Tag Archive for 'memories'

Thoughtful Gifts for Dad on Father’s Day

Published on June 2, 2011 in Holidays. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Father’s Day is just around the corner, and we’re sure, like us, you’re starting to think about gifts for Dad. So we thought we would share with you our favorite ideas for showing Daddy some love this Father’s Day. They’re simple ideas that are about creating and preserving memories, because when all is said and done these are what make life memorable.

Make Daddy a Tie

What Father’s Day isn’t complete without a tie? Last year, my daughters and I made this personalized silk tie for my husband. It’s a fantastic way to keep your children little forever – well, their sweet little hands and feet at least.

These ties are available on Daddystie.com for $29.95 with free shipping. The kit comes with a silk tie and a black non-toxic washable ink pad.

They’re incredibly easy to make. In fact, we made ours in about 20 minutes while Daddy was upstairs showering and dressing one day.

Simply lay the tie on a flat surface with newspaper underneath. Rub the ink generously on your child’s hand or foot. You may need to wet the ink pad a little with a spritz or two of water. It also helps to practice on a piece of paper once or twice to get an idea of how much ink you need. For kids under 1, it’s best to do a foot because their hands haven’t quite grown out of the grasping reflex so it’s difficult to get a flat handprint.

Press your child’s hand or foot onto the tie and apply a little pressure directly on top and then lift their hand or foot directly upwards off the tie. Reapply ink and repeat.

Then take your child immediately to the sink and rinse. :)

Spray lightly with a little Scotchgard to protect the tie and prints and hang to dry.

Make Your Own Personal Greeting Card for Daddy

Recently, Heather’s kids made these cards for their daddy for his birthday.  They add the perfect touch of personality to any special dad on Father’s Day. First, start by helping the kids make their handprint on a piece of construction paper or white stock paper.  Then, scour through your photos to find a good one of your special dad with each child, and tape the photo to the inside of the card.  On the other side of the card, you can either write something really nice, or make up a poem.
Heather wrote touching poems that were very personal between each of her daughters and their father.  Combined, both poems took her about 20 minutes.  If your child is old enough to write his/her own poem, by all means, they should try their hand at poetry.  Her kids are 21 months old and 3 1/2, not quite old enough for poetry.
Here is the poem she wrote, if you’d like some inspiration. You’re welcome to use her poem below as long as you include the author byline/attribution.
“From the moment I was born and heard your soothing voice;
I knew you were my dad, there was no other choice.
And thank goodness there wasn’t, because you’re as good as it gets;
Without you and only you in my life, I would be quite upset.
I look up to you with admiration, love and respect;
Please don’t forget that when our two very similar personalities intersect.
Because I love you daddy with all of my heart.
I always have, right from the start.”
-By Heather Fruzzetti
When Heather’s daughter was born, she cried louder than any infant she had ever heard cry. When her dad began talking to her, she stopped crying immediately because she recognized his voice. Her husband was so touched by the poem that he cried.
If you need help rhyming words, try RhymZone.com (http://www.rhymezone.com/).  You type in a word, and it generates several words that rhyme.

Make Daddy Breakfast in Bed

Courtesy chiefmoamba, flickr

Growing up, making breakfast together with Mom or Dad while allowing the other to sleep in on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day was always a special treat. As kids, we loved to walk into the room with our handmade cards and breakfast and wake them up.

Let your children do as much as they are able. They’ll love delivering breakfast to Daddy knowing they helped. If you’re looking for a special breakfast treat, here are some of my family’s favorite breakfast treats:

Brown Sugar Bacon Waffles – These are positively amazing! They’re sweet and a little savory, light and fluffy, yet incredibly filling. LOVE! LOVE! LOVE them!

Nutella Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce – These pancakes are moist and light. The raspberry sauce is a little too tart and overpowering, but these would be excellent with strawberry jam. And a healthier substitute for the nutella is MaraNatha’s dark chocolate almond spread with no preservatives.

Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Casserole – For the man in your life who likes a hearty breakfast, this is it. I haven’t shared my recipe on purebebe, but this link is essentially it. The casserole requires assembly the night before. Refrigerate overnight and then place in the oven the next morning.

Give Daddy a Day of Leisure

Courtesy Timmy2wheels, flickr

Let’s face it. Becoming a daddy often means giving up some of the things he loves. Not that he’s complaining, but we’re sure he might appreciate a day out doing something he loves like golfing.

