We had a great Independence Day, even though Logan and Julia both decided that afternoon was the perfect time to come down with some sort of ickiness (just fever, fatigue, and lack of appetite, but nothing terribly concerning). I decided against dragging two cranky kids who just wanted to sleep on the couch to go see a fireworks show, so we hung out in the backyard with sparklers. Mucho fun anyways.
On Friday we made American flag tees. I used plain white tees1, masking tape, star stickers the kids applied themselves, and Tulip fabric spray paint. I taped off the flag design, inserted some cardboard inside the shirt so the paint didn’t bleed, and let the kids go at it outside with star stickers and spray paint.
The shirts turned out great and the kids had so much fun making them. I’ll admit taping off the shirts took longer than I expected and was actually rather boring, but that describes like 70% of what I do on a daily basis so whatevs.
On Saturday, when Logan had already succumbed to the random grossness he was feeling but Julia was still up and kicking, she and Claire made some cute American flags to hang up. We used construction paper and some more of the foam star stickers. I tore the strips for them and helped Julia with the glue, but for the most part this craft was all them and kept them happy for a good half hour. I love easy and quiet crafts.
Saturday afternoon as Julia started to get a bit feverish and cranky, I decided to throw in the towel on fireworks and just put her to bed. Claire was a bit upset about the fireworks, but we made a cake and she got to make the icing and frost it herself. I suppose the metric ton of sprinkles she dumped on it was to make up for the lack of fireworks. It worked.
After grilling some burgers and hotdogs and having the same dinner as probably everyone else in the country we watched Independence Day and waited for it to get dark enough to have fun with sparklers. Logan and Julia were still fast asleep, so Claire got six whole boxes of sparklers to herself. We had a lot of fun leaving my shutter wide open and waving the sparklers around.
I hope everyone had a great Independence Day and got to celebrate the majesty that is the greatest country ever2!
