Maceo & Camp Letts!

Maceo & his camp gear

It was our friends, the Pikes, who reached out to us in the dead of winter suggesting a trial-run sleepaway camp experience at Camp Letts for their son, Dean, and Maceo.  Turns out, this was a camp that Nick had gone to when he was younger, too.  Maceo wanted everything to do with the idea so we said yes, paid for it, and waited the, oh, four to five months for the camp session to actually start.  Which it did.  From Sunday to Tuesday, Maceo spent 3 days and 2 nights in an unairconditioned cabin in Maryland, full of 12 eight year old boys.

Maceo showed no signs of nervousness, only pure excitement.  The only person showing signs of hesitation - oh, alright, downright jealousy and grumpiness - was good ol' Cassius, peeved once again that he is not older.  Maceo, Cassius, and I arrived at Camp Letts on Sunday right when Maceo's friend Dean arrived and the two hugged upon exiting our cars. (Adorable!)  They ran quickly through their stations - health forms, add-on activities, lice check - were given the all clear and we were instructed to bring their bags to their bunks and help get them set up and to, with kinder words, leave our kids to get on with the business of being at camp.  So, that's what we did.

 The two camp counselors for their group, one from Scotland, the other from Poland, seemed relieved to have 12 eight year olds on their hands after having just come from three weeks with the 16-year old boys.  

A few shenanigans were had while the parents made the beds:

And I left a very calm, cool (but excited) Maceo behind for three days and two nights of banana boating, swimming, canoeing, junk food eating, shenanigans-having, s'mores roasting, insufficient sleeping, not-writing-any-pre-stamped-letters-home-to-any-relatives good times!

Evidence of Maceo's calm, cool, collectedness

"When are they going to leave?" - Maceo
"Just smile one more time and they are sure to get out of here after that!" - Dean

Independence Day

The boys and I had quite the lively day. It began with breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts because, why not? From there, we went to see the annual and traditional Takoma Park Fourth of July parade, a typical small town parade with atypical politics. We parked at Mami's and Maurice's and walked up to see if our friends the Greenbergs were home as their house is right on this year's parade route. Sadly, they were out of town, so we commandeered their porch. Maceo and Cassius wandered between the porch and the street, watching the participants and running down to get various handouts like candy, fans, candy, bead necklaces, and candy.

Cassius refused to be in this photo, so he insisted on hiding in the back.

After I snapped this selfie, Cash insisted I delete it.

 After the parade, we went to some neighbors'/friends of Mom's to have lunch. Maceo enjoyed all sorts of different foods including deviled eggs, enchiladas, black bean and corn salad, and rugelach. Cassius enjoyed some chips. And they both liked their ice cream.

The Foodies of the family enjoy their degustation.

Luckily, there were some kids there to play with, after an initial bout of timidity.

From Takoma Park, we came home and had some quiet time before we began to prepare dinner for Grandpa and Grandma Sue and Aunt Mary. Cassius made the Raspberry Lemonade Bars, Maceo made the pulled chicken barbeque, and I made the roast corn, watermelon and blueberry salad, and the baked beans.

Carefully flattening the crust.

Pre-dinner hootenanny. Emphasis on the "hoot."

The chef explains some of the finer technical points to his recipes to Aunt Mary

Here Cassius explains to Grandpa how he earns patches with each meal he cooks.

Maceo is way into a series of books called Amulet, and he explained the story to Grandpa.

Here, Cassius refused to not be in the front. 

 After dinner, we walked them back through the light rain to the corner and said good bye.

I have no idea what Grandpa and Maceo were talking about, bit it might have been the
three deer in the field across the street.