Memorial Day and the last day of school

For the last 4 years, a member of the Bond family has run in the Upper Arlington Memorial Day 5 miler.  I had been planning on running again this year, but then for health reasons, I had to stop training. In the end, it turned out to not be a bad thing to miss the race because it was HOT out.  Temperatures were in the high 80s even at the beginning of the race, and I saw multiple people get sick after the race from the heat.  Despite his better judgement, David raced the 5 miler this year, if nothing else but to keep up tradition.  I forget his exact time, but it was obviously not his fastest race.  At the end of the race, David was so sweaty that he looked like he had taken a dip in a pool!  I'm sure he would have rather been doing that, than running so much in the heat.

I wanted to do the 1 mile fun run with the kids, but Eliana was ambivalent at first.  The race begins at a playground and her preference was to just keep playing. However, as the announcer was counting down to the start of the race, she changed her mind and jumped right in.  I hopped into the race as well, pulling Will and Laney in the wagon.  We were joined by our friends Holly, Adele, and Hannah.  I was surprised because Eliana took off running and just kept running (must be all the soccer she has been playing).  Two years ago when she did the fun run, she ran for a bit, then wanted to walk, then run again. This time, however, she was off like a bolt of lightning and never looked back for us slow pokes.  The kid's race is a half mile out then back, so after several minutes, I see Eliana heading back towards us.  Pulling the wagon, our group was near the very end of the participants still walking. However, as Eliana ran by, we all just turned around and headed for the finish line (it's a very casual race!).  Haha!  Eliana completed the 1 mile race in about 10 min 30 seconds! I couldn't believe how fast she was! I'm pretty sure I couldn't run that fast in high school. I'm glad she decided to run it after all. We finished with more playground time, then relaxing for the end of the holiday weekend.

My fast racers!

On Wednesday, Eliana had her last day of kindergarten.  (Why the school made the students come back from Memorial day weekend for a day and a half of school, I do not know.) I can't believe how fast the year went! She definitely learned a lot at school this year.  She is starting to read, and I'm just blown away by how much math she can do.  We were playing school the other day and she was the teacher, having me do math story problems.  She then showed me several techniques to solve the story problem such as drawing a picture, using the ten frame, and using a number line. I was impressed!  She has made tons of new friends. She also tells me that she now wants to be an author and illustrator when she grows up.  I'm proud of my big girl!  Off to first grade next year!

Last day of school