We were sitting outside watching the first outdoor fire of the summer burn down when darkness fell late in the evening on Father’s Day, which this year coincided with the summer solstice. Tess was already in bed, and Caroline and Frank were in the house doing their own things as we watched the flames and the fireflies and the people walking by. “This was a great Father’s Day,” Tony said. The thing is, Father’s Day usually gets short shrift. There was the year Caroline and I were returning from a Girl Scout camping trip on Father’s Day, and the year we dropped Frank off at hockey camp on Father’s Day. Dad’s don’t generally get the handmade gifts that kids make in school for Mother’s Day, because most kids are out of school by the third week of June. This year, Father’s Day wasn’t all that different than many days. At least, the things we did were things that, for the most part, we do often. Although quite a lot of them happened in one day, I suppose. We didn’t go out for any meals; Tony cooked bacon and eggs for him and me and Teresa while the older kids slept in. He opened his cards (I have learned from experience that Father’s Day cards are very important) and his modest gift, a Stanley Cup championship T-shirt, because you can’t have too much Blackhawks gear. I took Teresa to her swimming lesson, and when I got back, he and Frank were engaged in a game of rod hockey on the kitchen table while Caroline and a friend watched a movie in the living room. Then he and Teresa and I did the weekend errands, with stops at Costco and Target and the grocery store. Of course, we did buy three new water pistols, and we did engage in a family-wide water fight in the backyard. I claimed the hose, which kept me more dry than the others: they had to come to me for water to reload, so no one wanted to start by getting me wet. But the rest of them? They were soaked and laughing. There are few playing fields in which adults, teenagers and 5-year-olds can meet on even footing, but a squirt gun fight seems to qualify. Dinner was ribs, burgers and vegetables on the grill, shared with friends who came over, and Tony cooked again. That was followed by the backyard fire and roasted marshmallows, something Teresa has been asking for since it got warm enough to put her winter coat away. It wasn’t long after it was fully dark, maybe a bit after 10 p.m., that we put the fire out and went in to wash the last of the dishes. Tony settled in to watch a movie with Caroline (1994’s “Nobody’s Fool” with Paul Newman), rounding out a day that included one-on-one time with each of the kids. So yes, it was a great Father’s Day.