Father's Day

I love Father's Day. It's such a wonderful day because I get to think about how many wonderful memories I have with my Dad and what a stellar father he is. I also get to spend some extra time thinking about whatan amazing man I'm married to and what a great father he is to our children. 

I remember going on Daddy Daughter Dates with my dad when I was a kid. We went ice skating, to the movies, to arcades, to the park, out for ice cream, and a million other things. We would make up songs in the car and come home with inside jokes that we still enjoy today. My dad is amazing. He is such a wonderful example to me and I am thankful for him every single day of my life. I am sure I don't tell him enough (because I get too emotional) but he really is the the greatest Dad in the world.

This year, I made a couple of things for the Dad's in my life. For my dad, I made this:

My kids called my dad "Grandpa" for a little while, "Papoo" for a little while, but Diego is the name that stuck. His name is John. Why Diego? If you're asking, you obviously don't have small children. Dora the Explorer (the most obnoxious cartoon in the history of the world) has a cousin named Diego. He's an animal rescuer and they go on adventures together. So, Nicole is Dora, Tyler is Boots, Tori is Isa, and my dad is Diego. They go on adventures all the time. Their favorite adventures are:

-checking mousetraps in the basement

-riding the tractor or 4-wheeler

-swinging 

-boating

-fishing

-collecting treasures on the beach

But sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate or something else gets in the way, so the adventures are things like eating a bowl of ice cream together or doing a puzzle together. Whatever they do, they love their Diego and I do too.

For Ben, I made him this:

It turns out that painting on the bottom of my kids' feet is easier said than done. I saw a similar idea on Pinterest and then made it my own. 

I love to see Ben come home from a long day at work and have the kids tackle him with hugs and kisses. Then, almost immediately, they ask him if they can play Candyland, Uno, Go Fish, Mouse Trap, Sorry, Hi Ho Cheerio, or any of the other million board games that we have. Even if he has had a long day at work if he's not feeling very well, he makes time to play at least one game with them. They look forward to their game time with Daddy and I love seeing the joy on their faces.
 Ben recently moved offices and had 3 very empty walls. I was very sneaky and went to his office on a Sunday and did this:

I'm going to do a really awesome Neil Patrick Harris poster on the 3rd wall, but that's not done yet. Anyway, I love the dad's in my life and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful relationships with both my husband and my father. These gifts are small, but hopefully they know that there is love involved.

Kindle Cover

I love my Kindle, but the covers are so expensive! I decided to make one myself and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.
I went to the library and bought a hardcover book that is a little bigger than my Kindle. It was $1. Well worth the investment.
Then I went home and ripped all the pages out (except the front blank page). Yep. I've ALWAYS wanted to do that to a library book.

Then I cut a rectangle the size of my book out of foam board. Then I cut a hole out of the middle the size of my Kindle. Cover it in scrap fabric and glue some elastic at the top and bottom to hold the Kindle inside.

Then cover the inside of the book cover in fabric and glue the foam rectangle to the back cover. I put a band of fabric on the front and back covers too, just to make it pretty.

Crayon Art

I actually did one of the many projects that I have on my "Pinterest To-Do List" today. I'm pretty excited with how it turned out. Note to self: cheap dollar store crayons melt better and faster than the expensive crayola ones.