Stand-in for Dad

The young women had a daddy daughter activity.

Since Mike is already gone, Noah willingly went with Grace.

Love that my kids love each other!

Daddy Daughter Carnival

I'm an activity day leader in our ward. That means that I help plan and carry out activities for the girls ages 8-11. I usually work with the 10-11 year olds, but sometimes we get all the girls together for big activities. On Saturday we had a Daddy Daughter Carnival that turned out so well. We had a huge turnout! Even some of the girls that don't usually come decided to attend.

We had different stations set up for the girls and their dads to go to.

We had a "put the tie on the dad" game which was a lot of fun and I heard laughter coming from that station a lot. Basically the girls were blindfolded and had to try and put a tie over their dad's head.

They also played a game that was a lot like fruitbasket. And we had a station where they decorated a picture frame. We also had a popcorn machine and chocolate fountain and other yummy treats for them.

I was in charge of the photo booth station. I brought a bunch of dress up clothes and accessories for them to choose from and then I took pictures of the girls with their dads. It was a lot of fun and we got some great pictures of everyone. By far the most used dress up was the big and little Fred Flintstone outfits that I brought from our Halloween costumes way back in 2008.

A bonus for me was that I usually don't get to be around at Daddy Daughter things. It was fun to watch Mike and Anna have such a good time together!

Daddy Daughter Fun (with a super stand-in Dad!)

The Activity Girls had their annual Daddy Daughter night last Wednesday.

Mike was out of town so Grace was on the look-out for a substitute Dad.

She found a great candidate in Lincoln Stevens. 

When she asked him he said he'd be honored.

and then he made sure she knew that meant yes :)

After he accepted Anna ran over to me and said, "Mom, Grace has a Dad!"

They had a good time making smores

I'm so proud of Grace, because of our no sweets and treats challenge she didn't partake...but she had a good time making them.

They danced.

 Lincoln said Grace was a great dancer.

Anna danced with another one of the dads because his daughter didn't want to...I heard her tell him that she danced for half a song and that was good enough :)

Then they played crab soccer.

That was fun to watch!

A big THANK YOU to Lincoln for being willing to stand-in for Mike.

Grace had a lot of fun!

Daddy Daughter Date

On Wednesday night, Grace and Mike attended their first daddy daughter dinner and dance at the church. I caught myself thinking back on the many daddy daughter dates I had with my Dad... I actually found a picture from one of them, I think I'm about 12 here. (Keep your laughter to a minimum)

Such great memories. I love you Dad!

Anyway, it was hard to believe that I was on the other side now, watching my daughter starting to create those memories with her Dad.

Grace was so cute, she had been looking forward to it for a very long time. When she got home from school that day we started getting her ready. We had fun, girl time talking and laughing while I curled her hair. I just wanted to fold that moment up and put it in my pocket. She is growing up so fast and even asked to wear make-up! What? I'm so not ready for that. I told her she could put on some lip gloss and that was that.

Mike decided to wear his new tux for their date, we figured why not... we bought it, he might as well wear when he can.

Aren't they so cute!

Since it was St. Patrick's Day, Grace wanted to make sure she and Mike had green on, so we added a little ribbon to take care of that.

They had a great time having dinner and learning more about each other. They also learned the Waltz, and had fun trying it out. (Watch out Mike, one of these days I might make good on my threat to sign us up for a ballroom dance class.)

What a special night for both of them.

I'm so thankful that my daughters have such a wonderful father who takes time to be with them and adores them. I look forward to sending them off on many more daddy daughter dates!

(Thanks to one of the yw, Susan, for taking pictures for me, since I couldn't be there. I was off in Cub Scout land.)