Father's Day

We had a great day on Father's Day. Our day was spent by the pool with the kids. Miranda and Ken came by to eat dinner with us. We cooked burgers and chicken on the grill. I made Aunt Catherine's famous cheesey potatoes and baked beans, lots of garnishes and fresh fruit. Elli helped me set the table. She loves to help now. She made sure that every single thing we needed was carefully placed on the table. This was the first time she was so careful to do this. Usually, she haphazardly throws things around and I have to keep calling her back to complete the task properly.

Elli wanted this day to be special because it was Daddy's Day. She borrowed a pen from my purse and made assigned seats at the table. She asked me to spell each person's name slowly so she could write them upon the plate itself. She then placed each plate in the exact spot that she expected each person should sit.

The kids signed a card that I purchased from Walmart but Elli decided that she wanted to make her own too. We bought Daddy lots of new clothes for Father's Day. Kai wanted to buy him the Ghost Buster's video game because he was very sure that was exactly what Daddy wanted! But in actuality, it is exactly what Kai wanted to play with Daddy. I did not fall for it.

Elli also made cupcakes. I poured ingredients into the measuring cup but she read from the box and learned how to compare the 1/2 c. on the box to the 1/2 c. on the measuring cup. She could read the words, eggs, milk and water but struggled with "oil". She let Kai help with cracking the eggs and beating the ingredients with the mixer. She also let him share with licking the bowl and beaters.

Our family tradition is that Mommy and Daddy get to do whatever they want on their special day. This is what Daddy wanted to do today.

When the cupcakes were done, Kai, Elli & Daddy decorated them. I took special care in explaining to them that they would each have 3 knives. One knife would be used for Vanilla frosting, one knife would be used for chocolate frosting and one knife would be used for mixing. I made them each wash their hands and gave them just a few tips on how to best frost and decorate their cupcakes. I wanted to encourage them to be creative but I really still wanted people to want to eat the darn things as well. My tips were simple... not too many sprinkles and perhaps just a plain vanilla or a plain chocolate would be nice as well.

After decorating several cupcakes, we noticed that there seemed to be more chocolate on Kai's face than on his cupcakes. With all of the great care that I took to give them each 3 knives and provide them with complete instructions, I failed to tell them not to LICK THE KNIFE! Gross! Thankfully, we were only two cupcakes in on Kai's side and Elli had not licked her knife. We were able to identify the slobbery buggers and set them to the side for Kai to enjoy later. We could not really salvage the double dipped chocolate, but Mythbuster's ( T.V. Show) proved that double-dipping was not really a germ issue anyway.

Here is Kai with his shiney wet knife!

We had a really great day. We enjoyed our dinner and swam in the pool with the kids and called it an early night. I wish that all of the kids could have been there. Miles had been out of town but stopped by to give Dad a hug and visit for a bit. Carissa spent the previous weekend with us for Elli's dance recital and just couldn't afford to be here two weekends in a row. Miranda spent the evening with us. It is hard sometimes that we can't get it all together at the same time, but I know our children are growing into a adults and it is going to get harder and harder. We will take what we can get when we can get it.