For those of you in the US, I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. Actually, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, in the US or not.
Our family gathered for a very fun day at home, so much fun it took a couple of days to recover! What can I say? We're patriotic people and like to celebrate our country's independence to the best of our resources.
My daughters gave me a gift card to Dollar Tree for my birthday last year, so I could pick up more frivolous things without guilt. I used some of its value to buy a bunch of small American flags and these patriotic dinner napkins. There were 25 napkins in the package. So I put the rest away and now have napkins for a few future 4ths of July.
The flags have plastic sticks, so they're perfect for popping into flower pots. And the flag part is plastic. I bought 2 packages of 3 flags/package. I'll put these away for future 4ths, too.
Another patriotic decor item came from a free pile this past winter. One of our neighbors put a box of red and blue outdoor string lights out with a "free" sign back in February. Of course I picked it up. My family helped me hang a couple of strands along the deck railing and up into the trees on the 3rd. The lights were festive and cheery in the background. The other great thing about this freebie is I will be using the strand, subbing orange bulbs for the red and blue, in the fall for Halloween. My other strand shorted out, but the light bulbs are still good.
We had perfect weather for the day, mildly warm at midday just as our neighborhood 4th of July parade passed by. My artist daughter set up a table and small easel at the driveway's edge and drew caricatures for anyone who wanted one. We had a couple of chairs set up, making our little part of the neighborhood a bit of a gathering spot. As a bonus, my daughter got hired for a caricature gig over the weekend as a result of her work on the 4th. She hires out to do caricatures at parties to earn a little extra money on the weekends.
After the parade our little foursome retreated to the backyard for a picnic on the lawn in the shade. As the afternoon began to heat up, we headed indoors to put together our 4th of July dinner.
Our son and daughter-in-law came overrun time for a cookout, yard games, and lots of fun fireworks. The menu for the cookout included a variety of hot dogs and sausages cooked on sticks over a fire, buns, sweet potato fries, potato chips (leftover from lunch's picnic), a slaw-type salad, raw vegetable platter, fresh cherries, fresh papaya (provided by my son and daughter-in-law), a cherry pie/jello/pretzel crust/sour cream dessert, lemon bars (leftover from lunch), and s'mores. It was a delicious dinner and dessert and an enjoyable time sitting around the fire ring.
After our own fireworks, the 6 of us took a late night walk through the neighborhood to watch our neighbors' fireworks displays. We tend to spend modestly on fireworks. However, a few of our neighbors go all out and put on pretty spectacular displays. One display went on until just before midnight. Around 1 AM we finally made it to bed.
We had such a fun time together. But now it's time to get back to work.
Did you do anything fun for the 4th or over the weekend?
That sounds like a fun day. How big is the parade in your neighborhood? We had people over for a cookout and then watched various fireworks from our porch. Some neighborhoods put on pretty big displays and we can see much of them. A few don't make it above the tree line, but most do.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteIt's a small parade. The local fire department drives one hook and ladder and one aid car through, followed by vintage cars dressed up, and bicyclists with streamers, and some neighbors dressed in red, white, and blue. It's just a neighborhood parade, but we do get a few people from the neighborhood next over coming to see it.
It sounds like your 4th was also fun. That's great that you have a good view of some of the fireworks from your porch.
You had a very festive day! My husband grilled dinner, but he grilled so much food over the weekend that I don't really remember what we ate. My son was home for the weekend, so that was fun for me. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteI'm so glad your son could be home for the weekend. Yum, lots of grilled food sounds delicious! It sounds like your weekend was a good one!