With Craig jetting off on his first trip to the USA this past weekend, with the prospect of missing Father’s Day completely, we decided to move it all up by a week and a day.  Father’s Day 2011, for the Hayes fam anyway, was celebrated on Saturday 11th June. 

With some (unusual for me) forethought, I managed to hunt down a copy of President GW Bush’s autobiography, Decision Points.  Not having formulated much of an opinion about the man, given the media assassination he received while in office, we were pleasantly surprised by his interview with Oprah.  Neither of us watch TV aside from brief snippets when we visit my parents.  I like to watch some pre-recorded shows there and I subjected Craig to some Oprah one afternoon.  He is not a fan.  And that’s being kind.  But, this interview was really interesting and prompted Craig to say that he’d like to read the book.  Well, for once I actually remembered one of his throw away comments about a potential gift.  Loot – really the best South African online general bookstore around – had it for significantly cheaper than Amazon (and, I found out later, Exclusive Books).  With that all done and dusted it was time to organise the Daddy’s Day book:

The kids had to think of five words that described their daddy in addition to the usual handprint, picture and little note.  Kiera gave her new cursive a go.  Katie was hesitant to write much as she really wanted to spell everything correctly.  I still love the cuteness of "goks" (jokes) "plaefites" (playfights) – some of her describing daddy words.   Sam had me totally cracked up  -  one of his "describe daddy" words was "useful!"  Always good to know one is useful, I guess!

Thanks to Debbie ingenious ideas, we had a great plan for Dad’s breakfast on Father’s day.  Just that Thursday we had made amazing flapjacks (crumpets, really) at Minichefs.  Debbie added crispy bacon and biltong to the deal.  It was simply delicious, and the kids absolutely loved being so responsible for making a family favourite that our Daddy usually treats us with.  As per the last few minichef episodes, each child made their batter in their own bowls, with a divided recipe.  Head over to the Minichefs: Biltong and Maple Syrup Flapjack Stacks post for the full recipe, some great photos and a fun montage of my Micah Monkey who just cannot keep his little fingers from scooping uncooked minichef delights into his mouth!

Recreating our minichef fun in our kitchen was fun and chaotic and simply a great memory!  We messed around with some cream and nutella too.  Craig was stuffed to the brim when we eventually got to eating the dessert-for-breakfast fare!

Our Nutella offering was blobs of nutella baked inside the flapjack, along with some cream and more nutella blobbed on top… Mmmmm!

And our bacon, biltong and flapjack heart-attack on a plate turned out pretty good too, with each kid contributing his/her very own flapjack creation to the stack.

Finally, after what seemed like HOURS, we rescued Dad from under a mountain of pillows to say HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Dad came and joined us at the table so that we could all eat the delicious fare together.  Here is his forkful of nutella flapjack.  Oh oh oh!  Seriously yum.  He managed only half of each plate it was so deliciously rich!

Finally, after a few errands to run, we got to sit down and let Dad open his Daddy’s Day Book and gifts. 

Here’s a happy smiling daddy who loves his book! (And had already priced it in Exclusives at nearly R400!  Again – I love Loot!) 

The rest of Daddy’s Day was Daddy packing and sorting and jetting off to the USA for a conference.  He is loving it there so far!  A whirlwind visit to New York before his flight to Charlotte, NC.  He has completely fallen in love with Charlotte.  I love that he is loving the US, since it was my home for a year and holds a really special place in my heart.  One day, I pray, that we all get to enjoy it together!

More of the Daddy’s Day fun (including some great pics of the kids for grannies and grandpas to enjoy) here on our picasa album: Father’s Day 2011