A very merry unbirthday

Zachary came home from school yesterday afternoon wearing what looked like a green crown with some pipe cleaners sticking up from it. Meh wasn't quite sure what it was about, as he was the only kid on the bus wearing a crown, and she was trying to guess whether it was supposed to be the very hungry caterpillar or just some random school craft that Z had decided looked better on his head. But his backpack held the answer: "Today we celebrated summer birthdays - that is why Zachary has a birthday crown. -S" Sure enough, there were 5 pipe cleaners in it. Z was a big fan, and O renewed his interest in headwear after seeing Z's crown, posing for a while in front of the mirror while wearing the red fireman's hat.

Last night was also Z's summer camp orientation meeting. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but he and I set out (at *gasp* nearly his bedtime) for the community center, with the aforementioned crown still firmly in place. He did remove it when we got to the venue, where we parked like some kind of Swingers choreographed car caravan alongside not one or two but three blue Priuses (one of the drivers had to snap a picture). We ran into friends R, M, and their son J before heading into the meeting itself. Z did really well with the introductory speeches, though he was a bit too shy to join the other kids when they headed to the gym for counselor-camper playtime while the parent orientation continued. I was finally able to walk him down towards the end of the info session, and he actually had a great time running around with the other kids, and even ran over and sat with another group doing songs with hand movements in a circle. I didn't quite catch that on this video, just him happily coming back to check in with me and my corner of the gymnasium.

After orientation, there was even a bonfire with marshmallows on (very long, kid friendly) sticks. Z was at first concerned with the idea of putting a stick in the fire, but before long he was flaming up marshmallows with the best of them. He didn't actually eat any (mostly just burned them to a crisp), though he did grab a few chocolate bar components of what were supposed to be smores. All in all, a very successful orientation - hope he has this much fun at camp proper in a few weeks!