First time Father deserves a bash...

One thing to do is to prepare his favorite meal (within your budget, of course). Especially if there is something he likes that you don't make all that often.

Any kind of hand or foot tracing or molding from your daughter's hands and feet would be good. That can be as simple as a card with her hand traced on it. Or you can use an inexpensive T-shirt and either trace her hand in permanent marker or use fabric paints to put a foot print or hand print on. I did one with foot prints in paint with all three of our girls one year and DH still wears it three years later.

Lauralyn

P.S. When I first saw the title of your post without reading the content, I thought it was going to be about a bad fathering experience--like "First time Father deserves bash....over the head with a baseball bat." I'm glad to see that it's much better than that.

One thing to do is to prepare his favorite meal (within your budget, of course). Especially if there is something he likes that you don't make all that often. You can set the table really nice with whatever you use for good occasions and candles, etc. If you have flowers in your yard, pick some fresh ones for the table--that kind of thing.

Any kind of hand or foot tracing or molding from your daughter's hands and feet would be good. That can be as simple as a card with her hand traced on it. Or you can use an inexpensive T-shirt and either trace her hand in permanent marker or use fabric paints to put a foot print or hand print on. I did one with foot prints in paint with all three of our girls one year and DH still wears it three years later.

Lauralyn

P.S. When I first saw the title of your post without reading the content, I thought it was going to be about a bad fathering experience--like "First time Father deserves bash....over the head with a baseball bat." I'm glad to see that it's much better than that.

Just meant to do a little editing to that comment. I didn't mean for it to post twice. Sorry about that.

Lauralyn

Using white card stock or index card (with no lines), dip her little hand in red paint for one hand, blue for the other and do her hand print on either side of the card. . . where you can trim it out to look like a single hand. Have it laminated, do a hole punch,and hang by a neat kind of ribbon or something for his rearview mirror.

Make a Tshirt that says, "This fellow is a fantastic father" or something of the kind. Hand prints on this with fabric paint would be precious, especially on the shoulders or something to make it seem like he was holding DD when her hands were dirty and she stained the shirt.

If he'd like it, you can write a poem about him and DD (or from DD) or if you don't like to do poems, you can write a letter to him as if from your baby girl. If he likes it, you can do it every year until she can write one herself.

You could make a frame out of popsicle sticks or something and write all the way around the frame something cute, like "I may be small, but I've got my dad wrapped around my finger" and put in it a photo of the two of them together.

The book with pictures in it would be cute. You can get plastic "brag books" that hold a bunch of photos for around a buck nowadays. If it's double pockets (pockets on both sides) you could put in a photo of them together on the right page and a quote about fatherhood on the left. There's all sorts of places on the web to find quotes about fatherhood or fathers and daughters. One of my favorites is "She's more fun to watch than an ant farm" by John Goodman about his baby girl.

You could make with colored paper a photo frame that looks like your house or your car with a photo of each member of the family peeking out the windows. Gee, I really like that one, think I'll do that one myself, if you don't mind sharing.

Too bad we can't ask Martha. I bet she'd come up with a themed Father's Day Bash that would bring dads to their knees.

Thought of something else: you could make notes on index cards about what makes him a great father and leave them around the house for him to find on Father's Day, the front seat of the car, his dinner plate, the bathroom mirror, his sock drawer, etc. You could use markers and stickers or glue and string or other things to make them cute.
______

May The Hair On Your Toes Never Fall Out

--Traditional Hobbit Blessing

...but one of the most "fun" things I've done was several years ago: I sprinkled "World's Greatest Dad!" in fertilizer on our front yard. I did the letters first with flour, then went over them with the "greening" type of fertilizer, then watered it all in so the flour marks went away! The letters were about 6 feet tall!

DH never noticed anything until we showed it to him from the upstairs window on Father's Day morning...you could see it, plain as day!

It was very cool!

Lenora

Thank you for the tips that you have all posted for me! Today I am finishing up the "preparing stage". I have already made the book from pictures of my husband and daughter together...it turned out REALLY cute and is entitled "My Daddy's Story". I also cut out a dozen ties from construction paper and wrote "You are a WONDERFUL Daddy because..." and then wrote a reason on each one. I will hide them throughout the house and car and hopefully he will see them! I plan on making him cinnamon rolls in the morning, a "hero" sandwich for lunch, and his favorite meal for dinner...and then we will present him with some boxers that I added the letters "DAD" to. I am really excited about it all! I think that it will be a special day for him even if I didn't spend a lot of money. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he looks through the book-he might even cry! Well, thanks again for helping to inspire me and get my creative juices flowing...I will let you know how it turns out!

I can't wait to hear his reaction!

I think you did an excellent job!! I am sure your DH will feel very wanted and appreciated....good job

by the way,great presents come from the heart not the wallet!!

I'm all agog to hear how it went!
______

May The Hair On Your Toes Never Fall Out

--Traditional Hobbit Blessing