To make it fun and personal, have your children make up a handmade gift certificate to his favorite activity or outing.  Have them draw a picture of Daddy doing his favorite activity. Then perhaps choose a fun place to meet up with Daddy after his day out for dinner and/or an activity together, like mini-golf.

Plan a Special Activity with Daddy

Choose an activity that the whole family can enjoy, perhaps something you don’t get to do very often. Some excellent suggestions:

  • Have a picnic at your local park or even in your backyard, and plan your meal to include some of Daddy’s favorite foods or snacks
  • Go camping at your local campground, or pitch a tent and camp out in your backyard. If you have a firepit, roast marshmallows and make smores!
  • Visit a local sight or go on a boat tour. We live in the DC area, and it’s not often that we get out to visit landmarks in our own backyard but for when we’re playing hostess for out-of-towners. If this sounds familiar, perhaps there’s a local sight or event you’ve been meaning to visit.
  • If you’re lucky enough to live near the ocean, go to the beach. Otherwise, go to your local pool or waterpark.
  • Visit your local zoo.
  • Go to a movie. These days, plenty of movies are made for kids with humor for parents too. We recently saw Kung Fu Panda 2 and loved it.

Capture the Memories

Grab your favorite pictures of Daddy over the years and put together an ensemble. One year I made an accordion book like the one in this Martha Stewart craft. Include pictures of your child and their favorite activities with Dad or a picture of each child and have them include a note about why they love Dad.

Or make a custom board book that your little one can enjoy with Dad. You can start with a blank board book available here or, if you’re not feeling too crafty, use a service that will print a custom board book for you with your own photos and text. But you’ll need to move quickly if you want to have a service prepare one in time for Father’s Day. Here are a few that we found:

My Custom Story: Custom Photo Board Books
Hullabaloo Stories: Custom Board and Fabric Books
LifeTimez Enterprise: Custom Board, Photo, and Panoramic Books

What are some of your favorite gift ideas? Please share!

We hope all the Daddies out there know how much they are loved, appreciated, and needed this Father’s Day!

-Jasmine and Heather

 

You Might Also Like:

Cooking with Your Young Child
Winter Activity: Use Your Child’s Artwork to Make Greeting Cards
Fantastically Funny Friday – Dad Life

The Doll House

Published on March 17, 2011 in Holidays. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Last weekend while my husband and I were looking for something in our basement storage room, my 3 year old daughter stumbled upon my childhood dollhouse. “Um, what’s this mama?” she asked. I hadn’t planned to pass my dollhouse along to her for another year or so, when she would be old enough to understand how important the dollhouse is to me. But I knew that I couldn’t keep it hidden any longer as soon as the words “mama’s dollhouse” came out of my mouth.

The cat was out of the bag and she was instantaneously excited and intrigued.

So my husband, Mark, and I carefully carried both the dollhouse and its large stand to our children’s playroom. The stand, made from wood, was carefully constructed by my father for the sole purpose of displaying the beautiful miniature house.

As Mark loosened the cardboard covering that he had nailed to the dollhouse years ago, exposing the miniature rooms, I was once again five years old.

It was Christmas and my family had traveled to Ohio to spend the holiday with my maternal grandparents. The house was full of family, my mom’s brother, his wife, my parents, grandparents, my sister, and me. The strong, sweet aromas of my Grandmother’s turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, warm bread, and hot pies, filled every room in the house. We let everyone take their turns opening gifts, starting with the youngest, me, first. After everyone finished opening their gifts, my Grandfather told me to sit in a chair and cover my eyes with my hands. A few seconds later, he told me to open my eyes.

Standing next to him and my Grandmother was the most beautiful white and green dollhouse that I’d ever laid my eyes on. My Grandfather explained that he had designed and constructed the entire house himself, complete with base molding, and my Grandmother had created all of the linens in the dollhouse using scraps from their own home – draperies, rugs, and bedspreads.

“So what do you think?” He asked, as he and my Grandmother beamed with pride at their craftsmanship. I remember being extremely embarrassed by everyone staring at me, expecting me to say something. I ultimately shied away from the dollhouse, and muttered something to the effect of “I don’t like it.”

