act that way. The end. – Owen
Another great year for Owen. He made the all-star team for the first time
and started to show more leadership on the field. - N

Hinsdale Humane Society

OO decided that they didn't want to have a monthly charity project this
year. Instead, they wanted each of us to do a bigger charity project during
our birthday months. - N

I collected dog toys for my birthday like this. I asked them for dog toys
and for less presents. I ended up getting 39 dog toys and I gave them to the
Hinsdale Humane Society. And it helped give the dogs stuff so that they
could, like, have more toys. I liked the Hinsdale Humane Society because I
got to see every animal and I liked the animals cuz, I liked the kittens the
best. Cuz, they didn't have any, they didn't make any sounds. I really
wanted to bring home a kitten but dad was allergic to them so I couldn't. I
saw a small dog. It looks like my dog when it was small. I saw, like, 4 dogs
I wanted to buy. And, a kitten. - Rion

Rion lost his 1st tooth

I lost my first tooth on the 4th of July. And, guess how much money I got. I
got $10. And, I pulled my tooth out. And, the one where it came out, the
tooth on the left is wiggly. - Rion

Without Power

Mom: We were without power for three 90+ degree days the week of July 4th.
After the first night in the house, we gave up and escaped to a hotel.

Owen: During the 4th of July we didn't have power so we went to a hotel. I
liked the hotel better than the house, just to tell you. But, I wasn't real
happy that we lost power.
Rion: I was. I liked it because it was in the dark.
Owen: I didn't really like it though.
Rion: I loved it.
Owen: I didn't like it because it was like in the dark and because dad made
me take a shower in the dark. I don't know what he was thinking.
Rion: I liked the dark cuz I got a flashlight, my own flashlight. And
because you made us go asleep in the dark. That part I did not like. I swam
in the pool and I jumped in the water and swam all the way across the pool.

Happy 4th of July!

The Taste of Oakbrook and Fireworks

Owen: At the 4th of July,
Rion: It wasn't the 4th of July, it was the 4th of the 3rd. No, no, no. It
was the 3rd of July.
Owen: Well, oh, sorry for saying that. It was really fun.
Rion: It was not really fun. Fireworks are loud.
Owen: The fireworks were all different colors and shapes and the food there
was actually pretty good.
Rion: No, it was too loud.
Owen: The Taste of Oakbrook was cool, but standing in line at McDonalds. I
don't know who would do that. It was like an hour long line. (Taste of
Oakbrook = Free McDonald's French fries) Well, my favorite part about the
fireworks was the very loud fireworks. They just went KABOOM!
Rion: KA-KA-KA-BOOM!
Owen: Well, that's it from Owen.
Rion: That's not it from Orion. The fireworks were actually, I didn't like
them because they were super loud. And, at least I got to look at my mom
while we were taking pictures. That was my favorite part about it. No,
playing the DS.