Yay for our fathers out there! I love Father’s Day and the ability to say thanks to the guys in my life and all the amazing things they do for me. I love my dad, and my husband. I think I enjoy the day more than they do. I always do my best to get the kids just as excited as I am. My favorite way to do so is by getting them in on the gift giving.

I love the idea of buying ties for dads on Father’s Day.  I know is a cliche, but my husband wears them on a daily basis and always needs new ones. Looking on the Internet it was not hard to find sewing patterns to make our own. Then I had the pleasure of taking the kids shopping for fabric. You don’t need much to make a tie so you can always check the “scrap fabric” bins at your local fabric store. The cool thing here is that your man gets a one of a kind gift. If he routinely wears ties like my husband, then it’s a darn right useful one too. My kids loved picking out crazy wild patterned fabric. In fact we have plans to make one with some Super Mario fabric.

Another favorite for Father’s Day here is the hand made card. My daughter is quite the little card maker. She takes pictures of herself and daddy and glues them together. Then writes all the things she loves about daddy (my favorite: she loves him because he gives the best piggy back rides. It’s true, he does). My son is planning on making daddy a trophy. He is taking a plastic drinking cup, and plans to paint it gold. Daddy gets the gold of course. Then I will help him glue it to a small piece of wood we got from the hardware store for about a dollar. He will paint that base piece of wood to match. Then I will help him write “#1 Dad” on it. Totally simple, but also just fun enough for the kids to really get into it.

Last year we made daddy a coupon book. Each of the kids came up with things they could do to make daddy happy. Then they made a coupon for that. They included things like making him a cup of coffee, or a day out fishing, helping him to wash the car, making him breakfast, and my personal favorite: five minutes of quiet time. Get out there and show the guys in your life how much you appreciate them!

-Stephanie Wright