Today’s post appears at Parenting Squad.  I hope you’ll check it out and leave some comments to let me know what you thought.  Hope everyone is having a great week!

http://parentingsquad.com/dads-be-a-hero

Happy Father’s Day to all the other dads out there!  I had a great one myself.  The kids gave me homemade cards this morning, which is a always a nice treat.  My wife gave me a beautiful wooden bill organizer for my desk (I think she is trying to tell me something).

We took the kids to an indoor play place and had lunch, and then returned home for some backyard fun in the sprinklers.  I grilled steaks for dinner and my wife served up a homemade peanut butter pie for dessert.  It was a great way to finish off the day.

The kids spotted a new bird’s nest on our backporch with fresh eggs.  It seemed fitting since we had baby birds hatch on Mother’s Day just in front or our windows.  It provided a great view for the kids to watch Momma bird feed her babies, and daddy bird guard the nest.  I hope they make it an annual tradition.

Back to work tomorrow (and back to reality).  Hope everyone has a great week!

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The other night I was out watering the square foot garden while my kids were running around the yard, riding power wheels and bicycles. It had been an extremely hot day, and even though the sun was setting, the humidity was still around. As my son made a pass on his bicycle, I turned and sprayed him a bit with the watering hose. Imagine the look on his face - I’m usually the one yelling, “Don’t mess with the hose,” or “Don’t get your new shoes muddy!”

The innocent spray soon turned into a full-on assault with me spraying with water, and them trying to avoid it (well, only some of the time - what kid doesn’t like to get wet in the summertime?). I could tell by their reactions that they were a little surprised Dad had cut loose and was actually letting them get wet, and muddy, and ruin those new shoes. For the moment, at least, I didn’t care.

The event was a great reminder that occasionally it’s fun to relax the rules a bit and show your kids you still know how to have fun. Every now and then I’ll get out on their trampoline and bounce around a little, and I love to join them in a little backyard soccer game. I’ve found that when dad relaxes a bit and shows a fun side it has a way of calming kids’ nerves, which is a timely lesson considering it is summer break and they are cooped up in the house much of the day. Mom appreciated the break as well!

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photo by magnusfranklin