4th of July Plans/Traditions

[eranslow]

What all do you have going on for the 4th? Fireworks, bbq, games?

We are considering going downtown tonight to watch the fireworks at the capital - but we haven't decided for sure. Tomorrow we'll go to the parade our little community puts on. And watch the fireworks that are put on at the park just down the street.

How about food - does anyone have any healthy dessert ideas? I want to do something fun but I'm eating healthy and don't need cake/cupcakes/brownies in the house to tempt me!

[carrie1977]

We usually go to South Lake Tahoe for the week but it didn't work out this year. I'm so bummed because that was always the trip I most looked forward to. No Tahoe tan for me this year.

Have you looked at Pinterest for desserts? There are tons on there....fruit skewer flags are cute.

[YepBrook]

We will hopefully going to the beach to have a picnic dinner and watch the fireworks our city puts on from a barge at sea. It has been scattered thunderstorms for the past week, though (gotta love hurricane season, so it's possible we might just be at stuck at home.

As for snacks, nothing beats fresh fruit like watermelon, blueberries and strawberries. You can skewer the blueberries & strawberries with a few marshmallows to make it a special treat:

[carrie1977]

I saw this yesterday and thought it was a neat idea...

[carrie1977]

Not a dessert, but, if your boys like fruit.....

[MamaBee]

we have no set traditions for the 4th... this year we will be camping for a night because of a cook out at my FIL's on the fourth... well, actually at his neighbor's I guess... and then on Friday, hubby gets to drive a race car or something... it's his birthday gift and it happens to be not far from FIL, so why camping. Tonight we might do go see the fireworks - however, hubby has to get up at 3am to do radio in Green Bay... so yeah, we really aren't that great at planning... haha.

I've done the fruit skrews before and they were a big hit... I have also added a rice krispie star on the end... however, it was a really hot day and the star kind of melted and fell off... Still yummy, but presentation kind of fell apart...

[rach3975]

We were planning on going to the pool in the morning and BBQing for dinner, but it's been raining all week and we're expecting more of the same tomorrow. So no plans, I guess. I love fireworks, but we won't be going to see them regardless of the weather--we still have 1 kid who can't stay up that late and another who's too scared of loud noises. One of these days...

[glumirk]

Because fireworks are so late here (9:30pm!), we just wake up the kids to go. It's a bit of a gamble, but was totally worth it last year. Hopefully it'll work out well tonight.

Tomorrow we will be going to a parade from one of the small neighboring towns because our friends will be in it and we thought it'd be fun to support them.

On Friday we plan to go to Boston to a museum with some friends, and then on Saturday we want to go to the beach.

Although all of this will depend on how are kids are behaving. I'm guessing we'll cancel Boston based on how they are today...I don't want to take away the actual 4th traditions (fireworks and parade) because I feel like those are really important.

[Lyd]

We always go to the little parade in the town where I grew up. After that, we're driving about an hour south to my sister's house. Her city puts on a pretty big celebration, so there are lots of things to do. We'll hang with the fam and do some of the local activities. Then, we'll head home and watch fireworks from the park behind our house. We have a pretty good view of three or four displays from our backyard, so it's really nice and convenient.

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love just hanging out with my family, eating good food, and celebrating all the good things about our country.

[Sherri Tierney]

We always cook out, just the 4 of us, on the 4th. Then we go to listen to the city band play patriotic music until time for fireworks. We meet up with friends at that point and sit together watching the fireworks.

I usually decorate and do all sorts of fun little foods and such, but this year snuck up on me with everything we had going on.

[eranslow]

Sounds like the weather may ruin some plans I hope you all still have fun though!

Carrie - bummer about South Lake Tahoe - will you being heading up there at all this year?

Love those skewers! I did one last year with the rice krispie stars on top - but I think this year I'll do marshmallows.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by carrie1977

We usually go to South Lake Tahoe for the week but it didn't work out this year. I'm so bummed because that was always the trip I most looked forward to. No Tahoe tan for me this year.

Oh I love Tahoe for the 4th! My aunt & uncle have a condo on the north side so we've been a few times. Kind of far for us now.

