Atypical Dad's Day: Guns, Pie and Bugs

When it comes to celebrating certain holidays, we aren't your typical couple. Take Sunday for instance: Father's Day was spent by most families attending church, brunch, the pool and then probably wrapping the day up with an afternoon barbecue. 

Not here. In our house we do things a little bit differently.

My husband's request on how to spend the day? He opted to go to Midwest Guns (the indoor shooting range) to blast out multiple rounds of bullets, using the new gun he got for Father's Day. 

Now before you all start thinking that I'm some sort of gun-slinging outlaw who's "packin' heat," I would like you to know that I did not pick the gun out; he did. He bought it a month ago and has been absurdly excited about it ever since. He has wanted to be a gun owner for quite some time and now that we are in the burbs, he decided it was time to protect ourselves (despite a newly installed security system, in addition to two attack dogs who are slightly scarier than Lassie).

When it comes to security, I suppose we are now the triple-threat. Better safe than sorry, right? 

So, since we spent a pretty penny on his fancy new gun, I didn't feel an additional gift was necessary—even though a pair of orange blue-blockers would look ultra cool on him at the shooting range (insert sarcasm).

Instead, I opted to go the more traditional route and got him a few greeting cards. I also decided I would (drum-roll, please!!!) make him a homemade cherry pie.

While he was at the shooting range, little britches and I hit up Target to gather all of the essential ingredients (as well as a few cute tank tops for yours truly) and we made sure to swing by Chipotle on the way home to pick up lunch (see about my Chipotle addiction. Yes, I am getting help). Only the best for our guy!

We all met at home, ate our lunch and I quickly made the pie dough so it could chill in the fridge while the entire family took a nap. Thanks to Ava's choosing to nap for three hours, we got to sleep the afternoon away. It was wonderful! Talk about a perfect way to spend a Sunday (spoken by a very pregnant lady who has spent the day chasing a very busy toddler). 

After our much-needed nap it was pie-making time! I followed the directions to a T and unfortunately will not be listing this recipe as one of my favorites—I won't tell you the amount of swear words that came out of my mouth when it came to rolling out this god-awful dough. What a *&%$#!

And don't even get me started on what I went through to actually get it transferred to the pie pan. Julia Child would roll over in her grave! What makes it worse is that my mother-in-law makes pies that would make even Martha Stewart weep; my husband has been spoiled with her pies for years and now he gets me as a pastry chef. Poor guy.

Never again will I go through the disaster of D.I.Y. pie-making; next time the husband wants a pie, I will be picking one up from the deli, which I will then take home, transfer to my own dish, put it in the oven (to give it that old "Kristi char flavor") and I will be passing it if off as my own. Voila!

This baking stuff is for the birds. Whoever made up the saying "Easy as pie" obviously never made one. In fact, they should get their butt kicked. 

At least the pie didn't taste bad; if you ate it wearing a blindfold you might think an actual baker made the darn thing! It was a yummy finish to our homemade dinner of steaks on the grill with mac n' cheese! 

The rest of the day was spent doing what we love most: dance party in the kitchen, hanging out in the backyard, picking flowers, having popsicles and swatting away mosquitoes.

After I washed the day off of Ava, Ken put her to bed. I listened to him read to her about Elmo, hearing her point out the colors and objects on the different pages of the book while he cheered and said, "Yes! That's right!" So darling, these moments between a father and a daughter.

It was a day well spent, even if it was laced with guns, ugly pie and horrendous bug bites.