copyright © 2011, Alice Held, All Rights Reserved
June is for Dads, Grads, Brides & Kids!

Father’s Day is a day of commemoration and celebration of Dad, and to not only honor your father, but all men who have acted as a father figure in your life – whether as Stepfathers, Uncles, Grandfathers, or “Big Brothers.”

Contrary to popular misconception, Father’s Day was not established as a holiday in order to help greeting card manufacturers sell more cards. For the origin of Father’s Day and some ideas on how to celebrate this day, visit Father’s Day. Ddi you know there are 70 million fathers in the United States?

What to get for Dad? No need for a Pa-Pa Panic. How about some really cool images for his desktop? Try Online Father’s Day Gifts and Gifts.com for some very good ideas.

Try to walk a mile in his shoes by imaging what life and fatherhood have been like for him by visiting Center for Fathering . Father’s Worldhas resources, health, legal advice and even tips on goofing off! Guess what… there’s a Facebook page for sharing for fathers and families http://www.facebook.com/sacfathersandfamilies

Marvelicious Father’s Day is a wonderful site with great T-shirts that profiles the fun, the greatness of all fathers.

New York Times says Stay-at-Home fathers are not so rare anymore. In today’s world, we have stay-at-home Dads. Here’s an information packed site just for them!

Are you really going to do it? Get your Dad a tie? Well, if you are, then you need to visit The Bow Tie Club. It will make you smile. And before you do the deed, check out KNOT, which tells you everything you want to know about tying knows! Just in case, check out Kollectors of Nasty Old Ties. For another smile, here’s a history of America’s favorite Father’s Day gift, 2,000 years of ties!

You could get him a subscription to his favorite magazine online, such as Sports Illustrated, Science Illustrated or Golf Digest . Does Dad like his computer more than sleep? ZDNet.com will keep him in chip heaven for hours every month.

AND, with the proliferation of smartphones and iPads, apps is the name of the game! And there are games galore, business apps, fun apps, book apps! For a great list of current and special apps, iTunes, Android apps and even Google apps are the places to start your gift carding.

For Kids for their Dads Kaboose will help you make Dad or Grandpa a card, plus have games for you to play together. For all Dads, there’s special cards for him you can made at Artists Helping Children. For the King of the kitchen, Fabulous Foodsis much more than just the Dad’s Day recipes, it’s camping ideas, barbeque ideas, things to do with Dad, cards, websites, and games, all to celebrate the day.DLTK has printable templates and instructions for father’s day coloring, crafts, cards, poems and Father’s Day Crafts and Activities has more crafts to make your dad feel special.

Who are the most famous Hall of Famer Dads? Find your hero at My Hero Or is your Dad the coolest of the coolest? Then check out Daddyos where the coolest get their coolness. How many TV Dads can you think of? Check your list at TV Dads.

And for that day that culminates all the work and sacrifice on the part of Dad and grads, Present Picker sure does know how to pick that perfect gift! Or check out these Father’s Day recipes for a favorite treat. Here’s 20 activities for long-distance Dads, either from Dad or from child. Dads at a Distance.

Father’s Day from Reader’s Digest

10 Father’s Day Adventures With Dad

25 Things I Learned From My Dad

9 Hilarious Father’s Day Jokes

And now for the Grads in your life! This should be an easy task… they need/want anything electronic! Apple, Google, Androids, tablets, will be your friend. But just in case, check out Gifts for Grads, loaded with ideas. More Gifts for Grads will have you thinking outside the box! USA Today has some tech gifts for grads and dads and gifts for the hard-to-buy-for grad.

For greeting cards for both…find some pretty neat cards for them at Hallmark. More Father’s Day Cards.

June is also the month of commitment, as in “I do.”

Weddings, that is. If there’s someone you know taking this big step, introduce them to My Wedding Organizer which can finalize guest lists, design seating charts, track menu selections, as well as print invitations, thank you notes, and other important documents. Get interactive Planning tools from Brides.

Having a hard time thinking about what to get that happy couple? The Ultimate Wedding Link will give you some ideas.

And June must have lots of anniversaries because of all those past Junes, so send them real or Virtual Flowers or Great Flowers.

JUST FOR KIDS! Of course summer means school is out! That means time-on-the-hands for the munchkins … send the darlings to the Fun Siteson my Just For Kids website. This site contains games, activities, and information sites.Two other cyberways of summer fun are Yahoo’s Yahooligans Web Guide for Kids and Summer Fun for Kids.

Here in the Valley our summer means those months in which we pay our dues for all the gorgeous weather the rest of the year! We do have water sports, lots of lakes, plenty of cool places to visit and fun things to do like lolling in our pools under the beautiful sunny skies, and I’ll tell you all about them next month.

‘Til then…