Afterwards, we decided to hit up Pinkbox Donuts since Jason had the day off of work. Best donuts (minus Friendly's... they're tied) in town and the variety is amazing! We got a half dozen and definitely ate all of them except one! My favorite was the strawberry shortcake that tasted SO fresh... and looked patriotic, so it couldn't have been more perfect! Nolan had to show us his awesome donut dancing while we finished our breakfast...
Later that evening, we BBQ'd dinner and afterwards, spent some time playing in the backyard. This messy kid is totally ALL BOY! He gets so dirty from dinner and tops it off with dirt, chalk, and who knows what else during our nightly ritual of spending some playtime outside before bath (don't judge on those filthy shorts, messy face and greasy hair)! We try to let him just be a kid, dirt and all, even though my OCD self is going crazy inside!
Afterwards, we got cleaned up, and instead of starting our bedtime routine, we got ready to celebrate the 4th of July! Nolan was a bit confused, but any reason to stay up late is a reason to party for him! We got our chairs and fireworks set up for the front, while our neighbors to the left and right of us began lighting theirs off. Nolan was okay initially, watching the simple, colorful, non-noisy ones go off in the street... but the second the big boys got lit up, he freaked. The first two big fireworks that went up and BOOMed, he seemed interested in. But when the third one went off, and then more, and more.... he was just not having it! Poor kiddo was terrified. We tried to comfort him and show him a little more in hopes he would adjust and become a little interested in their colors and sparkles, but no such luck. We packed up the front and moved the party inside and upstairs to our bedroom, where you could see all of our neighborhood fireworks plus Mission Hills perfectly. We turned on Sesame Street for Nolan so he could have some down time after being so worked up, and just enjoyed from upstairs in the AC! He eventually warmed up to watching the fireworks from the window... but mostly wanted to watch Elmo, instead. Maybe next year will be better!
Needless to say, Nolan's second 4th of July didn't go exactly as planned... but we still wanted him to enjoy the Pop-Its and Sparklers, so we celebrated with a 5th of July the next evening! Without all the huge fireworks and BOOMs and POPs going off, he did completely fine and loved throwing the Pop-Its one right after another. He would laugh so hard after hearing it pop on the ground and instantly ask for more!
We popped off some party poppers, and he was completely not impressed with those. He liked playing with the paper that flew out of them instead of actually popping them, and then really enjoyed carrying around the empty shells once they were popped!
We thought we would try the sparkler cup trick so Nolan couldn't burn his hand, but he still needed some help holding the sparkler stick. The first attempt ended with him throwing the cup on the ground and watching it burn that way... so the next round Jason helped him hold it. He watched it burn out, and then instantly asked for more Pop-Its. Looks like Sparklers weren't cool enough to hold his attention this year!
Once we tried out all of the different toys we bought, we let him go to town with the Pop-Its since those were his favorite. We spent the evening out front, enjoying the cooler weather from the rain earlier that day, and snapped some pretty sunset pictures that are some of my recent favorites of my little love bug! Even though our fourth didn't go as planned, it was even sweeter getting to watch Nolan experience his own version (with nothing scary around) the next day. Lesson learned- we'll start early next year and definitely avoid attending any fireworks shows... we'll be watching from afar!
We hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!!
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