Father's Day

I have to start out by saying how proud I am of Sam and her ability to keep a secret (or many secrets) for at least a week prior to Father's Day.  She knew all of the gifts that we had chosen for Steve and I had hoped as much as I could that a three-year old would be able to not blurt out the surprises ahead of time.  She more than surpassed my expectations and it made for a really special day for Steve. 

We decorated his cards a few days before the holiday, and one of the surprises was a recordable princess card.  I recorded Sam's voice saying, "I love you, Dad.  You're the best dad ever.  Happy Father's Day..."  It will be a memorable keepsake for him to keep forever.

On the morning of Father's Day, Sam woke up and said, "Is it Father's Day today?"  I smiled and told her that it was!  She only needed to keep the secrets for a little bit longer.

We made cinnamon roll pancakes for breakfast, and they were absolutely divine!  We will be making these a lot in the future ...

We took a couple of pictures ...

Sophia's shirt says "Wild About Daddy."

Steve and his girls:

And finally ... the moment that Sam had been waiting for -- time for Steve to open his presents.

We got him a new live trap for chipmunks (he needed a second one because of the rapid rate at which he catches them at the front of our house), a new cooler (the thing that he was most excited about), some new shirts and a new pair of boxers that Sam picked out for him (they have lobsters on them; she is obsessed with the lobsters in the tank at Meijer).

Sophia loved helping with the wrapping paper most of all:

Later in the afternoon, we invited Steve's parents and my mom to come over to join us for some smoked chicken that Steve had prepared (my dad wasn't in town -- he had just left for Washington State to attend a conference).  I made a cake and decorated it.  Pink is probably not the best color for Father's Day (blue might have been more appropriate), but I wanted to make a pink lemonade cake.  So, I decorated it with hearts to follow through with the theme that we love our dads.

Of course, we had to put candles on it and blow them out!  Even Sophia tried to blow some of them out!

And Grandpa won over the heart of Sophia because he let her have some of his cake ...

Overall, it was a nice way to end out the weekend and to celebrate how special these dads are.  I am so thankful that Steve is such a good father -- so hands-on and so involved in everything that our girls do.  There is no doubt how much these girls love their daddy ...