Filed under: Holidays, July 4th

Check out Lisa discussing these fun Fourth of July Ideas on Fox & Friends, June 29th @ 7:50 am EST! 

shutterstock_9224281 It’s that time of year when you begin to plan your Fourth of July celebration.  Of course, you want to include the kids in the fun too!  Check below for easy, budget-friendly ways to make the 4th of July full of family fun!

Decorations

  • Instead of filling vases with flowers, fill them with blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries…yummy and festive looking. Guests can scoop the berries out and add whipped cream…truly red, white, and blue!
  • Use different shapes of vases to hold dips and chips as well. These make great centerpieces, as well as unique serving dishes.
  • Mix and match your paper ware with red, white, and blue solid colors…cloth napkins with the same colors would also add an elegant touch.
  • Roll out butcher paper on to your party table. Scatter red, white, and blue crayons across the table for the kids to color while eating.
  • Fill balloons with red, white and blue crinkled paper. Have the kids pop them for festive explosions of color.
  • Using pop cork place mats, have names attached to the pop cork for easy seating arrangements. The kids can take their pop cork home along with their tags…so make them festive using red, white, and blue.
  • Sprinkle red, white, and blue confetti and candies around the table.

Activities:

  • Have the kids make small US flags and place them into red, white and blue sand pails that have sand filler at the bottom!  Turn this decoration into a game, and divide the kids into two teams and have them run, grab a flag and quickly walk back to the team line, where the next person must do the same.  The team that has all of the flags in hand quickest, wins!  Let the kids take the flags home as a goody!
  • Kids can make a Sidewalk Chalk Mural.  Have red, white, and blue sidewalk chalk on hand to give to the kids and let them create their own patriotic mural.  They can create an American flag, fireworks, the Washington Monument, etc.  Whatever suits their fancy.  This is a great activity for a dry, 4th of July Day!
  • Boil a dozen eggs and color them red, blue, and keep some white!  Have an Egg Spoon Relay Race.  Divide the kids into two teams, and provide each team with a spoon and eggs.  The kids must balance a colored egg on their spoon and walk quickly from one end of the yard to the other and return.  If the egg drops, the team member must begin again.  First team with all members completing the relay race, WINS!
  • For older kids, water balloons will be loads of fun.  A fun twist on traditional water balloon games is to create a small leak in each balloon by making a small hole.  Then fill the balloon with water and let the kids toss the leaking balloon.  It becomes a bit of a time bomb, as you don’t want to be the last one holding the balloon when it finally runs out of water!  Quick, Easy, and Fun!
  • Play classic relay races and picnic games, i.e. ring toss, sack race, and three-legged race.
  • Have the girls add red, white, and blue star beads to shoe laces for added fun.
  • Kids can make their own Creative Rockets by providing them with cardboard tubes, tin foil, craft paper, tissue paper, glue, markers, ribbon, and child-friendly scissors. 
  • If you are looking to have a parade, try a Things That Go Parade.

shutterstock_3363205 Tasty Treats:

  • Have a Red, White, and Blue Taste Test with the kids.  Put out all sorts of food and spices in a series of small dishes for the kids to taste and guess what it is, make sure to blindfold the kids as they taste.  Ideas for tasting include: Salt, Ketchup, Blueberries, Strawberries, French Salad Dressing, Mayonnaise, Sponge Cake, Strawberry Jam, Pepper Jack Cheese, Beets, Tomatoes, Garlic, Bananas, Cherries, etc. 
  • Freeze blueberries and raspberries in ice cube trays to make Star Spangled Cubes.
  • Make a Rocket Pop Drink.  Fill a glass with ice cubes and be sure to carefully pour each drink directly on to the ice cubes to maintain the patriotic colors.  First, pour in cranberry juice, then blue Gatorade, and, finally, 7-Up.
  • Using blackberries and cut up/halved strawberries, and bananas, have the kids create a fruit flag using the fruit pieces.  They can place this on a cookie tray that can be laid out for serving to the rest of the guests.  Kids can also make mini flags for themselves as well.  You can also provide lollipop sticks to the kids and they can skewer these fruits to make a Patriotic Fruit Kabob.
  • Using a star cookie cutter, make up a batch of patriotic Jell-O Jigglers, Star sugar Cookies, Star cheese slices, Star sandwiches filled with cream cheese and blackberry jam.
  • Make a batch of favorite cupcakes and have the kids frost them and add red, white, and blue sprinkles and candies to decorate.

So much fun for little money and time…Happy Fourth of July Planning!

Also read:

Say It!

Do you have an idea for this theme? - Share with others, or add a comment