You see the disaster waiting to happen right?
My darling hubby is unemployed right now so it's a bit hard to do anything "secret" around the house, without his knowledge. So when he left to run some errands in town today, I saw my opportunity. I pulled down the ironing board and got to work. I started cutting out my iron-ons and to my dismay there were only a certain number of letters, like the single letter D. So we couldn't spell "Dad." That stinks. Only one P, so no "Happy Father's Day." There were also only 3 letter E's so we couldn't spell the kid's names - Elisha and Ezekiel. Too many E's. So I thought okay, nicknames then. "Zeke" and....nope, only one letter L! Ellie needs two. So we finally settled on "Zeke" and "Elisha." Okay, right, whatever. On to the ironing.
Note: Ironing is not really a little-kid-friendly craft idea. They can really only sit and watch. That lasted for a grand total of about two minutes for my son - then he was off sword fighting in the next room. The baby didn't even last that long. So I think well, that's alright - they'll be able to help with the hand prints.
I follow all the directions to iron the letters on to the shirt and flip it back to the front side to peel off the plastic and see my finished project. I start pulling on the plastic and the letters are stuck to it. I consult the directions and it says if this happens to iron the letters more. So I iron more. Meanwhile, the baby is busily dragging out a package of diapers and dumping them all over the dining room floor. My son is doing a similar task, only with practically every book on our bookshelf. I check the shirt and the letters are still stuck. I iron more. By this time, my kids have made a spectacular mess and are fighting - "MOMMM! ELLIE WON'T LEAVE ME ALONEEE!" "WAAAAHHHH! MAMA! MAMA!" I check the shirt again and the letters kind of look like they *might* be sticking to the shirt so I chance it and try to pull the plastic all the way off of one. Bad idea. The letter comes off completely, not attached to the shirt at all. Gaaah! So I put the shirt BACK on the ironing board, put the letters back on, put the press cloth over the shirt again and iron some more. The kids are now in my bedroom destroying things and jumping on the bed. I examine the shirt again and two of the plastic pieces come off the letters just fine. The rest come off in pieces or not at all. UGH.
So I think well, I'll just get the blue paint, have the kids make some hand prints and maybe I can draw the rest of the letters in with permanent marker. I gather the kids and dip baby's hand in the paint first. It immediately goes to her face. I wash her off and repeat. The hand goes to the face again. She refuses to make a hand print. I give up. It's either that or start ironing my head in frustration.
So that's the Father's Day present that WASN'T. It's currently on the floor of my closet in an angrily wadded ball. I think we're going to make Daddy a nice card this year instead. :)
