Father's Day - Tacoma,WA

we always have a dad day, his fav breakast, and an activity he enjoys doing, going to a movie, a picnic, bike ride, and then a special dinner! Make all day about him!
Last year, dad wanted a low key day, to lounge around in jammies allday and just spend quality time together!

How about Portland Zoo's Summer concert on Father's Day? That sounds like fun to me.
http://www.oregonzoo.org/Concerts/index.htm

I am sure your daughter's ideas are all perfect.
I ask my husband what he wants to do - and granted it is not usually what I have in mind.... but often he goes on a bike ride (extreme downhill) and I bbq him a huge steak...red meat makes him happy.
I think guys just want to have some time to take a breath and anything you do to make it special will be appreciated.

Hi M.,

In our house, we get him a gift, but then HE gets to decide how to spend the day...In the past, we have gone to Enchanted Forrest in Salem, for a picnic, fishing, and this year we are going to the beach. The weather should be perfect, so I would pick something outside, but if Dad's ideal day is sitting and watching TV, then the perfect gift is to let him do it guilt and interruption free!

There is a glow in the dark gulf place in Olympia. Let me think of where I have seen them. I think there is one at Capital West Field Mall. I am not sure where the other one is.
There is also an outdoor gulf place in Yelm. It is on the left side of Yelm Highway coming in from Olympia. It shares the parking lot of a small mom & pop store.
We are going to just spend some time together hanging out.
I think that doing the shirt with hand prints on it is fun, or help her make breakfast for him.
If you go to a craft store (Like Michaels) you can get cubs that kids can paint on, or draw on. They have picture frames.
The other day at Walgreens I saw a Draw on the tie kit for fathers day.

Good luck, and enjoy!!!

When I was a nanny one of the things I did with the 5 and up kids was help them make a cake, cookies, or simple dinner for parents on special days. Even a cake mix and some canned frosting will seem like a huge deal if the child helps gather ingredients, mixes, pours in pan, and helps ice when cool. The only parts they really have to be excluded from are putting in and removing from the oven. Candies, dried fruits, nuts, and even fresh fruits can be used to decorate. Take pictures of the child helping and then have them write a special story about the day they made Daddy a special treat using or adding the pictures later. Then there are 2 special treats one to be eaten and one to be a keepsake, both handmade by your child.

We did an art project that I remebered doing when I was little. And then we had it laminated to use as placemats. We started with only doing one for daddy, but I wanted one too so I had her do one for all three of us. Our friends are coming over to do it again, because she doesn't want to give hers to daddy, so they are doing one for each of them also.
We crushed up crayons and cut out fish and flower shapes with construction paper and placed them on waxed paper and sprinkled the crayon peices (go sparingley the wax really spreads) over it then another sheet of waxed paper on top. Then iron it so that the crayons melt and make like a stain glass effect. I recommend using a thick pad of newspaper under your project and then lay a sction of newspaper on top between it and the iron. The crayon wax spreads and can make a huge mess, so use a lot of paper. Check often to see how the crayons are melting, the longer the heat is on the more it melts. And then it melts again in the laminator - make sure the outside ends are covered with paper when it gets laminated so that it doesn't mess up the machine. Copy It Mail It in downtown Gig Harbor was great help and only $2 for 11x17 inch, Kinkos was $3 and not as helpful and only did cold laminate on it.
Have fun.

I was going to make a suggestion of heading out to Sauvie Island for berry picking and family friendly fun at the big farms. Every year they have special activities for father's day. You may want to see if there is something like that in the Tacoma area. You get to have pick up cheap produce, gets some fresh air and enjoy the day together. When my sister visited with her kids they really enjoyed picking & eating berries.

enchantedlearning.com or crayola.com has some really cute project ideas that your daughter could make and feel proud of. I hope this helps! :)
Many Blessings to You and Yours!
L.

Woodland Park Zoo is having a fathers day brunch from 11-3 that includes zoo admission, bbq brunch (even turkey and veggie hot dogs) by their catering department (rainforest catering), and some fun kid/dad activities. We are avid zoo-goers and are really excited about it! I just made the reservations this morning, so there is still space. I think its about $30 per person, but that includes everything, even admission to the zoo. I think your six year old might really like that, if you and dad are into that sort of thing. I think the website is zoo.org and thats where I got the number to call.

Also, Northwest Trek is doing something similar, if thats closer to you.

Good luck!

The "paint your own pottery" places are neat - you could go with your daughter and let her pick something and paint it especially for her dad. I also like the idea of going someplace for a picnic, we are thinking of doing that, and the weather is supposed to be beautiful on Sunday.