So far we're planning to go to Houston's big 4th of July Freedom over Texas fireworks event - apparently Sheryl Crow and Martina McBride are playing as part of it. I fully expect it to be crazy but hopefully fun as well.

[Jengerbread88]

Our city started allowing fireworks from July 3-5, so we stocked up on some, and our neighbors came over to peek at our collection before buying their own.
We get together as a small neighborhood group on the 3rd (so, tonight!) and set off our own display. That leaves us all open on the 4th to go to a public display, a sporting event, or just hang out at home. I think this year our family is opting for the hanging at home thing, because even when we're at home with no more fireworks to shoot off, a lot of people nearby are doing their own, so we can lay in the pool in the backyard and just look up to catch some pretty ones.

Beats getting stuck in traffic on the way home from a display for sure!

[maryinaz]

We did an early 4th celebration Monday night while we were still in Joplin and shot off fireworks and had a bbq. We just got back to town last night, so I think tomorrow we will just float in the pool all day and relax. It will be too hot to do much else.

[Keely~B]

We don't have set traditions because a lot of years DH has to work. I love doing the big celebration with the Austin Symphony and fireworks over the lake though. This year DH is off but I have no children. ( What!? ) We're going to watch fireworks tonight and grill tomorrow. The girls are with the grands, they'll be picnicing and doing fireworks with Rober Earl Keen.

[Milmomma]

Our celebration will be on the 5th this year since the 4th is on a week day. Trace Adkins will be here and they will do fireworks. I'm making s'mores and doing sparklers with the kids. Just me and 3 kids. Should be a simple night.

[Darcy Baldwin]

We usually do something dorky - read the Declaration of Independence aloud outside (yes, technically on the 8th, but we like to go ahead and do it on the 4th - it seems to mean more) and put up the flag. Then we go hide away the rest of the day because it's usually bloody hot here and watch at least 1 patriotic movie during the day if we're not out at my Dad's for the day. Our city does it's big celebration the weekend before the 4th, so no big fireworks displays here. This year, I do plan on doing a mock s'mores bar night to have something fun and we're sneaking sparklers in the backyard. Shhhh..don't tell anyone! it's banned here.

[staciahall]

My oldest turned 22 today but can't be home for her birthday, my son is away working this summer so it's just me. No family barbque this year.

I've never been able to leave home on the 4th since I had my dog. He turns into a puddle of nerves, bark till he makes himself sick and shake uncontrollably, any time there are fireworks (think 4th of July and New Year's Eve). I play LOUD MOVIES like Armageddon, Independence Day and Twister and pretty much sit still so he stays calm. The things we do for our babies...

[LJSDesigns]

We don't usually do much; it's a bit somber for us since my dad passed on the fourth, just a meal together and then like Stacia, try to get the pets through the fireworks. I have three rescue dogs who are all terrified of loud noises. I am not a big fan of fireworks anymore. LOL

[marlathrall]

My 4th plans? Watching the Walking Dead marathon and editing pictures and scrapping! lol. Colby just starting wheat harvest so I will go ride with him this evening or something. On Saturday, I'm going to make a quick trip to the lake. It's two hours one way, but we will go for the day anyway. We will play on the boat all day, cook out and then watch the fireworks. Then I will get in the car and drive home... totally and completely exhausted!

[d2vasquez]

We used to go to the local parade our town did but it started to get too unexciting for the girls so we stopped. Now we look for the fireworks where we can because they are banned here. I always wished my girls could have experienced having sparklers like I did when I was a kid but can't get them here.......

[eranslow]

I love hearing everyone's plans! I'm super lucky that my cats don't get too affected by the fireworks. I think they just hide away in the basement

So has anyone taken any photos? I snapped this photo of my boys with my phone (I hope to have a few better ones on my dSLR!)

[rach3975]

Very cute! I don't have any patriotic type photos yet-hopefully later. We ended up spending a lot of the day at an indoor pool with sprinklers and slides and such, so I have a few pictures but they were taken with an old, not-very-good camera that I'm willing to risk taking in the water. I'll have to see if I got anything worth posting.