Energetic But Enjoyable

It is Father's Day here.   My parents are in the mountains or they would have joined us.   My in-laws came and we celebrated enough for four grandparents at least.  There were lots of presents.  My children were very energetic about the whole present situation.  They had both been working for over a week on their projects (which were multi-fold) and were vying for the attention of their grandfather as well as father.   

I had had conversations with the children in advance about what they wanted to do on order of delivering craft-made items.   I also talked to my husband and in-laws about what to expect from the children as they were very keyed up.   Things went fairly well, actually quite well considering how excited they were and how there was easily a chance for either one to think it should be their turn or that the other's project was seen as, "better" or any number of other scenarios.   It went well.   All of it.  

My son had created a collection of stained glass-type items out of tracing paper onto which collections of video game things his father loved were printed.   Then, he had the idea to cut one of the pieces up along lines he'd made with tactile tape so that it was also a puzzle.   My daughter had the idea to put felt on the foamboard sheet so the pieces could be velcroed and then rearranged. 

My husband got the puzzle together after realizing the icons between the pieces could be connected, even though the colors between sections didn't match.   My father-in-law had a bit of a harder time because he wasn't familiar with some of the game-themed icons.   Here's the completed puzzle that will go on my husband's window over his computer.   This was before we cut it up along the lines. 

My daughter then unveiled her creation.   She and I spent hours, and I do mean HOURS on this thing.   She was very involved, including making decisions on placement of things, how certain things worked, and general layout.   Plus ideas.   She had so many ideas.   Here's a video overview of the three-hole golf course she made for her father and also for Papa to play on:

Here's an overview picture of it.   It was a lot of fun to do.   I would spend a lot more time talking about all the fun things we did to create these gifts for their father and grandfather but my computer had issues with images I didn't catch on to for a half-hour and now Blogger has up and changed format on me and I'm trying to figure out where all the new stuff is to do the old stuff I always did.   Suffice it to say, I'm tired.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son had to tell Nana about a Power Ranger's thing tonight.   He interrupted her while she was serving cupcakes.   I pulled him aside and said I wanted her to hear him, and I knew it was important to him so if he waited, she would be able to listen and actually hear him.   He said, "un huh" nodded and put his iPad down...for ten whole seconds...and then went back to tell her again.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter learned a lot about golf by making this little course.   I told her today that I thought I could teach her how to play herself and she wouldn't lose the ball (tiny little foam balls in yellow, orange, or white in the vials with the blue caps).   She listened to me and was able to play the whole course, not losing the ball once.   She may have finagled the little ball a time or time because she managed to get an eagle on one of the par-four holes.