Happy Father's Day

I'm not much for celebrating Father's Day, and figured it would simply pass without much fanfare, but we ended up having a really nice day, and I had no idea that anything had been planned. A and N made me a bunch of nice presents, including a replica of myself in pipe cleaner form, complete with my orange shorts, ponytail, and hair wrap. The details are amazing. N made me my own spinner decorating kit, complete with markers and template spinner. A few days earlier, N had made me a couple of killer ties, one of which said, "Dads rock," and A made me another brilliant pipe cleaner rendition of me with N on my shoulders holding a butterfly. Bear in mind that pictures do not do these pieces of art justice, they can only be truly appreciated in the flesh. I loved my presents, they were the best gifts I'd ever received.

On Father's Day, we were planning on making our 1000 dumplings, but everyone wanted to do at least something for the day, so we planned a little outing, the end result of which was supposed to be a surprise for me.

The day before I had started preparations for our marathon dumpling making session, and because it was started, I couldn't really break away, so R took the kids to the local pond (it was a scorching hot day). They then went over to the Bog, which is a nature preserve that is actually in our town, sequestered deep in the woods. Unless you know about it, you would never find it. They also have a bunch of wild orchids called Lady's Slippers, or something like that.

Anyway, the plan was to take me there, but it was supposed to be a surprise, so we piled into the car and headed over. The place is really neat, and though I don't necessarily appreciate flowers, the Slippers were really neat. They do look like slippers.

R and the kids also set me up for a big surprise. We'd found an old tupperware container, and they acted like it was this gross lunch container that someone had left behind. They wanted to throw it away, and I kept telling them that it wasn't garbage, it had been left behind for a reason. We opened it up and inside was a booklet with pages for people to sign in and leave a personal stamps. I'd never seen it before, but apparently it's a pretty popular thing. There were people that came all the way from New York State to do it. There is even a website to follow up and learn more, but I've forgotten what it was called. R and the kids had even brought stamps, so we signed in and left our mark. Kind of cool.

Afterward, we went for lunch at Stellas, and stuffed ourselves silly, finishing our meal off with their amazing chocolate cream pie. Then, it was dumpling time.

We did a pretty good job in making our week's stash, and I even had time to mow the lawn, which needed it badly. What a fitting end to a wonderful Father's Day.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.