So the actual Duke game that Zachary was so excited about yesterday actually happened today! The bad news is that a couple weeks back we planned a baby shower for one of Zachary's classmates and his wife for the exact same time as the game. So, being the incredible wife I am ;), I put in a plug for the game being the sporting event shown during the shower at the hosts' house. There is a new trend of men attending baby showers and I'm not sure they are happy about it. We had to promise sports and beer to get any of them to show up. But they did and we all had a great time and the parents to be got some great gifts that they will definitely use!
The artistic host of the shower made these calendars and each guest paid a dollar to choose the square representing the day when said guest guessed the baby will be born. I chose the day before the due date and Zachary chose the day after. I'm super impressed with this expecting couple's decision to wait until the baby is born to find out if they're having a boy or girl so the guessing was two-fold because the color sticker you chose indicated if you think it's a boy or girl. Whoever guesses closest to the actual time wins the money in the jar.
I always love me a good banner.
We decorated onesies and bibs with markers and paints letting everyone's creative side come out! Here you can see ones that say "Spit Happens," "Feed Me," "Spit, Spitmate, Self," "Don't give up the ship," a really cute whale, and in the left corner there's one that says, "Keep Calm, Sleep On... please!"
I love holidays! I love having a reason to celebrate something- a reason to make a special meal, hang a banner and give a gift. And when the people you're celebrating are truly amazing, it makes it even better! Zachary woke up before me but hadn't had breakfast when I got up so I got to make chocolate chip pancakes for him. I attempted to use my brain power and attempted to start warming up the skillet before I started mixing the batter so that when I was done mixing, I could immediately start cooking. Well... on our skillet there's a temperature dial and instead of putting the desired temperature on the arrow like I should have, I imagined the arrow was on the opposite side so while I thought it was warming up to 300 degrees, the temperature didn't even make it to "warm." So I mix the batter, throw the pancakes on and realize they're not looking like they should. I notice the temperature error and turn it up... well this burned the bottom of the pancakes. I calmly threw the batter of the four I had started making and scraped the burnt part off and started over with the appropriate temperature. The second batch stuck to the skillet a little because of the burnt residue I didn't quite get off but the third and fourth batch of four each came out perfect! Eight pancakes is enough for 3 people so it worked out fine. Makes it more memorable, right? After we ate the pancakes, I put the ties I made yesterday for the banner on the twine but there was no way this 8-month pregnant lady was getting in a chair and hanging a banner when I have a perfectly capable husband to help me. So he helped hang his own banner :)
We then headed off to church. I went to Trinity UMC with my mom, brother and his girlfriend last week and fell in love so I was so excited to take Zachary this week. We dropped Liam off in the nursery and picked a seat. The pastor's wife came over and talked to us and the pastor followed shortly after. He recruited Zachary for the softball team and everyone was so welcoming yet again. This is definitely an older congregation which I can illustrate with this next story. The pastor had some goodie bags that he wanted to give out to special fathers. The first bag went to the oldest father. He asked all fathers over 50 to stand. Zachary was the only one not standing. He invited those younger than 60 to sit, 65, 70... not very many sat down. The last three standing were 87 (the preacher's dad), 88 and 89. Then, as I was hoping, the pastor went in the opposite direction and announced the next bag would be awarded to the man who became a father most recently. Since Zachary could have been the son of any of the other men in the congregation, he won that one quite handily. It was a great service- Zachary approved which wasn't surprising. Then we went to Sammy's Pizza. Father's day in this little family of ours would not have been complete without some pizza.
Then we came home- Liam and I took naps and Zachary got some school work done- we went and looked for desk but surprisingly Office Depot had a super small selection. They had one we liked but they were out of stock of all three colors it came in.
Side note: I went on officedepot.com to see if another store somewhat close to us had it and it did- they have store pickup so I went ahead and paid for it online and they'll email me when I can come pick it up- they only had one in stock in the color we preferred so I wanted to go ahead and grab it. The side note is... I googled "office depot coupon code" and was directed to a link on retailmenot.com... the first thing that popped up was a code you could copy and paste to save $25. I was skeptical but it worked!
Then we came home- Liam and I played in his room while Zachary finished his school work for the night just in time for the Heat game. Here's Zachary and Liam watching:
It's very rare that he sits still long enough for me to get a picture- maybe he did it today just because it was Father's Day. These two are quite a pair.
So that was our Father's Day! Zachary was on deployment for our first Father's Day as a married couple. The second, we were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Liam. The third was Zachary's first real Father's day and now, the fourth, we're even more eagerly expecting Malia since she will be here in around a month. Liam, Malia and I are so blessed to have this wonderful man in our lives and that's definitely worth celebrating!
