the most iconic entrance I've ever been privileged to witness

A teenaged dude arrived at my brother-in-law's birthday party Tuesday a couple of minutes ahead of his parents by running to the door.

He burst into the living area where about 8 adults and children were lounging around munching on cookies and brownies, announcing his presence with

"HEY, you have brownies and cookies in here! I'm having a cookie!"

- and launched himself across the room so precipitously that he didn't remain vertical, possibly because one of his feet was still inside one of his shoes. He seized a cookie and unceremoniously sped back out the way he'd come without speaking directly to anybody.

The room filled up with a lot of chuckles and comments on his ability to make an entrance.

Then somebody noticed a wasp. We debated briefly whether it was a wasp or a bee and who should catch it and how. While two other people were gearing up for the attempt he reappeared, grabbed another cookie, demolished half of it, and announced, "I'LL KILL IT!"

Before anybody could offer much in the way of a reply, he had teleported across the room, leapt onto the sofa, and completely flattened the wasp. This happened so quickly that many people in the room didn't notice.

"What happened?" said someone(s).

"He already murdered it," said waxjism.

"I'm good at murdering things," he said breezily. Laughter. "I already murdered seven bugs yesterday," he explained, then paused and thought. "No, eight."

He attempted to waltz away, until my brother-in-law informed him that the person who murders an insect is responsible for conveying its remains out of doors, so he came back to do that.

Possibly the first time I have personally seen and understood yeet as a verb.

great child fashion looks on the other children from the party included

• Wax's niece Oona (3), in butterfly-print-on-butterfly print, but two clashing prints. One on the skirt, one on the leggings. Completely unrelated t-shirt for a pop of contrast, and to prevent it from getting matchy-matchy.



• Amazing Entrance Dude's little sister (5-8ish?) was wearing a jersey sundress printed with grumpy cat and friends, interspersed with flowers. Also some layers for warmth and some leggings and the cutest plastic-framed nerd glasses, but really, you can't top grumpy cat.



• Wax's niece Sofia (9), in a loud purple cold-shoulder dress with a startling and dissonant print of some kind. The color was so loud and the shoulder holes so distracting that I never managed to focus on the print.



• BIL's nephew Elis (5ish?), in adorable brown corduroy and plaid that (a) reminded me charmingly of something my mom would've picked out for me and (b) made him look like an extremely tiny professor of something. Also in a long Jonathanesque pageboy that I'm amazed he is still rocking.

As we were walking down the dock towards the motorboat for the last leg of the trip to the wee island where the party was held, I experienced an increasing tingle of "something I should be remembering", until suddenly it arrived: the last time I went there I was underdressed for the motorboat ride and chilly and damp by the time we left in the evening, and vowed to myself never to go there without a rainproof shell jacket again. Unfortunately, that was like 3 years ago, so I had time to forget in between, and spent the boat rides huddled in on myself with my hoodie strings pulled tight around my face again. Hopefully next time I'll remember.