A Festive 4th

Happy post-Independence Day! Celebrating the 4th of July has always been a favorite thing of mine. It’s such a fun-filled, splendid holiday, right in the middle of the season, perfect for celebrating all of summer’s most wonderful delights.

This year, we had the pleasure of hosting a gathering at our house for two sets of close family friends coming into visit from Indiana and Illinois. The six of us adults all attended college together and were a part of one another’s weddings. Now, between us, we have eight children ranging from 7 years old to 7 months old! With so many kids gathering to play at our house, it was fun to try to make things a little more festive for them. Oh, alright…to be honest it was also partially for myself, because I so sincerely enjoy festivities and putting some pinned Pinterest ideas to good use!

The thing is, we have a fairly strict monthly budget, so I did my best to add small touches to bring lots of July 4th fun without adding a whole lot extra cost-wise. Here’s what I came up with:

Fruit skewers for the kids–a Pinterest idea. My daughter called them “Magic Princess wands.”

 

Then I also had the same festive fruit for the adults, minus the skewers.

 

Cute patriotic napkins from the Target Dollar Spot to go with my red paper plates {not pictured} from the dollar store.

 

I added a bit of red, white, and blue to my mason jar-utensil-holders thanks to some pipe cleaners I had on hand. A few months ago, I saw a woman use pipe cleaners {twisted like this} in lieu of ribbon on a wrapped gift. It was adorable and I can’t wait to start using pipe cleaners to decorate gifts!

 

Ice cream sandwiches dipped in red, white, & blue sprinkles were another Pinterest idea I found for the “Kid Dessert.”

 

The dessert for us adults was Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle. I absolutely love this dessert and I relish any and every opportunity to make it! The star crafted from blueberries was made by setting down a large star-shaped cookie cutter and then filling it with the blueberries. I actually had originally tried to free-hand the star design…it did not go well. My husband admitted it didn’t really even resemble a star. Whoops!

**{Recipe for this trifle coming soon, so stay tuned!}**

 

I love having fresh flowers in our home, but it doesn’t always fit into our budget. That’s why buying flowers at Trader Joe’s is my favorite flower-trick. They have amazing prices on beautiful bundles in a wide array of prices. These lovely flowers were a mere $3.99.

 

We all ate outside and this cute little bunting was another Target Dollar Spot win to help make things festive.

 

Our yard was set up for kid play while us adults sat and enjoyed catching up. The weather was absolutely perfect, thank goodness! I can’t imagine how crazy it would have felt in our tiny house with six adults and eight youngsters running all around.

And finally, like many other moms, one of my biggest joys is dressing our children up in cute holiday outfits:

 

 

Our evening with friends ended with the kids lighting sparklers on our front lawn, just as dusk set in and the fireflies starting coming out.

The next day was a blast as well, spending a long day together enjoying the Detroit Zoo and then grabbing dinner afterwards. It was such a wonderful weekend!

Hope your 4th of July celebrations were equally special, dear reader!