Remnants Of Father's Day 2015!

While planning Father's Day for Darren, in my head, I thought about the idea of making him "King For A Day!" I didn't plan on really asking the kids if they liked the idea, but I did ask Lilah what she wanted to get her daddy for Father's Day and she said, "I think it would be cool to get daddy a king's crown, for Father's Day!" My mouth of course dropped because I hadn't told her my plans yet and low and behold #greatmindsthinkalike!

I printed this scroll after adding our KING's information.  Then, framed it!

Here is our king!!!

Our highness woke up to framed printables and unwrapped gifts scattered throughout the kitchen and kitchen area. We don't make a practice of drinking alcohol, but on occasion, the king enjoys a "night cap", so I thought it would be nice to purchase him a personalized decanter and monogrammed scotch glass.  These items were purchased at Home Wet Bar.  This was the first time ordering from this company. I highly recommend them.  Even with personalization and monogramming, I received these items in 4 days, no expedited shipping.

As you saw earlier in the week, we did these "We [heart] you dad!" photos.  This was the first time Darren had viewed these prints.  He loved them!

Mr. Royalty has been wanting a fire pit for a while, so since "[His] every wish is OUR command!", we chose to make that his main gift.  It's NOT quite the one that he probably had in mind.  We will start with a small one and see if we use it before having a really nice one custom built.

We also bought him his favorite, freshly ground peanut butter from the Fresh Market. #honeyroasted

After receiving some material gifts, daddy received the best gift of all...hugs and kisses, as he ate his bowl of oatmeal.  I made Darren a fantastic breakfast, the day before Father's Day. Sundays are just too hectic to be fancy in the kitchen.  

I love the photo below.  Daddy holds up a #1.  I guess he knows he is a #1 dad!

After church, Darren took the kids to the pool and I began preparing the table for dinner. Obviously, a king is not a KING without a crown.  Do you recognize the crown?  Why re-invent the wheel, right?  I drove to Burger King's drive thru and asked if I could have TWO crowns.  They said, "Sure!" I hot glued the crowns together, back to back, and added some masculine colored sequins and a homemade sign, which read, "King Darren".  

I love the way it turned out.  

The coolest part about the table setting is that EVERY single item, minus the BIG king's crown, in the center of the table, was from the Dollar Tree: the glasses, plates, chargers, napkins, and table cloth.

The King's seat.

Each of the kids' seats had a cute photo of the lion KING with it's cub.  The lion represented their daddy and the cub represented them!

Our "starter" was shrimp cocktail.  YUM-O!

 Then, it was time to start cooking! Darren LOVES meat, so I chose his favorite steak, ribeye.  

The spatula is also a gift that we bought for Darren.  It has a #1 on the metal part and the word "dad" on the wooden handle. LOVE IT! #hallmark.

I also made homemade garlic knots, candied sweet potatos, and fresh asparagus.  

+Add+ cesar salad.  Man, this is making me hungry, just reliving it.

Everyone was so ready to chow down!

After dinner, I gave Darren a few more gifts.  This time, they were wrapped bagged.

He received a #1 Dad magnet for his car! A new bathing suit from AE (American Eagle).

A daily devotional book!

And a book titled, "Be the dad SHE needs you to be!"

Darren is an EXCELLENT father to Lilah, but since Lilah is his ONLY daughter and he never grew up with sisters, I thought this book was perfect for him.  Just gentle reminders of how sons and daughters are different and how they also need to be treated more gently.  It's also a great reminder that the...

"relationship that matters most to [a] daughter isn't the one with her mother - it's the one with [her daddy].  Her self-esteem, choices, behavior, character, and even her ideas about or choice of marriage partner are all directly tied to [daddy], the most important representative to her of the male species."

Last, but not least, we made sure to document our annual, fascinating pandemonium.  As I stated on instagram, "Sometimes I cease this moment to laugh and other times, it makes me feel like I am drowning.  Today...is a GREAT day!" And I think the KING would agree it was too! We love you Darren!

Oh those goofy faces just make me laugh!

The night ended with more snuggles from the greatest dad ever.  I am SO lucky to have him in OUR lives.

She Stole HIS Heart!

Every year, Darren presents Lilah with a special gift from Daddy.  It wasn't until this year that she actually started recalling the tradition and around February 3rd, she began asking... "Is Daddy going to get me a special surprise like he did last year?" Hearing Darren talk to Lilah and watching him engage with her is so beautiful.  I never really knew how much I loved Darren until I saw how much he loves Lilah. #meltmyheart It's what every daughter, young and old, craves! I am very thankful for this tradition and eventually, as Lilah gets older and has giving thoughts, as well as, money of her own, I can foresee it being a special exchange between the both of them.  For now, it's just Darren who gives.  I MUST share with you this year's gift from father to daughter.

We gave the kids their Valentine's gifts and NO ONE mentioned Darren/Lilah's exchange.  I guess the kids felt blessed enough and forgot about the sweet tradition.  About 2 minutes after the kids received their gifts, Darren said, "Lilah, I have a special surprise for you! Close your eyes." As you can see above and below, Lilah held her eyes tightly and patiently waited for Darren to tell her to open them.

Darren grabbed his unwrapped gifts. Looking back, I like that idea anyway because her reaction is PRICELESS, due to the fact that the gifts were VISIBLE to the naked eye!

 Patiently waiting!

"Okay, you can open your eyes now!" I could NOT have planned a better reaction. I LOVE having a little girl and this is ONE BIG reason WHY! She gets so giddy over details and special moments.  

 I don't think I need to say it.  Her facial expressions tell the story of her appreciation.  She was so excited and very, very appreciative.

 Then daddy gently kissed his baby girl as she squeezed her hippo tightly.  

A few weeks ago, after a lunch date together, we stopped in a Hallmark and Walgreens.  It's always fun watching him shop for Liley.  I had to put my phone on silent to take these photos. Darren caught me taking ONE in the stuffed animal section and said, "Delete it!" LOL! Little does he know I got two others.

What did Darren give to her?

Well, a little birdie told him that she's been begging for a box of chocolate.  EVERY TIME we went to the store, she would beg and beg and I kept saying "No!" Darren and I agreed that the cheesiest box of chocolate would be the COOLEST box of chocolate to her, so he chose the box that had a rose on top! He also got her the "Hug Loving Hippo" from Hallmark.  She sings, "Baby's Got Back!" But instead, the lyrics are re-written and the hippo starts off singing, "I like BIG Hugs!" I inserted a youtube video of this plush toy, below, in action.

And finally, Darren got Lilah a new Oragami charm!

It was delivered in this sweet box!

Liley had a fantastic Valentine's Day! She's been carrying her hippo around everywhere.

Darren loved the photos I captured, so he put them on Instagram.  I love what he wrote, "So there's this girl, she stole my heart, she calls me dad!"

I will leave you with this thought: "A daughter needs a dad to be the standard against which she will judge all men!" If you're a dad or a future dad, be the type of man you would want your daughter to be with.