Happy Fourth of July!

Did you have a good day? We had a nice, quiet day at home. We watched the Capitol Fourth show on PBS. Did you? It's become an entertaining tradition. My kids were completely amazed that Barry Manilow could sing without moving his cheeks. A true blue miracle of modern science, I tell ya! I tried to explain that he is quite a respected musician but hearing him start singing "I've been alive forever..." and then "I can't smile... without you" really didn't help. They were rolling on the floor laughing. Then, later, when I was singing along to the Neil Diamond songs (like my mama taught me), I hear my oldest seated behind me say, "I notice it's all the older people singing along." Thanks, kid!

Here are some more scenes from our fourth...

 The three middles painted their own shirts. The Professor wasn't up for it this year plus he was helping out his Dad with the rebuilding of a computer.

 BigBoy's shirt

 Sunshine's sweet heart shirt

Shortcake's shirt was inspired by the awesome pillow designs over at Heart Felt Design. She calls it "American Ninja".

 Cupcake's shirt looks a lot like her onesie from last year. We thought about doing something different, but she's still our little cupcake and she outgrew that onesie pretty fast. Color (un)coordinated leggings courtesy of her colorblind daddy.

These strawberries were favorites last year so we made them again...

 ...along with some edible sparklers!

 And since there was ice cream in the freezer, we made some of Jessica's colorful cones.

We finished up the evening with a reading of the Declaration of Independence and an explanation of what it meant and what it still means today. It was a lovely day.

Fun on the Fourth

We have some non-Fourth related plans for part of the day today so we decided to paint our shirts last night. The girls also decided that the onesie I had planned for Cupcake to wear just wasn't girlie enough. So, they came up with a design and I painted it...

Isn't she cute? Wait till you see the back...

 This is our fifth year painting shirts and I'm pretty sure my kids would revolt if I ever said we would skip it. This year, I challenged them to incorporate a religious symbol into their designs. The oldest three chose the cross.

BigBoy chose a more understated approach... three stars representing the Holy Trinity.

We also have some beautiful treats waiting in the fridge. These were super easy and only took five minutes to make, I promise!

We decided to forgo our traditional treats and opt for some healthier choices this year. Ok, they look healthier, I'm not sure if they really are. Sarah found both of these ideas and pinned them thereby making them easy to steal find! I'm going to try to use honeydew melon instead of the feta for the watermelon flag. I'll post a picture when it's done.
Update: Here it is looking a little more green and pink than red and white but still delicious!

We don't plan to do much of anything. We aren't firing up the grill because... it's too darn hot. I really don't want my husband getting heat stroke trying to cook dinner. Frankly, some nice chilled chicken salad and fruit sounds deliciously cool right now. We are going to watch our fireworks on TV and hope that the ones outside don't scare the baby or the dog.

 

Just Desserts

Ever get the feeling you're being watched?

We played around with the idea Barb shared with our extra cupcakes. Cookies are the plan for next year because the girls had so much fun making these!

For the grownups!

We watched our fireworks on the screen at home and really enjoyed A Capitol Fourth on PBS. Who knew Steve Martin played in a bluegrass band? The kids enjoyed Me and Paul Revere the best. I loved, loved, loved getting to hear Matthew Morrison and Kelli O'Hara sing Tonight from West Side Story.   Josh Groban's tribute to the injured soldiers was quite moving. The cast of Million Dollar Quartet gave us a chance to share a little rock-n-roll history with the children. And Little Richard's voice might not be as strong as it was but his fingers can still fly even though the man is almost 80! (If you missed it, they advertised a repeat performance later.)

Here's hoping fireworks don't keep you awake, unless you want them to. 

Good night!

Happy Independence Day!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,...

BigBoy decided on the design, I taped it off for him and he painted it.

The big kids did their own with only a few helpful tips from Mom.

 

O beautiful for heroes prov'd

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country lov'd,

And mercy more than life.

I hope you all have a wonderful day. Special prayers for those in the military and their loved ones! 

Fourth of July Shopping List

• paint
• masking tape
• star stickers
• plain white t-shirts
• glitter
• black construction paper
• mini M&Ms
• Twizzlers
• ice cream cones

Doesn't your list look like this? You know that a fun, creative activity has become a tradition when the kids start asking you the week before, "Are we gonna decorate T-shirts for the 4th of July again?" Why yes, yes we are!

Independence Weekend!

Are you celebrating today or tomorrow... or both? Most fireworks shows are happening tonight but I just see that as an excuse to celebrate our independence all weekend long!!! Thank a soldier if you see one or hug him if he happens to be living with you!

Speaking of celebrating...you want a peek?

So for those of you who haven't yet cemented your plans, let me give you a few options.

Super easy (for the non-crafty):
A variation of Pirate's Ruby Ale... freeze some blue and red Gatorade or Kool-aid (we used Gatorade) in ice cube trays and add to clear soda. Watch the colors sparkle in the glass when they hit the soda! If you are worried about ending up with purple punch on the 4th of July, you could put the colors in separate glasses.

Little less easy, but still doable:
Flagcakes... blue M&M's and red licorice strings. I just draped the licorice string over the cupcake and cut it with some clean scissors. You can see in the photo above that I ran out of mini M&M's so I just used what I had for the rest of them.

A little challenging (only because there was piping involved):
Upside down cupcakes (these were extra-large sized cupcakes cooked in ramekins), frosted with white star blobs for a beard, and M&M's for a face. I made the hat out of a ice cream cone. BTW...if your house is as warm and humid as mine (or even if it's not), star blobs are perfectly acceptable. Impressionism totally counts in frosting art.

Happy Independence Day!

 

P.S. I think I have seen the Uncle Sams made with scoops of ice cream in place of the cupcake, but both of these ideas came from Hoosier Homemade. She offers you a step by step photo essay of the Uncle Sam cupcakes. I obviously did not use the Fruit by the Foot, instead I just smeared on some blue frosting. And I do mean smeared.

Patriotic Tees 2010

Have I mentioned how much we love 

decorating 

T-shirts?

One Snip Star Tutorial

When I as putting together this post with links from my archives, I was reminded of the fold-and-snip stars we made a few years ago using a Family Fun tutorial. They made a lovely garland for our Independence Day celebrations. I decided to make my own tutorial so that I could offer a few more in-between steps. Granted, it may not be as much fun as cutting snow flakes in the winter, but it is less labor intensive and my kids are always amazed at the perfect star shape that emerges after a few careful folds and one little snip!

First, start with a regular sized sheet of paper.

Fold it in half, top to bottom. Make a hard crease.

Fold it again, top to bottom only this time, make a light crease.

Open the fold back up.

Take the top right corner and fold it over to the left side at the light crease. (The red chopsticks are pointing to the respective corner and side at crease.)

Here is the paper after the fold is made.

Next, fold the top left corner over the flap created by the previous fold.

Like this...

This is what it should look like now.

Here's where it gets a bit tricky, but you can do it. Take the left side that the top left chopstick is pointing to and fold it over to the right side, using the flap you just created as a folding guide.

Like this...

Now, it kind of looks like an elegant paper napkin or something.

There is a crease that shows up naturally (dashed line) that you can use as a cutting guide, but it results in a rather plump star. If you cut at a sharper angle (straight line) you will get a star with sharper angles.

The star on the left was cut on the dashed line and the one on the right was cut on the straight line. Use a hole punch and string up an assortment for an easy and fun decoration!