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Today is the day. When I went to wake him, he said he was pretending to get an x-ray, which is what they use those heavy lead blankets for.

Everything went well this morning, despite him being a bit anxious and not getting to sleep until about 10PM last night.

Here is the picture of the first day picture.

walking to the bus stop

last minute words

getting on bus 88 at 7:12AM - Butch is still the driver

And then arriving at school.

Next blog post in 281 days?

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The last day. 

We had a list of things we wanted to do these last three days. Playing this Trekking the National Parks board game was one of them.

He also got his small notebook to get him ready for the year.

backpack is all cleaned

close up of the notebook

I remember playing with my friends on the last day of summer vacation, and wanted to make sure Kai and Ardro had a few hours. It was warm-ish, and sunny, so they started with water play.

Then some magnetic drawing blocks...not sure what you call these.

I took the drone out to get some pictures too.

our spruce tree is 27 feet tall - the drone measured it

Then off to the playground. They go a little crazy when Namro (Ardro's brother comes over), dribbling the basketball. Kai and Ardro call it a "soccer ball," and it's kind of funny since they call it wrong on purpose.

In the evening, we finished up the summer as we always do, with the last splash at the Verona splash pad. I was the only one this year.

We are almost ready for the school year.

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Okay, I think I'll do a bunch of photos from Septemberfest and put captions below them...

walking in

The duck game is always a favorite

softball toss

horse racing

our first ride

inside the dragon twisty ride

fun house

no funnel cakes this year

we liked the fishing game

After the carnival, we went to Schiller's Magic Pump.  It is about a 30 minute drive, a fun one with all the back roads on a Sunday. We got there when no one was there, but when we left there was a long line of people. It was our first miracle!

Here is the line that formed shortly after we left.

Afterward, I took out the drone.

toward the festival grounds

Meineke Park

downtown Chicago

family photo - Heidi has a wet shirt from a water balloon

a new type of selfie

the magic drone

We had a water taste test before we left. All three participants were able to guess the holy water.

I will post on this blog for Monday and then right after school starts on Tuesday.

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Today we started with our marbled paper art. We were going to try this yesterday, but we then realized the set up took about 5 hours - the carrageenan needed to set in the water. This makes the water thicker, so we did that overnight so we could be ready in the morning. It was a fun craft.

 

The three in the upper left were our first tries. As you can see, the ones on the right side are pretty fantastic looking as our technique improved.

The only movie at the theater we saw this summer was today - Despicable Me 4.

To me, a 90-minute movie hits the spot.

We hadn't been to the pool in August yet, and today was the last day. It was quite a nice day to be there with a high of about 84 degrees at 5:30.

That's it for August 2024.

On the bright side, we did learn the lights above the pool do work, so we'll have to find a nice September evening for the pool.

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With only four days left of "summer" vacation, we're trying to get some of our favorite things done. 

Both Heidi and Kai mentioned they wanted to play some games over the next few days. 

Here is a game that neither Kai or myself have played. It is much easier than I thought.

Wollersheim Winery was a place we wanted to go this summer. They have a place that makes quick food. Here's that meal....

Continuing our trek north to Devil's Lake. Not as many people here as I expected. It was nice and a little cloudy. He liked playing on the beach.

May as well have ice cream.

he likes blue ice cream

And then for a walk along the western bluff.

We were going to make marbled paper tonight until we found out it needs about 3 hours of prep work ahead of time.

Tomorrow is the last day of August, and we have a few more things to knock off our summer list.

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Today was a free day for him...and he chose a free activity, our library. I am not sure if we have the best library in the area, but it does have the best LEGO bricks.

When we got the the library today, we found a clean slate.

 He did LEGO for about an hour, here are some photos. He took these...

And I took a picture of him with he extra long-legged man.

For the next little bit, he played on the computer. He likes making cookies with designs. You pick the pattern then apply the frosting and other fancy things that make a cookie a cookie.

Kai took the photo, you can see his reflection

They also have a nice veterinarian kit. He was the doc today.

That's all for today.