4th of July

We started right away with finding a frog in the skimmer.  Payton named him Kermit and he was Payton's buddy (whether he liked it or not) for the rest of the day.  I later used him as a motivator to get Payton in the water.  I attribute the success of the day to this frog.  Payton would not have learned to "swim" if it wasn't for him.

Sharing our frog with Nana.  Nice one-finger touch Mary Lynn...reminds me of Ella.

So after MUCH coaching and begging and bargaining....Payton finally got in the water and learned to noodle swim.  What finally made him try?  Chasing the frog.  He liked swimming with Kermit.  I have had a major issue with getting my kids in the pool but I finally sucked it up and taught them some basics.  They loved it.  They did fabulous.  They swam all....day....long.  Jump in and kick, jump in and kick.  Why did I wait so long?

Jump in and kick.  Swim to the other side, touch the flowers, turn around, swim back, and repeat.

Ella was doing it too with the others and she loved it, I just didn't have the camera out.  Payton and Maddie were the main fish of the day.  They must have swam for 4-5 hours total. 

Then they noodled together for a while.  Buddies. 

Time for dinner and then....fireworks. 

Payton was beside himself.

Light and run.

Monkey see, monkey do.  Ella was so proud of Payton.  She wanted only him to light her fireworks.

We didn't leave Salina until 11pm.  The kids didn't make it 10 minutes before they were all sacked in the car.

Unfortunately, nobody slept in so yesterday we had an overabundance of attitude and grouch.

Oh well.

It was worth it.