Father's Day is sneaking up on me again this year. Last year we got together with some friends and the kids made t-shirts. Piper was so excited that we gave it to Dh early. Then on "the day" I didn't really do anything. I think Dh was a little bummed so I'm trying to be better about it this year.

Anybody doing anything special? What are your Father's Day traditions? I think this is one of those things where Mom's tend to be easier. I don't want to get him a lame tie or a stupid golf ball. Those seem to be the kinds of gift ideas the various sites are coming up with, lol. I need a little more originality. 

My DH has been wanting a bonsai tree forever. This might be the year. There are some cool planters for them I found online. As far as the big day, we usually don't do much. Maybe cook dinner. But nothing too fancy. It seems like the moms always get screwed though b/c we have to plan fathers day and mothers day. This year I ducked out on mothers day and took myself and my baby out of town to visit a good friend. Its like the moms can't enjoy mothers day b/c they are busy planning mothers day for their mom, grandma & MIL. Then we have to turn right around and do fathers day! I think the key is to keep it as simple as possible. My DH & I are not big fans of holidays. My favorite is Thanksgiving. I refused to even put up a Christmas tree until we had our daughter, now I feel we have to. It just seems that there are so many expectations that I really can't fulfill and enjoy myself and my family. But if I try to get out of the obligations I feel guilty about that too. Oh what to do...

The picture cutouts are really cute! I'll have to check out the Martha site for some more ideas. I always forget about that resource. I've been looking on kodakgallery as well. I may be better off just ordering something - I saw you can create photo mousepads. That might be cool for work. I'm the type that needs to start weeeelll in advance when it comes to crafty stuff. Like I need to start now if I plan on making gifts for Christmas.

He got me two bonsai trees for Christmas one year. The evergreen one died almost immediately, but the one that looks kind of like a rubber tree is still going strong. I thought it would be the other way around.

He's pretty good about Mother's Day. My mom and MIl don't live in town and my grandma passed away last year, so I didn't have any other obligations.

I do remember one year I thought it would be fun to take him and the boys out to the Bristol for a Father's Day brunch. Here we were at this fairly expensive brunch (when you're talking about 3 boys over 12 and 2 adults) where they make waffles to order, the buffet is stocked with all kinds of food - They ate watermelon. And more watermelon. Probably $2.00 worth of fruit between the 3 of them, lol. We still talk about that one.

Jason is pretty simple, so we will probably just go have a picnic at Bernheim - that's one of his favorite things to do. And even though it's cliche, I will probably get him a couple of new button-down shirts and a tie. He has to wear a suit and tie to work every day, and he's been saying for the past few months that he needs new clothes. He also LOVES gardening, so anything related would work too.

For my dad, I'm making a photobook at Shutterfly using the pictures from our trip out to my parents' house in Oregon last week. Shutterfly has some pretty cool gift ideas using photos, by the way.

we never do anything for mother's day or father's day. I usually give cards, but that is about it. I don't even think I sent my mom a mother's day card this year, she told me a couple of years back it was totally a hallmark card day and she didn't care about it. Micah worked on Mother's day this year, and every future year will be the same as long as he is a restaurant manager. We never did anything for Mother's day, I don't remember a card even. I'm okay with that though, it would have been nice to have been granted some alone time. It's a rare thing around here.

I really haven't thought about anything I am giving the parents. I found my dad an amazing deal on a smoker, he said that was almost as good as me buying it for him with the amount of money I saved him! Maybe I will do some photo gifts, or do some handmade cards with photos in them. Those are my favorite things to do.

Thanks for the reminder...I forgot that was coming up! We don't do much for mother's or father's day either, as we don't have the money to buy each other gifts and think that's kinda silly anyway. I'll probably let Novi play around with markers and fashion some kind of cute card out of it. And we'll also throw together a fancy breakfast. 

Amy - I like the picnic idea. If it's not excrutiatingly hot, we'll likely do that. Or maybe get some yummy steaks from the farmer's market to grill-out. That would be a nice treat 

DH wants to go to the new BD's Mongolian BBQ that recently opened on Hurstbourne.  We used to go to the one in MD when we lived there, and ever since he heard about this one, he's been dying to go.  So that's what he's getting

I ended up burning a DVD for my dad...it has some little movies of the kids and a couple of those slideshows set to music.  It's already going to be late, though...and if I have more time I might make a little insert/cover to go with it, just so it looks a little nicer.  My dad's birthday is right next to father's day every year too...this year I'm totally cheating and just wrote PS-Happy Birthday on the inside of the father's day card.  Oh well.

while I am not a huge sports fan my dh is, so i took the kids and had their pictures done in Kentucky shirts and had a diaper cover made w/ KY fabric for Leena. It actually turned out really cute! I already gave it to my hubby b/c he is on call next weekend, and he teared up.

Alex made one of those macaroni pencil holders... you all kwim, right? We used buttons and macaroni and anything else that we could glue to an icing container... we let the glue dry and then spray painted it silver. She's beyond proud of herself! We wrapped it up and the kids both made cards covered in stickers...