Happy Father's Day!

This Father's day came without too much fanfare. I was arm-twisted into not buying any presents so that the hubby could pick out a few of his own without my complaint. This arrangement generally works well for us, with the caveat that said-presents typically cost just a little more than I would normally want to spend (but, hey, I am a cheap-skate so what can I say?).

In an effort (albiet a weak one, I admit) to do something special-but-doesn't-cost-any-money for father's day, I had a bright idea that we could make some personalized cards for dad. I probably should have went the way for crafting, but was un-inspired by my 5 minutes of internet searching for ideas in addition to the fact that Nate is way more of a destroyer of crafts than a crafter these days. So I opted for a personalized card, probably subconsciously swayed by the gorgeous pinterest photos of small children looking adoringly and wide-eyed into the camera whilst doing something totally sweet, like holding a flower and giving their sibling a hug. I am sure I can totally get my children to do something like that, right? Right!?

So, on a hot Houston June afternoon, I packed the kids up for a post-work photo shoot. It must have been 90 degrees (which feels like 110 due to the million percent humidity it is now) and sunny... so perfect for taking photos. We were sweaty after 10 minutes, which was mostly just the drive to our destination in the car while it cooled off. Then, as with everyday, the kids were so excited to be doing something that they were wild and unruly. They were running everywhere and picking flowers and throwing rocks and generally having a wonderful (if sweaty) time. My pictures, however, were terrible. Not to say that they are normally great or anything. They certainly are not. But these were really bad. Probably because my expectations for this were so high. Anyway, needless to say that I deleted 99% of the photos from that day. Most of them were of blurry limbs and heads, or little backsides running in different directions.

I did, however, manage to salvage this project into something...well...printable, at the least, for a father's day card (even if I did have to stretch the cheese-factor to make this work!). The photos weren't what I was imagining, but at the very least they capture an essence of who we are right now: playful, silly, active, joyful kids. They illustrate, importantly, that the kids are happy. To me, this freedom to be happy comes in large part from a lot of back-stage and thankless chores of love and support from their wonderful father. So, for this father's day: a big thanks to my hubby, for being a wonderful dad to our two amazing kids.