Y’all, I LOVE the 4th of July!
I love everything about it from fireworks and bbq to matching flag t’s and making sure everything we eat on the 4th harkens to our patriotic colors of RED, WHITE, and BLUE. You can find me in a crowd on the 4th pretty easily because I am the red-head wearing my Old Navy Flag T, belting Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”
Can I get an amen?
As a mom who works outside the home, it is often hard to find time to be as creative as I would like with holiday fun. So, finding quick and easy projects I can do with my kiddos is priceless. You may be a “last minute mom,” but that surely will not be the case in your kids eyes because they get a super fun project and treat with mom and you can “proudly stand up” (enter cymbal crash here) as a super cool and patriotic momma!
FIREWORKS ART
What you’ll need:
- a package of bendy straws
- tape
- construction paper (white)
- blue and red paint (I purchased the $0.50 tubes from Wal-Mart)
- something to cover your table (I used some butcher paper I had from a previous project)
After you’ve fully covered your activity space, take a small bunch of straws, like nine, and tape them together. Give the bunch to your kiddo and have them fan out the straws at the bendy neck to create the firework paint brush. Next, swirl blue and red paint onto the butcher paper so each firework has a little red and blue. Now you just let your kids have fun making fireworks on their papers. 🙂 We ended the firework art by dipping our hands in the mix of red and blue and making our mark on our paper. My kids LOVED it. Of course they did; it was messy and we laughed a lot!
PATRIOTIC MARSHMALLOW CRISPY TREATS
What you’ll need:
- 1 box of rice cereal
- 2 bags marshmallows (little ones)
- Butter
- Red food color
- Blue food color
- 9×13 pan
These Marshmallow Crispy Treats are so fun to make and SO easy . . . . Did I mention delicious too? Who doesn’t love these gooey treats?! For this project, I take the recipe on the marshmallow package and split it into thirds.
Melt the first batch of marshmallows and butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds, pull out mixture, and stir, making sure all mallows are melted.
From here, go ahead and add red food color making sure you get that deep American Flag color.
Mix a third of the crispy rice cereal in and stir until combined.
Place mixture in buttered pan and press down until surface is smooth.
Next is the white layer. Proceed as you did the first step without adding any color. Once you’ve added a third of the cereal and combined most of the marshmallows, I like to add a little something special: another half bag of small marshmallows. So, this layer will be extra fluffy with chunks of marshmallows . . . YUMM. Pour on top of the red layer and smooth.
For your final layer, do exactly as you did for the first layer, but this time make your marshmallow mixture a very patriotic shade of blue. Pour this layer of blue crispies onto the white and let set until cool. Cut into squares and serve. Smiles all around!
I hope that in the midst of a busy schedule whether your working on excel spreadsheets or the master of the summer carpool, you can step back and enjoy the 4th.
Happy Independence Day, sweet friends!
Are you a “last minute mom”? How do you make holidays extra special in the midst of your busy schedule?
