Father's Day 2012

We started the day with a simple breakfast in bed for Daddy - with lots of cuddles of course!

Following our general family policy for Mother's/Father's Day of trying to avoid the commercialism of the day, our focus is on quality time, heart-felt words and hand-made presents! In my current state, I was limited in what I could rustle up but I came across this sweet idea on Pinterest which I modified a little for my purposes and managed to make it with the kids earlier in the week. I was pretty happy with it, though really wished I had been able to do it on canvas for longevity, but oh well, gotta work with what I could do. We thought he may want to hang it up at work or something. We also made a  card which Lily decorated with drawings of the family and I did a cute interview with her all about her Daddy! She was so excited about Father's Day and amazed me with her ability to keep the gifts a secret from Daddy for several days - she definitely knows what it means - including insisting that we only whisper when discussing it, even when in her room with the door closed!!

I love that our kids get to follow in the footsteps of such a wonderful man! They adore him and as a Mama I feel such relief and joy knowing the man they want to emulate just happens to be one of the best on this earth - good, godly, kind, generous, humble, loving, fun, faithful and hard-working. What an example he sets for his children, with such love and grace and presence every day of their little lives.

Lily worked hard to make toast for Daddy!

Snuggles with Daddy... note poor E's face!

Our 'plan' for the day was to go to church together followed by a family picnic lunch at a local park. I figured, no matter how I was feeling, come what may, I would go because I really wanted to give Mark a special day after how he has carried the load for our family in recent months. HA - come what may?! I must have forgotten we have children, who can throw a spanner in the works of any plans! The kids came down with bad colds, especially Eli who was a streaming, coughing, red eyed, sore-throated miserable mess! Poor kid!! So we decided we had better cancel all the outings and just stay home for the day. That's life with kids, huh!?

However, by lunchtime, Eli had spent the morning just wandering around the house, whimpering constantly in misery and pretty soon we all felt the same! He had napped already and we tried to keep him happy and distracted but I could tell he was just lost in feeling so blah. Eventually I decided we had to eat anyway, the day was sunny, warm and lovely and Eli (and the rest of us) desperately needed some change of scenery as distraction so we rugged the kids up to the max, jumped in the car, bought some chicken and chips and ducked down to the local park for a quick lunch! I am sooooo glad we did! Eli was a new boy - content and distracted by the location (and chips of course) and we all had a lovely, simply sweet time celebrating the kid's most wonderful Daddy!

Munching on chicken and chips - what a treat!

Daddy/Daughter snuggles - she made sure to tell him many times today that she loved him - sweet girl!

Off to feed the ducks with Daddy...

 

 

Happy rock-climbing monkeys found a perfect place to explore!

  

'I'm the king of the castle' was song of the day

Two adoring kids with their Daddy... always happy to have adventures together!

Happy Father's Day, Mark.... even when life doesn't go to plan, it's still a grand adventure to be parenting with you! Thank you for being the most amazing Father to our kids than I could ever have dreamt of - and more! Love you xx