To this day, I still wish I could take those words back and instead tell him how much I’ve loved and cherished his beautiful masterpiece. In fact, so much that I have carefully preserved the dollhouse for 30 years so that my own children could enjoy and adore his creation.

It took three scrubdowns to get rid of all the dust. But once cleaned, my daughter played with the dollhouse for hours. She didn’t seem to mind the warped wallpaper or the dusty linens. In fact, we had to pry her away from it to come upstairs and eat dinner.

Last night I called my 93-year old Grandmother and told her about last weekend’s events. She was elated to hear that her great granddaughter thoroughly enjoyed something that she helped create many years ago.

She also mentioned that this year, my Grandfather will have been gone for 20 years.

I told her that although he’s gone, his craftsmanship, thoughtfulness, and ability to create something that makes his grand daughter smile, surely lives on.

What distinct memories do you have when you were 5 years old?

-Heather

Related Articles:

Making Memories With Grandparents

Life From The Eyes Of A Three Year Old

How Meeting Warren Buffett Means Less TVs In My Household

Trains, Taxis and Broadway

Creating Thanksgiving Memories

Published on November 23, 2010 in Activity and Holidays. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Gathered 'round the Thanksgiving table

I love this time of year because I find myself reminiscing about holidays past and recalling childhood memories. When I think about Thanksgiving, I always remember watching in anticipation as my mom made my favorite sweet crescent rolls the night before and then rolled them out Thanksgiving morning. Thanksgiving was never Thanksgiving in our house without oodles and oodles of those rolls. We’d eat them for days afterwards – if they lasted that long. Often, after dinner was done, the pies would sit on the counter while we curled up in the family room piecing on crescent rolls and watching Dad’s favorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

This is now a familiar sight in my home at Thanksgiving – only now I’m preparing the dough the night before and rolling out several batches of rolls, even when it’s just my little family and I as it will be this year. I’m sure my little girl will be right there by my side creating a memory that I hope will be repeated every year.

How will you create Thanksgiving memories this year?

Apart from baking, I’ve decided to begin a new tradition in my family – a way to capture and create memories for my children. When my family comes to the table this year, they will find a white table cloth with fabric paint and markers. And before any little fingers dig into the sweet potatoes, their little handprints will be impressed upon the table, and we will each leave a note describing something we are thankful for this year. It will be so fun to see their little hands grow each year and to recall our many blessings.

If you’re looking for some ideas for ways to create Thanksgiving memories this year, here are a few more:

  • Keep your family focused on the spirit of thanks all month. Create a turkey cut-out to put on the wall, and after dinner each night, have family members write something they are thankful for on a paper feather and tape them to the turkey. As the month goes by, you’ll have a reminder of how incredibly blessed you are.
  • Invite others to share the holiday with your family such as singles, college students, or other families who are far from their loved ones.
  • Compete for the dishes. After dinner, play a game together. The losing team has to do the dishes.
  • Turn Black Friday into Family Friday. Stay home and enjoy family time together. Establish a traditional family activity: Watch a Christmas movie, make handmade Christmas ornaments, build gingerbread houses, bake cookies, or play games.
  • Show your gratitude in your community. As a family, choose someone in your community who deserves your thanks such as firefighters, policemen, volunteers, or perhaps a soldier who is deployed (or his or her family). Bake a treat and write a note and deliver (or ship) it to them as a family. A great activity for Family Friday!
  • Burn the Bird together. Burn off the calorie-rich feast by participating in a family run/walk. Your local community may be hosting one, and it may also benefit a local charity.
  • Create a keepsake. Gather your favorite holiday recipes and pictures of loved ones from your Thanksgiving feast to create a keepsake family cookbook – a perfect Christmas gift for your guests. There are many services online to assist you in creating your cookbook, and they appear to be very reasonably priced. Here is just one we came across.

Wishing you wonderful memories and a Happy Thanksgiving!

-Jasmine

If you have any ideas you would like to share, please do! Just leave us a comment below!


If you enjoy reading PureBebe, please tell your friends and click on “Subscribe to PureBebe!” under “Email Subscription” on the right rail of the screen. By subscribing to our emails, you are telling us that you dig our site and want to read more of our healthy baby news and topics!

Related Articles:
What Is Your Favorite Holiday Tradition?
How To Buy Healthy On A Budget This Holiday Season
Life Can Change In An Instant: Giving Thanks This Holiday Season

Sharing Buttons by Linksku