Father's Day cards. Trying to make the day not a complete disappointment.

I had great plans to make today a great Father's Day for Craig. But I came down with a fever and the flu last night, followed by Daisy committing to a cry-a-thon from midnight until 2am, and then was woken in the far-too-early-hours of this morning to be told that someone had one of the iPads on iTunes radio, instead of the 'proper music.' Side note: dobbing should be completely outlawed before 7am; they can eat chocolate, dancing on the dining room table, to every Minecraft parody, in every piece of clothing they own, and I DO NOT CARE, so long as it is quiet.

Anyway, on waking this morning my commitment to making this the best Father's Day ever, swayed somewhat. I instead committed to trying to not make the day completely suck. Sorry Craig. Reciprocal rights say you are off the hook for next Mother's day. Thankfully Jack had already decided to make Craig a fancy breakfast-before-bed, as he is on an endless stretch of nightshifts. With breakfast out of the way, my fuzzy thoughts turned to the present-wrapping-card-making extravaganza that I had planned to keep them occupied while Craig slept, in the hope I could avoid some of the "can I wake daddy up yet"s. Yeah, all that excitement clearly wasn't going to happen.

So instead I decided to copy what we did last year, because it was so easy and required very little from all involved. As for the presents: I decided to leave sticky tape and paper on the table and let them go for it. It's the thought that counts. And I was thoroughly entertained by the but-I-had-the-stick-tape-first-banter. Ahhh sibling love and communication.

This is how we made the cards, just in case anyone else is stuck for a quick and easy card idea in the future.

1) Choose three coloured pieces of A4 paper (or two if you have more than one child making a card) and two different colours of paint. There was no choosing-of-colours for my children today. I just was not up to the but-I-said-pink-not-yellow (even though they DID say yellow) thing. But usually I might consider letting them pick. Maybe.

2) Fold one piece of paper off centre.

3) Paint daddy's hand with one of the chosen paints and press it down on the smaller side of the fold.

4) Let the hand print dry then cut along the fold and across the top or at the bottom of the handprint.

5) Cut another piece of paper out so that it is slightly smaller than half of an A4 sheet. This may seem unnecessary, but inevitably someone will have a melt down if they mess up their message or drawing to dad on the inside of the card. This way we don't have to start over. I just get the crying child a new piece of paper. Instant fix.

6) Paint one child's hand (with a different colour paint) and press on top of the daddy handprint. Let dry. Never try to do this with more than one child at a time. Never. You have been warned.

7) Ask child/ren to write their message to daddy on the smaller-than-half-A4-sheet.

8) Fold the last A4 sheet of paper in half. Glue the handprint on the front and message inside the card.

9) Let it dry. Optional: write "Happy Father's Day" on the front.

Time to get back to attempting to be a half conscious mum for the rest of the day. Or maybe I'll just curl up with a hot chocolate and a tissue box and let the kids do the cooking they have planned. How bad can it really be? I think I must be borderline delirious because I just saw a completely clean (I'm talking no Lego on the floor clean) boys room. My kids seem to think they can make me better by doing jobs around the house, and who am I to crush the beliefs of these little cuties?!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's day. Or that it at least wasn't a complete disappointment;)