TT Dad and the kids went to extraordinary measures to show me just how loved and appreciated i am, on Mother’s Day this year.
I had my work cut out for me, to say the least.
Luckily, I also had two adorable kiddos on my side! We have two Father’s Day gift traditions. The kids pick out a craft to make, and we give him a three pictures in a frame, spelling out D-A-D.
This year’s craft? A garden gnome (We have a couple already). They even named him. Georgie.
The pictures seem to get more and more difficult each year, but somehow I end up with a cute one. I also print him some of the outtakes.
Once those are out of the way, we like to focus on experiences, instead of physical gifts.
Inspiration hit when I thought about what a wonderful time we had last year. Need a reminder? Check out last year’s Father’s Day post, here.
Why reinvent the wheel?
Of course, there were a few changes, this year. We ended up going to the Black Eyed Sally’s Blues Fest as a family of four, with no additional friends. We packed up their backpacks with a couple of books, and brought their lawn chairs, as well as a blanket and some balls. We found the magical combination. The kids loved going from dancing, to reading, to kicking or throwing balls around. The only thing that was more entertaining to them than all of that? Throwing trash in the garbage cans. These two. It’s hard to tell who was more entertained by these trips to the trash can… the duo, or there festival audience.
What else did we do? A ball game, of course! Again, we made some changes… This year, we stuck to a local game- our Hartford Yard Goats! This was our first game since the team moved from New Britain (Rock Cats) to Hartford (Yard Goats). We’ve wanted to check out this stadium that took YEARS to finish, and we were pretty impressed!
There were plenty of kids activities in the outfield, including live goats available for petting or feeding!
Believe it or not, our character-averse daughter LOVED Chew-Chew, one of the mascots! Her brother did not, to put it mildly. He was a huge fan of the ice cream, however. Their first cup of Dippin’ Dots!
We made it through most (but not quite all) of the game, and the kids had a blast. Mom fail, we didn’t actually solidify the plan until it was too late to get actual seats, so we ended up with SRO. As it turns out, at about half the games, there is a picnic pavilion that is not actually rented out by anyone, and they open it to the public! This was the best surprise. We had a table to eat at, and could bring the kids over to watch the game in between courses.
Finally, I snuck in one final Father’s Day outing. A date night. We don’t do this nearly enough. It really helps keep our team on the same page, and we’re nothing if we’re not a team!
We ended up at a local bowling alley that recently added an indoor mini-golf course, and started off our season with a tie! Unheard of! After that, we had a nice dinner, and ended the evening at a country line dancing club down the road- that I’d never seen the inside of, and had been itching to check out. It did not disappoint, even though we weren’t really dressed the part.
It’s a good thing we snuck all of that fun into the beginning of June, because before long, we’d be up in the air again… The duo’s first trip to the West Coast was coming soon!