The 4th of July is Lance's favorite holiday, and this year it was going to be extra special (not just for Lance but all of the Mitchell family) because his sister Sarah and her wonderful family would be moving back to Utah from China and would be with us to celebrate!
Nixon's excited to start the holiday festivities (or maybe it's because he has a whole basket of cars to play with)
A Mitchell tradition- delicious 4th of July waffles for breakfast
4 adorable cousins about to enjoy their waffles
After we scarfed down the waffles, we moved on to some fun 4th of July themed games.
We started with 4th of July BINGO
Nixon didn't care so much for the BINGO game itself but enjoyed eating his M&M bingo chips.
His winnings from getting a BINGO
What fun and adorable cousins Nixon has!
( we are missing his 7 wonderful cousins who live in Idaho)
He kind of blends in to the flag with that shirt. :)
We love the U.S.A!
Our next fun game was knock the cup over with a squirt gun (yep that's the official name). We divided the kids up into two teams. The bigger kids were pro's at it but little Nixon and his (same age) cousin Nathan were more interested in just playing in the bucket full of water.
Nixon kept getting in the shooters way
Alisa and Maria made it look too easy.
This is what Nixon wanted to do during his turn.
I love my boys! (Nixon didn't care to take a cool, hold your squirt gun, picture with dad. He was eagerly wanting to get back to the bucket of water)
Once the kids were done with their turn, the men had to take their turn with the squirt guns. They came up with their own game/competition to play.
He's got some squirt gun skills. Shooting in front of his body....
AND behind his head! What a talented kid I have.
The last game we played was to try and eat a gummy worm buried in cool whip only using your mouth.
Nixon was a rebel and used his hands to get the worm.
Love my little family of 3, and excited we'll be a family of 4 soon!
Once we finished playing our games it was Lance's time to shine. Lance's motto on this holiday is "you can't celebrate the 4th of July without a big, delicious BBQ". and boy was it delicious!
Making his famous bacon wrapped jalapeno's
MMMMM- don't those look good
Nixon was ready to chow down
Look at all that yummy meat to eat!
After we finished our delicious BBQ meal, we were invited to go swimming with some friends.
Nixon was ready to show off his swimming skills he had just mastered from swimming lessons.
Though he fought to keep these googles on, I had to get a picture of him wearing them. Isn't he the cutest! :)
he was a little chilly when he got out of the pool
The men decided to play some basketball instead of swim
After swimming we went back to my mother-in-laws house to have some dessert and light up some fireworks.
The delicious treats: a chocolate trifle and mini cherry pies.
First time trying those pop-it fireworks. He had a hard time throwing them on the ground hard enough to get them to pop. :)
Just trying to pick the firework strings out from between his toes, while holding a car in each hand.
He enjoyed the sparklers
Nixon loved watching all the fireworks that Lance set off. He especially loved watching all the fireworks in the sky.
It was a jam packed, fun filled 4th of July this year. It's fun now that Nixon is getting older and starting to grasp and have fun with the holiday festivities. Bring on the next holiday.
Here is a compiled video of the videos we took from that day.
(I apologize for my loud annoying voice throughout)
This summer I decided I wanted to put Nixon into swimming lessons, especially since he loves being in the water. I signed up for the parent/tot class and was excited for the 4x a week, half hour class with my little swimmer.
First day of swim lessons
The first day was a success. His face may not show it but he had a lot of fun. He's going to be the next Michael Phelps (predicted by his mom :)
going shirtless
(poor guy got his fair skin from both his dad and I)
He was the cool dude at the swimming pool with his sunglasses on.
Mr. cool
Practicing his kicking
They didn't teach the 4 swim strokes in the parent/tot class like I had hoped but Nixon did master his kicking skills, holding and walking along the wall with his hands, and jumping in. We still need to work on his backstroke and blowing bubbles (instead of drinking the water) but he's a quick learner.
Now here are just some cute pictures of Nixon enjoying different water activities. :)
We live really close to this cool little splash pad and Nixon loves it!
there's a cool fountain at the splash pad that he's still working up the courage to run through.
I've been debating whether to get Nixon a little kiddie pool, but he seems to be enjoying my home made pool just fine. :)
