Happy Fatheversary

Last Sunday, June 20th, Tony and I celebrated our 12th Anniversary. I can’t begin to explain how this wonderful man won my heart so many years ago and how he continues to win my heart every single day. He is, without a doubt, one of the best things that has ever happened to me (before Molly, he held this honor all alone…now he shares it with her!).

One of the qualities that attracted me to Tony was the fact that kids loved him. Nieces, nephews, friends’ children—they all flocked to him whenever he walked into a room. I knew that if we ever  had children, they would be the luckiest kids in the world.

How appropriate it was that the day that I celebrated my marriage to Tony, Molly celebrated his fatherhood.

Molly’s entire face lights up the moment he walks in the door. She adores him. And he adores her.

He is the person that makes her laugh uncontrollably. He will take her anywhere and do anything that she wants—even play princess. Oh, yes he does!

He stands next to her as a protector, a provider, and a daddy (not every father achieves this high status).

She knows she has him wrapped around her finger and he doesn’t mind it one little bit!

Last year we began a tradition of making Daddy a stepping stone. This year we continued the tradition because it wouldn’t be much of a tradition if we only did it once.

Here is Molly hard at work, crafting the stone: 

Molly was so excited to give Daddy the Father’s Day present she had made. By the huge smile on Tony’s face I thinks it’s obvious that he was excited, too.   What? You don’t see the huge smile? Trust me, it’s huge. Monumental even. This is the man who I had to tell to smile for each and every wedding picture. He gave this one without me even asking! And yes, he smiles all the time in real life, just not so much in pictures.

Molly couldn’t wait for Tony to put the stone in the garden.

Wow, there’s that huge smile again!

This year’s stepping stone:(Wo ai ni means I love you in Chinese.)

Last year’s and this year’s stone in an aesthetically pleasing display for your viewing pleasure.

And in other happenings ….

This is for my Dad in Colorado who is always fascinated by the Midwest's mulch consumption.

Here’s the mulch pile, Dad, pictured alongside the apple of your eye--for comparative purposes. There are three yards, to be exact. Not enough though..we will get more next week.

 

And in case you care, I tried to spread as little mulch as possible worked hard all day. What thanks did I get? I got bit on the chin by a mosquito. Here’s a picture of the ‘astonishing’ (Tony’s word) reaction.

And this is before it got really big. An hour later it had doubled this size. It looked like an egg was sitting on the right half of my chin (left side of this picture for those of you who are now looking at the wrong side and are not seeing the grotesquely disfigured section of my face).