Belated Father's Day for two fabulous fathers

My husband, Elmer, and my dad, Gary

    This post isn't "belated" because I'm just late in getting it written.

    We literally just celebrated Father's Day tonight!  Yup, June 25th, nine days after Father's Day.

    Sometimes, the "special day" calendar and our family calendar just don't coincide all that well.  Such was the case on the real Father's Day on our calendar.  My dad, Gary (right) was working out of town for a couple of weeks and wasn't able to get back home to celebrate Father's Day with us.

    Our daughters were actually out of town at CYIA (Christian Youth In Action) camp.  You heard right...camp was scheduled for Father's Day weekend.  Gulp!

    So - tonight was the evening to par-tay! 

    ☺

    My dad was my #1 source of wisdom (besides God) for 26 years of my life.  My mom comes in at a very close second place to Dad. 

    At age 26, when Elmer and I married, Elmer took over that guiding role and has taught me a lot since that sunny December day almost 19 years ago.

    I have a lot of respect for my husband and my dad, for the ways that they seek the Lord's wisdom, live honorable lives, and take responsibility seriously.

My mom, dad, Brittany (13), husband Elmer, and Kelsi (15).

    We enjoy hanging out together.  When the six of us get together, we don't necessarily do anything extra special, out of the ordinary, or weird. 

    Well, okay, we do act weird.  And goofy sometimes.  And just plain weird some more.

    Basically, we have a lot of fun together!

    Tonight, to get us into the mood of Father's Day parties, I downloaded and printed off Printabelle.com's free "Best Dad" Free Father's Day Printables.  They are so easy to use and so classy!

    Here's how we used them to decorate the dining room:

    What was on the menu?  Well, definitely some man-friendly food, of course!

• Pork Tenderloin
• Sauteed Cabbage
• Broiled Asparagus
• Homemade Applesauce
• Blueberry Cobbler
• Homemade Chocolate Mocha Ice Cream

    Yum!  We enjoyed it all while laughing and hearing about each other's last couple of weeks. 

    Then, it was time for the dads to open cards and gifts.

    We gave my dad a gift card to Lowe's for all of his many projects.  That way, he can choose exactly what he needs next.

    For my husband, the girls and I gave him two games that were new to us, made by the company Luminaris.  I was so impressed with their beautiful "Made in U.S.A." products that I happily bought a couple of games for my husband and a couple of felt craft kits for the girls.  I'll have to tell you about this company sometime.  Their booth was my most favorite booth at the state homeschool convention I recently attended.  Wow!

While the rules are different, The Golden Wilderness has some similarities to "Settlers of Catan."

This game is basically like Pictionary, except that we get to use cool wooden shapes to "draw" with!

    We decided to play Abstractables after dinner.  Wow - that game is fun!  Lots of laughter.  Neat!  And even I can figure out how to play.  That's even better!

    After dinner, the game, and dessert were finished, we settled in on the couches to view a crazy fun DVD about the girls' week at CYIA camp.  It was neat to see so many youth on fire for Jesus and learning how to share the Gospel with children.  This program is so amazing!  I wish more local teens took advantage of the incredible life-changing training and missions practice that our girls have been privileged to join.

    We don't have any specific traditions that we do together for each Father's Day.  But that is a thought for the future...

    How did your Father's Day go?  Do you have any specific traditions for Father's Day in your family?

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