Tidy Victory - On my first day of vacation at home, I have - cleaned up barf, loaded up on groceries, picked up eggs from the egg lady, found tinsel for the kids streamers, fed children lunch, emptied and refilled the dish washer, put away two loads of laundry, taken out the garbage, arranged a nice bouquet for the kitchen, caught up on the RHofOC, fed everyone dinner, baths, made a card and finished this post. Not too shabby if I don't say so myself. Don't worry, today will make up for my lack of work tomorrow when I'm in my classrooms for the second time trying to pack up.
As previously mentioned, I did not went to reveal our plans for Father's Day in fear of ruining the surprise. That would be have been anti-climatic now wouldn't it have been?
Typically I have the boy(s) make a card for Daddy, a homemade gift and a store-bought gift. But I went with a different idea this year. Instead of a card and a homemade gift, I smooshed the ideas into one and had the boys create a Daddy Book.
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| If you look extremely closely the cover says "We Love You Daddy", but the toddler spread his creativity across the title of the book. |
Super easy - I purchased a 1 1/2 inch binder with a clear cover, had the boy(s) tell me why they loved Daddy, wrote their response and then let them draw pictures.
Nothing too complicated or involved, just different colored paper, crayons and washable markers.
The toddler was really into drawing smiley faces everywhere.
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| The baby's minimalistic touch. |
The book only ended up being about three pages - the toddler drew three including the cover and the baby smashed a crayon on one. The toddler announced - "I'm done with it.". I guess you cannot force creativity.
We (I) also purchased this nifty little gift for Daddy - it's ear protection with an AM/FM radio and mp3 player input by 3M. My husband likes to mow the lawn with his iPod, but now he can protect his hearing and be able to hear his music much better, or listen to the radio discuss the most recent hockey or football game tragedy.
Lastly, I always ask my husband what he would like to eat for his birthday or Father's day meal - I'm happy to make anything for him if I can!
Last year (or was it two?) he requested fried chicken. It was really good, but I ended up burning my hand pretty good on the hot oil with the last batch. I still have some lovely scars as a sign up my dedication.
This year he requested Italian chicken sticks, sweet potato fries and salad. I used Paula Deen's recipe for Italian chicken sticks, this recipe for sweet potato fries and a simple spring mix salad with cherry tomatoes, shaved asiago cheese and olive oil & balsamic vinegar salad dressing. For dessert, we went out to a quiet local general store for ice cream.
I was so excited about the sweet potato fries - this was the first time I've ever been able to make them CRUNCHY! I don't know if it was soaking the fries in water as the post suggested or the fact that I didn't crowd the baking sheet (for once!), but it worked! My husband originally just wanted store-bought but he was much happier with the homemade fries.
All in all we had a fun, quiet Father's Day at home together as family. It was really nice to just stay in and not have to worry about packing up diaper bags, spare underwear, snacks, etc. I sometimes have to tell myself that things don't have to be made into a huge production to be fun or successful. They just have to come from the heart.
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