Father's Day

I gave my husband options to pick from for his Father's Day celebration. I asked if he wanted to go to Minneapolis to the Back to the Fifties car show, or make a trip to visit our dads, or go to the lake for an afternoon picnic and swim. He replied that he would rather spend time in the garage with the boys. I asked what he had planned for garage time. He said he had a plan to make a gravity powered hotrod for the boys.

Pushing it back up the hill

Saturday morning I went outside to find everyone in the driveway. Our daughter was in her bouncy seat, while the boys were riding their bikes. My husband was sweeping out the garage, and gathering parts from various spots. He made a pile of parts in the driveway and said that it was going to be the boy's hotrod. His pile of parts consisted of a wooden ladder we took off the playset, a fiberglass chair that came off a bowling alley bench, and lawn mower wheels. I obviously did not have the same vision that he had. The boys got their tools out and started hammering while they waited for my husband to give them directions. 

I was very impressed with my husband's engineering skills while giving our boys directions. He made them feel like such a part of the building process. While he was finding parts and thinking of the best way to build it the boys used markers to decorate the frame.

We live across the street from the alternative high school, which has a lot of asphalt that covers a huge hill. The boys rode in the car together and took turns driving. They were test driving it for more modifications to be made. A hood, firewall, and paint might even be added. 

My husband has mentioned in the past that he has been waiting since they were born to take them into the garage and build things. I've usually been the one to put on the brakes and say they aren't big enough for what he's doing or building. I realize how foolish that is when I see him teaching them, encouraging them, praising them, and kissing owies. 

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. It's the happy circle that repeats itself, to my father-in-law that taught my husband that teaches my sons, and to my dad that taught me and who teaches my sons as Papa.