Son's Day 2014

Son's Day in our house started in 2008--Ammon wanted to know why there was holidays like Father's Day and Mother's Day, but no holidays for sons. So, we started Son's Day that year, and have celebrated it every year since. The tradition is that the day is sometime following the end of the school year, and is filled with fun activities and a gift for each son. This year, however, it turned into a week of celebration instead of just one day.

The last day of school was Thursday, May 29. Josh and Ammon were unable to do Son's Day the day after school got out, so we decided to do it on Saturday the 31st instead. We had a huge bonfire on the side hill by our driveway, burning the pile that's been accumulating for over a year. I wish I'd remembered to take a picture, but I didn't.

Then we gave the boys several options for what to do that evening. They voted to have a nice dinner and rent movies. So, we took them to a local hamburger restaurant Savage Grill, and had shakes and burgers. It was delicious! Then we rented some movies and watched them all night together in the living room.

The next day, I remembered a promise I made to the boys for something we would do on Son's Day but I'd forgotten to do the day before.  This spring, Josh's friend Sam sent us a package of chocolate from England including all this:

I LOOOOVE British chocolate (it truly tastes better than American chocolate) and I was so excited, as were the boys! We opened the big purple container right away, and told the boys they could each have a few of the variety of goodies inside, and we've gotten it out once a month since then. They're learning to better appreciate the rare treats this way, and we've all really savored them.

One of the goodies inside the box of chocolate was 6 Christmas Crackers (as they're called in England). They're the long silver-wrapped tubes. I promised the boys we would open them on Son's Day, and they waited patiently for over a month to do so. Besides Josh, we've never opened Crackers before, and I couldn't wait to see what was inside! Since I'd forgotten to actually get them out on Son's Day, we did it the next day (when I remembered them) instead.  I was thinking there might be some confetti inside each one, so we took them outside to open. Each of the boys got to pick which Cracker was theirs:

To open them, you pull from both sides until the middle breaks and out pops little gifts. Inside each one was a silver paper crown, a silver surprise gift, and a little paper with jokes and random facts. This is Josh demonstrating how to open a Cracker:

Here's the boys with their crowns and silver gifts: fingernail clippers, yo-yo, wine bottle opener, weighted paperclip, and small tin with a deck of cards.

And here I am with my crown and silver gift: a heart-shaped key ring.

 Thanks Sam for the awesome gifts! It was fun for the boys and I to experience our first British Cracker!

The last part of Son's Day is that Josh & I get the boys one new present each. It's usually a pair of new summer sandals, but this year, none of the boys needed that. It wasn't until a few days later that we went shopping together for the boys to pick out their presents. Jonah & Micah both picked out new swimming shorts. Ammon and Kanyon got new water toys: a big water gun and water balloons with a launcher. They'd played water wars with our friends the LaMont's the day before we went shopping, and they wanted new gear to avenge the water war. They tested out all their water gear & water weapons the day after we went shopping (one week after Son's Day began) in our backyard. It was the fun & final hoorah to our traditional made-up holiday! (NOTE: these pictures are from the first water war, and don't include the new swimming shorts or new water weapons because I forgot to take pictures the 2nd time they came over. Whoops!)