Precious Hands & Feet

For Father's Day this year Kendry and I got Justin a kit to make a mosaic stone for his rose garden, the idea being that Kendry would put a handprint on the stone. I opted not to present Justin with the completed stone on Father's Day because I knew there was no way I could get Kendry to produce a decent handprint all by myself. So, nearly six weeks after Father's Day, we finally opened the kit as a family and got started.

Mixin, mixin, mixin...

Setting the mix:

Kendry got ahold of the glass mosaic pieces, which I realized a few minutes after taking this photo were the perfect size for a toddler to eat. (Way to go, Mom.) Fortunately I confiscated them before an ingestion.

And as it turns out, even as a team Justin and I can't get a decent handprint out of Kendry. After two attempts, all we had to show for our efforts was a botched stone and an uncooperative, squirming toddler whose hands were covered with the cement mix.

On to the backup plan: feet. And voila, we have a mosiac!

We had quite a bit of leftover mix so we made two more small stones. By the third one (bottom center) Kendry was done - we couldn't get one more footprint out of him. So Justin stuck his toes in instead. Somehow it doesn't quite have the same nostalgic appeal as the other two. I wonder why.

I would love to have my kiddo(s) do one of these for their daddy every Father's Day. Justin loves his yard, so it is special to have little reminders like this for him to see when he is out there.

And while we're on the subject of hands and feet, I finally framed one of my most treasured photos this week. Shortly after Kendry was born I received a beautiful plaque from my dear friend Phyllis. The glass plaque has a child's hand holding onto his mother's finger and reads: a mother holds her child's hand for a short while and their heart forever. When Kendry was six weeks old we took him to Alaska, where I had professional photos done by Kelly Atlee at Portraits Photography Studio. Kendry was very uncooperative, but Kelly still got some great shots. Its amazing what you can photograph when an infant is sleeping. As soon as I saw the proof for this photo I knew it had to go framed right next to my plaque.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!