Happy Father's Day

Tonight we had the whole family over to celebrate the Dads!  I was busy cooking all day and we had so much fun enjoying the food and company I forgot to take pictures once the guests started to arrive.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I did a crayon design for a fat quarter napkin on Spoonflower.  I got it printed on a yard of their linen/cotton blend which yielded 6 napkins.  I managed to put them through the serger today and get rolled hems put on like here.  It was a little trickier with the linen than just quilting cotton, but I got the hang of it after a few.

We had a lovely dinner with baked chicken and eggplant rollatini I made using Giada's recipes.  This book was a gift to me from a dear friend.  I visited her in Atlanta and helped her make all the food for a birthday party in honor of her husband.  She sent me this book once I returned home to thank me.  I love that I had the foresight to attach the thank you note and picture (we are chowing down on some chocolate cake!) to the front of the book.  Now every time I pull it out it make me smile and think of her (I really need to call, it's been TOO long!).

But, back to Father's Day.  Everyone brought something delicious and we ate way too much food and drank too much Sangria while my dad and Andrew's 93 year old grandfather told jokes and the boys ran around like wild banshees because no one noticed they were up about 2 hours past the normal bedtime.  Despite all the hard work there is nothing better than getting together with family, eating good food and sharing stories.

I definitely have  a lot to be thankful for on Father's Day.  I have the best Dad in the world.  He is there for me every day and calls to check on me all the time.  He came over one night with pliers at 11:30pm to extract a broken embroidery needle that had gone completely through my finger (darn those machines move fast & are strong - I no longer mess with them when they are in motion!).  He ran down a beach to come to my aid last year at the beach when a stingray slashed through my foot clear through to the ankle bone (seriously, both incidents last summer - this guy deserves a medal!).  Not to mention all the mundane stuff he helps me with every day!  No little girl or big girl ever felt so loved.

Then when I married I got a wonderfully sweet father-in-law who is my partner in crime when it comes to chocolate.  He is one of the sweetest, nicest men I've ever met.  And, his father is amazing too!  These guys have good genes!  Grandpa Bennett continues to amaze us in his 93 years on earth - he still cleans his own gutters and is a perfect gentleman and a sweetheart to his wife and everyone.

Of course, now that we have our own children, I get to watch Andrew become a most amazing Dad.  He sure has some good role models, but his style in fathering is all his own.  Those boys worship the ground he walks on and it is adorable to see them interact.  Almost makes me tear up (and I am not the crying type).  Today we had amazingly high winds and my topiary on the back porch was blowing over so far it looked like it was going to uproot itself, so Andrew braved wind and hail to move it to a more sheltered locale.  The boys chanted "Daddy saved the day!  He's a hero!"  He certainly does more things worthy of acclaim in a normal day, but it is funny what sticks out to them.

Sorry for the long, blathering post.  I'll end on a sweet note - pound cake (lemon & almond).  Happy Father's Day to all you wonderful dads out there!