Saturday, June 26, 2010

Father's Day

A handsome daddy, and his brood. Truth be told, this was taken the day after Father's Day. I wanted to go on a walk and get a picture of Ben walking hand in hand with his kids down a tree lined dirt path . . . HA! . . . maybe next year!

Ben's gift . . . a paperweight. To fully appreciate the humor here, let me recount the story: Rewind to last summer. Neighbor buddy April and I were enjoying the porch and some necessary "chit chat" as the kiddos played on the court. Ben came home from work and as he pulled up, he noticed that the kids were playing in the river rock in our front yard. Upon further investigation, he also noticed that they were putting the river rock down our drain pipe. To say that Ben was LIVID, is putting it mildly. He accused April and I of "letting" the kids put the rocks down the drain (as if we invited them to do so!) and continued to fume when he realized he could not remove the large, perfectly round, mini boulder stuck in the drain. April and I giggled as we suggested solutions for removing the rock, all of which were unsuccessful. Alas, Ben gave up trying to dislodge the rock and we resigned ourselves to live our lives with a rock stuck in the drain (sigh). Fast forward back to now. Last week I recounted the story above to our new neighbor when her daughter started playing in the river rocks. I told her that I thought that the rock would be a great gift for Ben if I could ever get it out. Thus our Father's Day gift idea was born! Granted, it took me an hour or so, a shop vac, two butter knives, a pair of pliers, a well constructed rescue plan, and a prayer offered by Meilani, to get that rockie free, but I DID IT! My knuckles were bloody by the time I was done, but it was worth it. The kids painted it after the rescue mission and unfortunately, I didn't get to see Ben's shocked look when he opened his gift because Liam gave away the surprise the day before Father's Day by saying "Daddy we got the rock for you!" Ben liked it nonetheless, and I think, breathes a little easier now knowing our drain pipe is now rock free!

Our hunky Daddy working the grill at my mom's. I planned to cook since it was Father's Day, but bbq-ing is not my forte.

My Dad opening his gift. I forgot to take a picture of it but it's similar to the gifts below. Each of my kids held up a letter that spelled out "PAPAW."

Tompa (Ben's Grandfather) and Abba (Ben's Dad) opening their gifts.

Abba's picture with each of his grand kids spelling out "WE LOVE ABBA."

Tompa's gift with his grand and great-grandkids spelling out "WE LOVE TOMPA!"

Tompa taught Meilani to play blackjack then we all played "I doubt it." Tompa was downright giddy! I told him I'd send him the bill if Meilani ends up in addiction recovery!

5 comments:

April said...

I love the pictures! What a fun gift to give. I was just sitting here feeling down about life and missing you guys and all of MH. Then just seeing pictures of you all made me feel better. I'm really missing CA!

Katie said...

Such a cute Father's Day gift idea with the pictures...also love that you were determined enough and got that rock out! lol. So cool...nice how the kids painted it for him!

Riquino Family said...

That is a fantastic father's day gift idea! I need to remember that for next year!

Congrats on the new school board position. :)

The Life of Chickens said...

Is your creativity contagious?? Because your ideas are all genius!!! Man. you should market yourself as the mommy with all the BEST ideas. . . because you would be a millionaire!

So cute!

Aimee said...

My kids love ABBA too (the 70's band) What a super cute idea! I think I may have to steal that one!