Delilah's New Kitchen

For Christmas, I gave my dad a Home Depot gift certificate, blueprints for a play kitchen, and asked if we could spend a weekend or two building it for Delilah. My dad has basically an entire wood shop in his garage, and I've always wanted to build something with him. I thought this would be perfect.

We had SO MUCH fun building it. I would go to his house on the days Delilah was in school so we could keep it a secret. We shared coffee in the morning and beers in the afternoon. The radio was always playing, more than a few trips back to Home Depot to pick up something we forgot, and a lot of good-natured ribbing over the inevitable mistakes we both made. What did my dad learn? That his little girl is actually pretty handy with power tools. What did I learn? That wood putty and caulk can cover a multitude of sins. And that my dad can do anything; wait, I already knew that one.

While this was intended to be a father/daughter project, Chris contributed more than his share of effort by priming and painting the whole thing. When we finally surprised Delilah with it, her look of shock and pure joy made all the work worth it. She plays with it constantly. And it makes me so happy that we didn't shell out $300 bucks for a plastic one...this thing is sturdy and I already have visions of it being passed down.

Thanks, Dad, for everything. And Delilah and Noelle, I hope you enjoy this for years to come!