Feliz Dia dos Pais

Happy Father's Day!

Nope, I'm not just a few months late; we celebrate Father's Day in Brazil on the second Sunday of August. It's nice though, because I get to see all the inspiration blogs and DIY crafts in May/June and then actually have time to whip something up in time for August. (read: procrastinate until the week day before)

I knew I wanted to do something special for David this year, as it is his first Father's Day with four kids! While he is by no means a lazy dad, having twins means he has had to be even more hands-on with all our kids; from bottle feeding and burping to bedtime routines and bath times, he really is an amazing dad and a great help to me.

So I got to work on a unique gift that would celebrate our newly increased family.

I used four small canvases that I had lying around, and after painting them, I waited for the perfect moments to catch one little hand print from each of our four kids. Folks, it was not easy! First of all Lucas' hand was almost too big to fit on the canvas. His we did in one take though. Elena smeared her first hand print and then decided to paint on some of the other canvases, so I did a repaint of two of them and we tried again.

Lisa and Leila's hand prints were taken while they were sleeping, oh so carefully so as not to disturb them. But it was still hard to keep their hands open. Maybe I should have done their feet?

 I then arranged the four canvases in a square and used my hot glue gun and some strong tape to hold them together with some twigs. I figured it was a nice "manly" look. :) I also added some labels on the back so we can remember whose hand is whose (mainly for the twins.)

 Getting it all wrapped up and ready to give.

Lucas was so excited to give this gift to his daddy, and did so well keeping it a secret when I had showed him the gift almost a week in advance. (Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I finished it on the Saturday before Father's Day and got all three girls' handprints that day!)

As soon as I told David to sit up and look proper before he opened his gift, he guessed it would be something I had made and had to blog about. It will find a nice place in his office, and I'm glad we have this reminder of just how small our kids hands are right now. It's definitely not pinterest perfect, but it works.

Happy Father's Day!