Father's Day 2012 - a redo of last year

This year I'll admit I didn't get my dad a fancy present. It's not that I didn't care, or that I was lazy or that I didn't want to spend the money. It's just that this year I wanted to have a re-do of last year. Here's the back story. My dear ol' dad is a fantastic provider for our family. He works his butt off just so his family can be comfortable and have a happy life. He doesn't have a selfish bone in his body. Because of this, I was blessed enough to grow up in the country in a big house with five acres and a pool and woods and an orchard and a garden and lots of trees. That's the key thing here-- the trees. When I was younger, my dad and I would take walks around our yard in the evenings and he would tell me the story behind each tree. He had bought the land to build the house a couple years before I was born. It was a cornfield before the house was there, so every tree was planted by him or us. I had heard the stories a hundred times but they never got old. Sometimes he'd make up names for them. "Here's old Ashley the ash tree. You brought her home from school on earth day when you were in second grade. She only had one leaf when you planted her and now look how big she is!" Unfortunate events occurred and we had to move away from that house and all the trees. (We both REALLY miss our trees.) For his birthday a couple years ago I got him a Fuji Apple tree. I wanted to carry on the tradition of planting trees and memories. Then for father's day last year I made him a mini scrapbook to catalog the growth of his tree. I thought it would be nice to have pictures instead of just memories and stories. But sadly that little tree didn't make it through the winter. :( This year I bought him a new tree as his father's day present. We didn't have time to plant it this weekend, but next weekend we will find a nice spot for it and update the scrap book.

   

 The apple tree sticking out of the back window of my Saturn. It made such a funny *wooshwoshwooshwoosh!!* sound as the wind rushed through the leaves as I drove down the road.

 This is the photo from last year of us behind the other tree. It's so tiny you can hardly see it. It only comes up to my chest.

To make a little scrapbook like this one, you'll need:

• two small, flat pieces of wood. Mine came with the frame and the holes pre-drilled but you can also buy plain pieces and drill the holes yourself. 
• binder rings
• scrapbook paper-- this is a good project to use up some little scraps!
• other little ribbons and embellishments
• a hole punch
• printed photos-- I used Fuji Instax instant photos for convenience 

Cut down your papers to be just a little smaller than your wood covers. Glue the pages back to back. Punch holes to line up with the holes on your covers and put binder rings through all of it. Decorate the pages and cover any way you like! Go crazy! :D

Happy Father's day, Dad! Thanks for being awesome and also for passing down lots of good traits! ;)