Hi M.,

I know what you mean, sometimes things just fly by don't they? I'm sure perhaps you've thought of this, but I'll share w/you what my son & I are doing. My son is 5 (will be 6 this Sept. and starting kindergarten then). First, we already created and mailed him a really cool card - that were able to customize ourselves and we uploaded/attached a picture on the card that was taken of my son and his Dad. Realizing of course the mailing thing is probably a little late for you....you could still have your daughter make him a card. As far as the BIG DAY..we are making coffee & breakfast for DAD on Sunday morning and then having a Dad's Day Bar-B-Que at our home to celebrate both my hubby and my Dad (a.k.a. Grandpa to my son). I think just taking time to show appreciation for the one's we love means more than anything else you could ever purchase. So just a suggestion and I'm sure whatever you do, he'll LOVE IT! *By the way...re: the card thing for the future....if you're like me and can never seem to find the time to remember to get to the store, purchase the card, mail it, etc. even though you always have the best intentions of doing so...IF...ever you're interested the system I use is a really awesome...I LOVE IT! If you'd like, I'd love to share it with you sometime. Here's a link to my site so if ever you get a chance to check it out, I invite you to do so. If you're interested and want to know how you can send 3 free cards on me...check out the link and give me a call. http://www.sendoutcards.com/hlrenner
Have a great weekend!

I'm having my son make his own "picture book" for his father. Have them draw on several pages...a story. Their own version of what they LOOOOOOOVE to do with their fathers when they spend time with it. Give them some scrapbooking materials to work with. Could even pick up stuff from the dollar store. Cut the pages big enough to fit into ziplock baggies. Put the pages in order in the ziplock baggies. Put holes in the side that doesn't have the zip. Place ribbon through the holes to tie together and zip up the drawings or pictures in the baggies. And poof! You have ready make "books" that your children drew and colored all their own. Special made. Father's LOOOOOOVE things like this from their children. :D Any more craft ideas, just let me know. :D

All my husband wanted was his fishing license for father's day. He loves to fish and usually gets his license every year, but since we are so tight on money this year - we called it his present for this year.

The local waterslide park where we live has a "dad's get in free day" Or I know it is not as suprising for the dad, but you could ask what he wants to do, I liken father's day to birthdays in feeling, kind of their day to do what they want. It is a hard one :)

This year is my hubby's first Papa's Day and I have a little project planned. I'm going to buy transparency sheets and on Sunday trace his foot on one page and my daughter's foot on a second page. They then go into a album. Each year, I'll trace my daughter's foot and put it into the foot album. Since the pages are clear, we can flip through them and see how her feet grow in comparison to her Papa's. It's inexpensive and a fun momento of growth :) and we are going to the park for a picnic.

My husband always loves it when one of the kids paint him a picture. Sometimes I get around to framing it and sometimes I don't. Even a little handmade card will be very appreciated, I'm sure.

My cousin got some fabric paints and a white t-shirt. They wrote something like "world's greatest daddy" on it and then covered it with her hand prints, in different colors of paint. That is his faorite shirt and he wears it proudly.

Hi M.,
I see that you live in Tacoma...the weather is supposed to be nice too. Pt. Defiance is a great place to go. Great park with lots of things to do. Hike, bike, walk the beach, the zoo, ride on the ferry...etc. Pack a nice picnic and enjoy or make a reservation at Anthony's right by the ferry dock.
Also, you could take a walk along Ruston Way. They even have bbq's. If you wanted to pack a picnic and bbq some food. If not, lots of good restaurants to pick from.

Hope that you have and your family have fun no matter what you do. God Bless!

Here is what we have planned, (we have 4 boys ages 22 years to 14 months.)

Kids love to help make breakfast in bed for Dad, bring him the paper to read in bed, breakfast could take a while to create...

A matinee is special treat - Kung Fu Panda looks like it will be our choice.

Then we are going to hit the community center pool.

But the weather is going to be good - maybe a picnic in the park would be nice.

My daughter and now her children draw pictures for their Dad. In both preschool and kindergarten the kids made something for Father's Day. One time my granddaughter made a beautiful picture by inscribing on aluminum foil which was then glued to card stock. As my daughter got older I also took her shopping to buy a gift. We talked about what she would like to buy and then we looked for it.

We also have drawn pictures and their home made cards for the grandpa's.

My husband isn't too big on gifts or going out much, plus he works that day, so we're planning a party for when he comes home, with balloons, cake, and a welcome home happy father's day banner. Our three year old is really excited for the party already! Last year we blew up a black and white print of her kissing him and he loved it!