happy best birthday father's day

these two worship their dad and they pulled out all the stops yesterday to prove it. of course, they never fully grasped the concept of father's day, but it wasn't for lack of trying. they turned boring old father's day into a new breed of holiday: "happy best birthday father's day!"

nash couldn't say "happy father's day" without inserting "best" in there and haven couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea of father's day not being a birthday.

on thursday, nash mastered swimming without floaties. we were so excited that, although we had talked about surprising dad by showing him nash's new skills on sunday, we just couldn't wait. so that night we all headed to the pool. when we got there and opened the gate haven shouted, "surprise, dad, it's your birthday father's day party!" then when we were making dessert* for father's day dinner she would not give up on the idea of a party and candles and singing and...

so we decorated, ate a father's day feast (with steak! man style!), went around the table listing all the things we love about bevie, sang "happy father's day to you," blew out a candle, and then finished up at the park with sparklers.

apparently my kids like parties. i have no idea where they get it.

*we made these cupcakes, although when you try to make that frosting without a double boiler, candy thermometer, or torch, you get drastically different results.
p.s. see the little necktie on the root beer bottle? we did that in nursery and it worked out great. each kid got to color a necktie and then we tied them to a bottle of dad's brand root beer (although i used IBC here for steve's). nice quick project for their very short attention spans!
p.p.s. while watching king pin yesterday, steve was inspired to make a video of the kids for his dad. here they are groovin' to ELO.  steve was coaching them from behind the camera and did his signature move (a little MJ inspired crotch grabbing) at the end which really confused the kids since we tell them not to touch their privates. awesome. they also called my dad and left a message saying "happy father's day," "happy father's day," "happy father's day," we love you, grandma!". clearly the father's day thing never sunk in.