The Last Day and the Fake Moustaches
On Charlie's last day of school, instead of having an all-out party as we've done the past six years, we simply took him and four of his good friends to Chuck E. Cheese. (Yes, I know. Most of you have sworn off of this godforsaken place long ago, but Husband and I have our own coping method which involves going to the very farthest booth away from the action and trying to stay above the fray. We managed to play a few games of skeeball and found an old-school pinball machine. Memories...)

It was great to see that this group of
11 and 12 year old boys can still be entertained by pizza and
games. Though they may be on the cusp of becoming smelly teenagers,
these tweens are still cute; still silly (and they still TALK to
us). The highlight for Husband and I came while we waited outside
for one of the boys to be picked up. As time wore on, the boys
became restless and ended up finding some vending machines at the
laundromat a few doors down. One of the machines sold stick-on
moustaches. Before I knew it, the group had all bought moustaches
and had put them on. They looked so funny, these miniature men.
Passersby smiled at them, and we enjoyed them being lighthearted
kids, not horrible, soon-to-be teenagers. The image of this motley
group and their ridiculous moustaches will stay with me for a long
time.
Today, the first day of Charlie's summer vacation, unfortunately
brought his much-awaited, but not eagerly anticipated, set of
braces on his lower teeth. So today wasn't a great day for him;
hopefully tomorrow will be better. He and Husband will be out
having adventures; I'll be at home working, trying to get some of
my backlog cleared out before leaving on my trip out of town (a
family obligation that will hopefully not be totally obligation but
also have some good times thrown in). I look forward to seeing my
mom and sister. My brother? Hmm, stay tuned...
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