Celebrating Fathers' Day 2011 on Planet Baby

Sweet Planetarians, all 384 of you (and a warm welcome to the newbies)! Thanks so much for all your kind-hearted and generous support in recent weeks. Life on Planet Baby has been so full on lately. In the past 19 days, my darling Dad has died, we've had his funeral, I've had my birthday and I've made it through Fathers' Day. Yes, yesterday was Fathers’ Day in Australia. The first of my 41 years without my Dad. The pixies generously let the both of us sleep in. I lay awake in bed for an hour, wracked by grief, and too scared to get up and face the day.

At 8 am, I pulled myself together and organised the troops. My very obliging and enthusiastic helpers assisted me in rustling up scrambled eggs with smoked salmon in bed for Mr PB. Here they are, ready to present it to him (displayed on a chair as they were too worried about spilling his tea!).

And here’s the Man of the Moment, all tucked up in Joshie’s bed where he often ends up during the night (a story for another day).

Sammy ignored our entreaties to join in the photo. He was more interested in making the whoopee cushion work!

Goodies and handmade cards were proudly proffered. Here’s Joshie’s enormous replica of Mr PB.

This little beauty of a drawing was inside. I love it!

Here’s his handiwork, all ready to hang somewhere in the garden.

India had drawn a ‘monster machine’.

Meanwhile, Sammy had left his indelible marks.

And then he managed to get the whoopee cushion to work!

I rang my Mum to check how she was faring – she was off to lunch with my sister so that was one less thing to worry about.

Fathers’ Day having been rung in, however Mr PB wasn’t off the hook, left alone in solitude. Oh no. He was thrilled to mow our lawn for the very first time! Here’s the man himself, cheered on by us from out the playroom window.

The pixies *loved* the smell of the freshly cut grass, something they never experienced in our Sydney apartment.

And then it was time to tackle PB HQ’s *dirty little secret* - Operation Sort-Out-The-Craft-Cupboard! Here is the before shot. You can tell we are only halfway through The Great Unpack…

And here’s the after shot. A *slight improvement*, don’t you think?!

We have plans to add shelving on the left hand-side and add pull-out drawers as the shelves are so deep. But it’s a start. Especially with school holidays having started today! The thought of having a fortnight with all 3 pixies at home with a craft cupboard that everything fell out of when you opened it wasn’t *exactly* what I was looking forward to ☺. Anyway, that problem has been averted, thankfully.

And to finish Mr PB’s special day, we actually managed to get all 3 pixies to sit still long enough for a precious (and rare) photo with him.

All up, he was  really chuffed with his day.

I rang my sister and my brother, just to check in on how they’d felt about their first fatherless Fathers’ Day. We all felt pretty much the same – empty, sad and bereft but also grateful for our children and the way they now embody the meaning of Fathers’ Day for our family.

Once the pixies were finally asleep, Mr PB then proved, yet again, what a truly kind man he is and cooked a roast chicken for dinner. I shed some tears for my Dad over a bottle of crisp Tasmanian Storm Bay riesling with my darling husband. He joined me, briefly, as he’s also mourning the loss of his great friend and mentor. But then we counted our great blessings – my (nearly) 41 years of having the most gorgeous father a girl could hope to have and our 3 precious pixies who light up our lives. Yep, life’s truly bittersweet at the moment.