Five steps for a single Dad to have a perfect Super Bowl Sunday.

With the "Big Game" behind us Clan DeFino had a busy day:

1.  Church  (Awesome Service) Casual dress, non-denominational, everyone is welcome. Pastor Bill is energetic, intelligent and inspiring. With a full band setup on stage as a backdrop and good energetic performance afterward, a coffee kiosk and rooms for the children to run around like a mosh pit.  Church is fun when you feel better after the service than when you walked in. The name is "The Rock Church" and there may be one near you.

In my own words; from the lesson I contemplated identity.  How do we identify ourselves?  Forgiveness of past mistakes and the ability to become new really is a human survival necessity. The ability to see ourselves differently allows us to grow and progress.  There are many variations of this with different canvases from which to work from.  In my case one is being a Dad.  When I saw the crown of their heads, when I hear the sound of their soft voices just asking "Why Daddy?". That question might be an inquiry about why old strawberries grow mold or how an airplane flies. When they run across the playground waving their arms in excitement because I am picking them up the little one is like a 47 pound bowling ball being thrown at my shins at full speed ahead.  I love it.


2.  Discovery Gateway - Kids museum.  I just sat back and watched them let their imaginations work.  This is more entertaining than any show on television except maybe "The Big Bang Theory"  They have mastered the puzzle exhibits by now and just like using their imagination with the foam building block room and the house with the grocery store that sells plastic pears.

They were too much of a blur to get a good picture.



3.  Lego destruction.  This is clearly a work in progress but it exercises their spacial recognition, teamwork, and they enjoy it.  Lots of pieces yes, but it is better than markers on the walls and cuts of paper all over the house.

The picture is not a great example. This is more like carnage after building something by the instructions then wanting to do something else. I get to observe their abstract imaginations as they develop scenarios and talk aloud about the characters they create.  Who would think that a cafe would have a flying horse visit while the prince talks to a monkey about computers?  These are the beginnings of the "Hacker Ethic" which is to understand how something works then make something cool happen.  They are exploring their minds through science, music and art. I enjoy this and do my best to give them the room to do so.

4.  Not finding a kid friendly Super Bowl party, we made our own and they insisted that Olaf be invited as a guest.  The kids had more fun watching me break out into a sweat from the "Diablo" mustard than the game so they kept making cracker sandwiches for me. They exceeded my limit and got their revenge for making them clean their room earlier in the day, which is like pushing waves back into the ocean. Their favorite recipe was a garlic pita bread, habanero mustard and pepper jack sandwich that had my eyes watering.  As I was recovering I received "Wet Willies" and the tickle monster had to defend himself.  This was our halftime show.

5. Then there was the end of the game where after hearing my lexicon of fake cuss words I was presented with a lecture about how I should not watch football but play legos instead.  I tried to explain how "This is freaking fun for me and darn it great googly moogly that was just a very ill advised call.  The sasafracken frickafracken coach should have ran Lynch and darn it to double hockey sticks the Patriots who I just do not care for would not have another ring."

They were not buying it.