Celebrating Dads.... - 5 Boys and 1 Girl Make 6

Another Fathers Day has come and gone. I always anticipate a beautiful day with well behaved kids, good food and family. Unfortunately real life does not always deliver that and at the end of the day we have cranky kids, and tired parents. What I do know is that I feel so lucky to have 4 Dads in my life and I was sure glad I was able to spend time with three of them today.

Reality isn’t always pretty but it is real life and real life looks like skinned knees sometimes. Scrapes and bruises from running too fast and loosing your footing. We did a little of that this weekend. I love my father in laws advice to us. “These are the fun times.” He said it about 110 times this weekend. Although he was joking, I know there is a lot of truth in his words. These are the good times. Soon our kids will be older, and with that comes bigger problems. Right now a scuffle on the street is pretty minor in the whole scheme of things and at the end of the day my husband and I can still find a laugh our two. That is successful parenting if you ask me.

Right now I am trying to savor the baby dolls getting airplane rides,

and the kids rallying to color in the perfect “Happy Fathers Day” sign.

A discovery walk to find the most beautiful flowers and then planting their faces in them to relish in the scent.

The teeth that are coming loose and the questions about how we can slow down the process. He looked at me seriously and asked if we could tape it.

So the beach afternoons of throwing sand at each other and kicking the waves in each others faces are super frustrating at the time but when you look back maybe they are not so bad. The interaction is not always positive but at least they still do interact. It would probably be easier to sign them up for camps and split them up amongst sports teams but I am not going for that this year. I am going to tough it out. I am going to keep working on their behavior and I am going to say a lot of prayers that at the end of the summer they truly realize how lucky they are to have 5 other siblings.

As for my husband. These days of frustration just confirm how much we all need him. He is my partner and their dad. I couldn’t do the jobs I do without him and they continue to learn how to be a strong and compassionate people by his example. It works. 50/50. He cares for our kids, pushes them to succeed in what ever they want to succeed in and then volunteers to sleep with them at night till they fall asleep. He is the real deal and the perfect combination of the 2 dads I grew up with.

So if there was a highlight from today it was spending the afternoon on the beach looking at this. My father and his father enjoying each others company. We don’t take that relationship for granted.