(After) Father’s Day Lunch

One of the hardest things to do it seems is to get all my kids together. There are a lot of factors involved in this – jobs, appointments, certain people, and schedules in general. However, over the weekend, all of my kids got together with me to celebrate Father’s Day.

We met at one of the local parks and we had pizza. We had planned on eating under the pavilion, but there were people there for a high school graduate’s open house. We found some bleachers by the baseball diamond and had our picnic lunch there.

The youngest kids wanted to hurry up and eat because they wanted to play on the playground. my older boys were filling me in on stuff at work, school, and other things. My younger ones were quite persuasive and got their older brothers to eat a bit faster so they could go and play.

As their father, it gave me the warmest sensation inside to watch them all play together! What a joy to see them all running around and chasing each other. It was hard to tell who was having more fun, the younger kids or the older kids. Andrew chased Dante’ up the stairs to the curly slide and on his way down, Dante’ got stuck!

Different slide, a few minutes later, Dimitri came down and conked his head on the way out.

After a lot of running around, screaming and laughing, they slowed down a bit as Ella and Andrew wanted to swing on the swings. Naturally, they wanted their big brothers to push them.

I found myself trying to take in every moment of this, but also wanted to get some pictures. Their interactions are something that is so special. Ella and Andrew love them so much, I truly wish that my older sons knew just how much.

I have two favorite pictures from the day. The first is because of the sheer delight in Andrew’s face as he chases Dante’ around the playground.

The second is a recreation of our Father’s Day picture from last year, only this time it is on the bleachers.

I’m a lucky man to be called “Dad/Daddy” by these kids. Thank you for a wonderful time together. I love you all!