Father's Day

For Father's Day this year we started the weekend by making Mark's favorite cookies, white chocolate chip macadamia nut, on Friday afternoon. Saturday evening the kids went to see Nana and Papa for a bit so Mark and I went to dinner together at our favorite Japanese steakhouse. It was delicious and oh-so filling, as usual!

On Sunday morning the kids and I let Mark sleep in a bit. Okay, so he really can't sleep in (he's always been an early bird) but he enjoyed a bit of quiet time pretending to sleep while we all slipped out of the room to go start breakfast. The kids and I made him breakfast burritos and Mark really liked them. And before we ate breakfast we gave Mark his gifts. Ian had picked out a card with a big transformer on the front and he colored and wrote his name inside along with an "I love you". And the preschool where Ian attends actually sent Mark a card in the mail from Ian that he made back in the spring. He had colored a picture on the front and a list of answers to some questions about his Daddy were inside. It was a really cute surprise for Mark.

The kids were real troopers for my crafty gift ideas this year. I almost didn't think we'd pull it off but they came through and the results were pretty cool. I saw these two ideas online and thought I'd give them a try.

First I painted large wooden letters red. Then we headed out to the yard to take some shots of the kids holding the letters. It was...interesting. So after printing the photos, we put them in a large frame with three openings so each opening contains a letter - spelling out DAD all together.

Our second project was even more adventurous than the first. While the kids napped I painted a large brown tree on a canvas. Once it was dry I had Ian choose his two colors - he chose red and orange. I painted the palm of his hand and had him place his hand on the tree several places. Then it was Anna's turn. She wasn't too happy about me painting her hand (she wanted to paint mine instead) but she finally cooperated after I told her she could paint on her papers afterwards. So the end result is a canvas print of the kids' hands as the leaves on a tree.

Sunday evening we met up at Aunt Laura's house for some poolside fun and a cookout dinner with Mark's parents as well. Ian really enjoyed the pool and he was quite brave to swim out to the deep end with no one holding on to him (he has a life jacket float he wears though). The older boys had lots of fun splashing each other. And the younger cousins enjoyed the baby pool Laura had filled with toys.

It was a really nice weekend as a family and I think the kids made Daddy feel very loved.