Happy Father’s Day

Another Father’s Day, another stepping stone for the garden.

Several years ago we started a tradition of making Daddy a stepping stone for Father’s Day. I love this idea for a number or reasons.

• Molly gets to participate in making Daddy’s gift.
• Each year we select meaningful reminders of the year to place into the stone.
• The stones add such a lovely personal touch to the garden, which we can enjoy year-round (except when they are covered in snow!).
• We have a record of Molly’s hand print and can see how much she has grown each year.
• I don’t have to think of a new, original, heart-felt gift each year!!!!

Here is Molly in the process of making this year’s stone:

Molly is really into dinosaurs. This is also one of Daddy’s passions, so it was a no-brainer to figure out what we were going to include in the stone.

Molly selected and carefully placed a plastic dinosaur at each corner of the stone. She picked an Ankylosaurus, Velociraptor, Hadrosaurus and Spinosaurus.

The reason for these particular dinosaurs was so meaningful: They were all duplicates in the set. She quickly figured out that she could give these up and still have the most variety left for herself. So thoughtful, my girl.

After the dinos were in place, Molly lined the edges with glass beads. This is the first year that she was concerned that the beads followed a set pattern of colors. Showing off her pre-math skills, my big girl is!

Final step: Handprint!

The stepping stone is done!

The completed project now needed to cure.

Molly was so excited to give the stone to her Dad, but heck, it was only Monday. She had to wait another 6 days to give it to him. That is a loooooong time for a little kid to have to wait. And keep it a secret. But she did.

Finally Father’s Day arrived and the gift could be revealed. As you can see, we showed great care in our wrapping.

A big smooch before the unveiling.

And then the moment finally arrived.

Molly and her Daddy showing off the stepping stone.

Placing it in the garden.

The full set of stepping stones.

A close up of this year’s project.

And here is a special little someone who will be celebrating Father’s Day with his very own Daddy next year!

One last person that I must include in this post: My Daddy!

And yes, even at 47 years old, I still call him Daddy.

To Molly his is simply Grandpa, and she loves him madly!

Happy Father’s Day to these two very special men.

We love you both so much!