Father’s Day

There are two days that I can count on for my kids to be on their best behavior. One is on my birthday. The other is Father’s Day. My kids love celebrating it because they love making me gifts. I love everything that they make and I’m always excited to see what they came up with.

This year, my wife got a Crikut. She was just starting to play around with all the things that I can do. She got the idea to use it for the Father’s Day gifts and somehow, it turned out to be a really stressful thing for her. What she came up with turned out to be really difficult to execute. I had no idea during the week what it was, but I could see her stressed out and spend a lot of time in our office, trying to figure it out.

Fast forward to Father’s Day and she ended up with a headache in the morning. She still wanted me to sleep in, but there was no way I was going to let her deal with all of the kids in that condition. She didn’t get much sleep, she was stressed, and the headache did no favors. I took all of the kids for the start of the morning and got them ready. I also made them waffles, which kept them at bay for a while.

We all ended up in the playroom and had a great time until my wife was done resting up. Then it was time for gifts after she downed some coffee. Everyone presented me with a customized water bottle with different art from the kids. Our 6 year old daughter E drew a bunch of pictures of our family. Our 4 year old son C drew lots of pictures of vehicles. Our 1 year old son L stamped his hand reluctantly so there is an imprint of his hand.

My wife took all those pictures and figured out how to create a durable way to decorate the water bottle. It looked really cool. I also got two cards from the family and a pair of Birkenstocks so that I don’t use the one that my wife has. Clearly my feet are too big for hers and she felt some type of way about that after years and years of dual use. There were also different things that my kids made from school and collectively, it was a huge Father’s Day haul for me.

After that was over in the morning, my kids decided to start the arguing for the day. I kept trying to remind them that it was Father’s Day and to limit the arguing, but it didn’t work. I ended up telling them that we were all going to go on a family hike. We quickly did a hike, and that solved most of the arguing. Sometimes it just takes a bit of physical activity to get that done.

After putting L down for his nap, we were waiting for him to wake up to spend the rest of the day with my wife’s family. It was good family time, and my kids didn’t act too crazy the rest of the day. Even though it was an event for Father’s Day, I’m always really appreciative of the thoughtfulness that goes into the gifts. Whatever my kids and wife end up making, I always cherish it. What can be improved is the number of arguments, but we can work on that!