Gifts for the grandpa's are always tough for me. Men in general are always harder to buy/make for, and it seems most grandpa's are at the point in their lives where they have everything they need/want and a lot of what we could give them are just going add to the clutter. So I try to think of things that are thoughtful and useful.
Pete's dad (and mom) loves to spend time in the yard, so we decided to make a rock that could be put in the garden. We collected rocks to spell out "PAPA ROCKS" (our kids call him Papa John). Kind of cheesy, I know. In hind sight I may have just had the kids make a cool design with the rocks. Oh well.
I used concrete mix (only costs a few bucks) and used a flat rate shipping box as my mold (because we'll be shipping it... talk about getting your money's worth, this thing is heavy!) I simply put the box together, sprayed it with cooking spray, then poured in the mix. Then I wrote the letters with a stick and had the kids place all the little rocks.
Once it dried, I painted over the rocks with mod podge a couple times to make them stand out a little more. And that's it! I'm crossing my fingers that it can get to him without cracking :)
