Camp!

We picked Spence up from camp this evening. To quote one of my friends, "He was third-world dirty." And, tired. But, so happy.

Lulu was so glad to see him, too. We took them out to dinner when we got back to town. Spence made her laugh so hard it was like her tickle box got turned upside-down. It was hysterical. It was that darling little kid laugh that makes everyone else laugh, too. Heads in the restaurant were turning in joy to watch her joy. And, then she announced, just as loudly as she was laughing, "I just laughed so hard I TOOTED!"

Speaking of. Each boy in Spence's cabin painted a square that were all hooked together to created their cabin flag. Everyone took home their individual piece. This was Spencer's:

He said it was the "Atomic bad word."

I said, "Oh. Ok. The Atomic Bad Word?"

"Well... The Atomic Toot."

"Oh. That's funny. The Atomic Toot."
"But, not 'toot.' The bad word for the word 'toot.'"
"Ohhhhhhhhh...." You see, I have my children convinced "fart" is a bad word. For that matter, so are "stupid" and "shut up."

And then it dawned on me. "Were you allowed to say that word at camp?"

With the proudest yet sheepish smile on his face, he drawled, "Yeeeeeees."

Once he found out he could say that word, I bet he said it every. other. sentence! I mean, he made it his camp banner.

And finally. His bags. I pretty much thought "Ewww" with every item I pulled out of them. How are things crusty and wet at the same time? I pulled some letters out of his bag. He had actually written them at camp, he just never mailed them. Eh. That's 50% success. Anyway. One of them was to Lulu. This is what it says:

Translation:
Dear Elizabeth Ann Johnson, Lulu, Libby, Louis Von Lewiston,
Do you want to know what my favorite thing at camp is? Well, do you? Well, you have to guess correctly. It was Arts and Crafts.
Love, Spencer
[and then he drew her tic-tac-toe games to play]

Heart. Melted.

P.S. If you're not my friend on Facebook, you might not have seen the camp 'do. Spence has begged for years to get a summer buzz cut. Finally, since this was our second year at camp and Shawn and I were fully aware that no comb would touch his head for a week (I mean, our greatest hope was that some shampoo might actually touch it), we gave in to the buzz cut plea.

May I introduce "The High and Tight."

When he went to bed the day he got his hair cut, he told me, "It's awesome being me!"