the fatherless father's day

due to a last minute trip that required daddy to get on an airplane this morning, the kids and i found ourselves without a father on father's day. it was pretty weird. we got up, made him some pancakes, gave him some presents and said our good-byes before we left for church. 

church was completely crazy because we had a lot more kids than expected (father's day is normally a low attendance week) and were doing a slightly different plan than normal. it was hard without matt there to help with getting our kids to where they needed to be while i stayed in our area while kids were dropped off. i was exhausted by the time we finally got home. 

so we went to the pool. 

maddux gave my hat a try.

we had a lovely afternoon at the pool. there were more people than i had expected but we enjoyed seeing several of the kids' friends.

since there was no pressure for dinner, i ordered pizza before we left and picked it up on our way home. and tonight was the cavs finals game!

happy father's day to our special daddy (and big pop and papa)! love.

father's day at church

it is always a challenge to come up with a gift 2- and 3-year-olds can make in 15 minutes or so at church that might not be thrown right away. our mother's day gift was simple, but had too many pieces for all of the classes to get it done. so this is what we came up with for father's day. love.

alternate father's day

we have some plans on actual father's day, so we celebrated with daddy today instead. we had plans today too, but a little more time for fun with daddy. after church our bible study had a family picnic, it was awesome (inflatable slide, super yummy food, installing a basketball hoop and lots and lots of kids). but i took no pictures. what?!

we had an hour to kill between church and the picnic, so we went to wander around target. the boys found some hats that they really liked.

for daddy's gift we gave him a framed copy the first picture here. he loved it. (thank you, pinterest.)

but the outtakes were so great too, that i had to show daddy all of them.

then we treated daddy to a barbecue rib dinner. yum, yum! love.

father's day 2014

i don't know if daddy had a father's day that was fitting for how much we love him, but i think he felt the love anyway.

no sleeping in for this daddy! we have to be at church by 8:30am, but i did get up early to make his favorite pancakes. at church he had to cut out shapes until his hands hurt (preparing supplies for next week). after church we stopped by sweet frogs for his free cup - by maddux' request - before picking up some lunch for daddy at chipotle - by daddy's request.

after lunch we gave daddy his presents. this is a very expensive month around here (because of three birthdays) so daddy asked for no gifts. i can't have that so the kids and i went practical. i let each of the kids pick out a pair of socks for daddy. they really do love getting to pick them out and carefully consider their options before making their selections.

manning was particularly proud of his multi-pack.

since daddy knew they were most likely socks, he let maddux help open the one from him.

madelyn made a gift at church that was sealed with a 'bow-tie.' daddy modeled it for her.

instead of watching the golf tournament and taking a nap, daddy opted for playing some baseball in the yard with the bigs. then we all came in for a nacho dinner (a big favorite around here recently).

daddy said that he had a great day and felt very loved. he is so good to us. happy father's day, daddy! love.

father's day

once again, i didn't get a group picture, but you should be used to that by now... we started the day around 5am.  i guess mason and maddux were a little too excited to wish daddy a happy day.  thankfully, matt was able to go back to sleep for a little bit.  the boys and i got up to make him some chocolate chip oat bran pancakes (his choice) and cantelope before heading off to church.  after church we took daddy to sweet frog for a free father's day soft serve (he had sorbet).  that made my third time in one week!  we even filled up our frequent shopper card for another free small cup.  darn. :)

we had thought that sweet frog would be packed right after church, but it was almost empty.  i guess we were the only ones to go before lunch.  i was going to take matt out to lunch but he insisted on just having leftovers at home.

while we were eating lunch, we gave matt his presents.  notice how we didn't skimp on the wrapping.

daddy modeling one of his 'tie' cards the kids made him at the ymca.

matt got his traditional gifts of socks and undershirts (he gets some combination of underthings at every gift giving occasion) and to treat him a little (or a lot) we selected teas from tevana for him.  he has been drinking tea at night to relax before bed and several friends have been evangelists about tevana so i thought we would give it a try.  i went ahead and picked out the tea for him because if i had taken him there, he would not have bought any of it!  matt is hard to shop for because he would generally rather have the money than the gift, but he was happy with everything.

after lunch matt went to home depot to shop for a tree.  i told him to take his time and it looks like he really did because he was gone for a few hours!  well, i guess he did swing by toys-r-us for mason's birthday present and got himself another father's day present - a new bike!  he has a road bike and it just isn't suited for the trails around here.  we are hoping to get some family bike rides in soon. he has also taken to biking up the grocery store and the ymca and been using my bike.

while he was gone and manning was napping, the kids and i tried some origami.  we are doing the 'around the world in 60 days' activity from thriving family magazine and covered japan last week.  we had looked at origami online but never got around to attempting any until today.  they were all quite pleased with the results of our swans, but mommy ended up doing most of the folding.

when daddy got home from home depot, the three bigs and i headed out so that he could plant his tree and then watch some golf in peace (i expected manning to nap for at least two more hours).  our plan was to go to the library and grocery store, but the library was closed so just the grocery store.  i let the older two go into the childcare at the grocery store (maddux isn't old enough).

on our way home from the grocery store we stopped to pick daddy up some dinner - chipotle!  mine was vegan but matt stuck with vegetarian. we don't get the kids anything because they don't like it enough to make it worth the cost, they are just as happy with some sandwiches at home.  when we got to chipotle i noticed lots of flashing lights in the parking lot near the grocery store a few doors down.  and then i saw why - someone had driven their car halfway into the store!!  crazy!  i couldn't get a very good picture with my phone but you can sort of make it out.  it is the light colored car in the middle of the picture.  the kids were not as impressed as i was, surprisingly so, they acted like they see stuff like that all of the time.

i had not planned a dessert for father's day (i have been skipping over to all the birthday planning) but then i came up with s'mores.  these are one of matt's very favorites so it worked out.

i am so blessed to have such a loving man to father my children.  hooray for daddy!  love.

happy father's day, daddy

i think matt had a wonderful father's day.  he got to sleep in, i cooked a complete menu of his choosing, he spent the day watching golf and planning the landscaping for our house and we went to look at another house our builder is working on.  i think the only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been an afternoon nap.

both kids helped him with the landscaping plans too.  mason told him all about the plants in each book and madelyn sat by his side while he drew it all out telling him that she loved him and was glad that he stayed home all day with us (as oppossed to going to work).

we love our daddy very much and am so thankful to have him in our lives.  we would not be the same without him.  we love you!  love.