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Might just let the pictures speak for themselves today. It was a good morning. I always like to get the first picture of him in bed, it is still dark out around 6:15.

 Finding the perfect picture before the bus...

Here is the bus right on time at 7:12.

And then getting off the bus.

That's it for the 83 days of summer vacation 2025.

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The last day of Summer vacation. 

Since Kai finished his math workbook this summer, he got this nice LEGO reward. It was over 500 pieces, but he got it put together in just a few hours.

He also had to work on what to put in his "things about me" bag. He wanted to paint the outside like this calendar page. He did a great job.

Merrimac Ferry ice cream is one thing we didn't do yet, so we went out this afternoon for the half hour drive up to the ferry. We actually didn't do the ferry, just the ice cream part.

Then the wasps came, so we found a better spot.

When we got back, Kai had to finish the bag of things about himself.

Here it is...

family photo, his painting, some LEGO pieces, his hand drawing, the heart is for his stuffy, and the clock is from his Halloween outfit last year

After dinner, we went to the Verona splash pad for the final splashing. It was about 70 degrees, so the water felt cool. Shilagh and her daughter Elobwyn joined us.

the final drenching

walking away

I was thinking that this is the shortest summer vacation (83 days), but next year will likely be the longest. If no cancellations, summer vacation 2026 will be 89 days.

Of all, I think taking vacation right at the beginning of our summer vacation was my favorite thing. It was a good summer.

We will end with Shel Silverstein.

Day 0 coming up tomorrow morning.

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This will be our Septemberfest blog day.

I did take a picture of Goebbert's on the way in. It is nice and clean getting ready for Fall.

It was mid-70's today, but it felt warmer when in the sun. If we were going to experience the festival, we had to go with some old standbys, like the duck game.

To get you ready, here is the official sound of Schaumburg in the summer. It is cicadas and jets.

picking out prizes

Then the fishing game. We actually never fully hooked a fish and the guy gave us a prize.

The carousel was fun. We got the horses we wanted, the black ones.

Here is a random look at the carnival, which was not in the usual location this year because of the new village hall coming in late-2026.

For our last event, Heidi and Kai competed in the water gun game.

A view from across the pond.

I had fun using my tripod again.

...and playing Bingo.

One last photo...

...and one last day of Summer vacation upcoming.

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When we left this morning, we had one more page of math to finish up for Kai's summer goal of doing 50 pages. They are word problems related to money. Kai was not only able to read them, he was able to solve them all successfully on his own. Here is working on the last page in the car.

When we got home, he wanted to play with Nridib. I told them I'd drive them anywhere, so they agreed to play under the bridge.

walking to the bridge

getting some water

They then went to the Yellow Playground. We played a game called "Sharks and Minnows" - I was the shark, but them and the two other boys that were there couldn't quite figure out the rules.

After that, we went home to figure out what was next. Kai wanted to go through our recyclables to find different things we could make instruments from, like boxes, plastic bottles, etc.

Then they dug up some clay soil and mixed it with water to make some sculpting. They were making these spikes in the driveway.

Then they wanted me to run them over with the car. I am using my rearview camera to see them.

Here Kai is repositioning some so they get run over.

They enjoyed seeing the spikes get flattened.

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 While we waited for breakfast, we played with one of my old Transformers.

After breakfast they played a little garbage. It is a very easy game to learn to play.

My dad is trying to sell off some of his machinery, so I took a few pictures. A lot of it isn't worth much because the farms are so big now. Big farms don't really need small machinery. Regardless, we should be able to some money for it. We can try to sell on Facebook.

The chopper and disc aren't worth much, but the disc-bine should get a couple thousand, we hope.

More racquetball..

In the evening we ate in Brill. Brill is very small. The bar and bank on the left and the grocery store and feed mill on the right. 

I met the guy who taught me all about identifying trees. My Botany 101 professor Mr. Grivna. That was fun, I was just talking about him the other day. Him and my dad played softball together, so we go a ways back.

Kai found some friends to play with at the playground.