4th of July Fun!

We celebrated a day early here for Independence Day.....I was closed on the 4th to spend the holiday with my family.  Here are a few of the things we did that day to celebrate.

We first painted some fireworks......take 4 pipe cleaners, fold in half and then twist the folded end and spread out the opposite end to look like this.

 

Then dip in paint.....we did red and blue on black paper......and start stamping.  You stamp and then spin it a little and stamp and spin, stamp and spin.  You could dip in other colors or just one.

Then we sprinkled with some glitter.

Here is some of the yummy food we made for snack.....flag fruit pizza.....soooo gooood!!!

They did an excellent job decorating it!

We also had red and blue star jigglers with our snack and for our drink, we made red and blue kool-aid and froze them in ice cube trays.  Then added them to our sprite.

We also made some exploding bags, but I'll save that for another day.

Below is the recipe for the fruit pizza......so easy and so yummy!

Fruit Pizza Recipe:

 

Crust:
1 c. sugar
1 stick butter
2 eggs
2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda

Frosting:
1 cup sour cream

1 box vanilla pudding (powder....do not make the pudding)

12 oz. cool whip

Sliced fruit for topping-strawberries and blueberries

Cream sugar, butter and eggs together.  In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  Slowly add to sugar/butter mixture and mix to form soft dough.  Spread on a greased jelly roll pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Set aside and cool.

Blend together sour cream and vanilla pudding (powder), then whip in the cool whip and spread on cooled crust.  Then arrange fruit on top.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Flubber

Here is another recipe using Borax......this one is called flubber and is also very similar to slime....not sure that there's really a difference though!  Whatever you call it, the kids love it.  Will definitely be making some different colors in the near future.

Mixture 1

3 tsp. Borax

1 cup warm water

Mixture 2

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 cups glue

food coloring

Mix together mixture 1.......borax and warm water.....make sure the borax is dissolved competely. 

Then mix together mixture 2.....warm water, glue and your choice of food coloring.

If you want it to look more slim-like, use clear glue instead of white glue.

 

Adding the glue to the warm water.

Stirring the mixture. 

We compromised with blue flubber....the boys wanted green and the girls wanted pink and purple, so we agreed on blue!   

 Once both mixtures are stirred up, add them together.......then watch the flubber form....you can stir it up a bit or mix it up with your hands.....there may be some liquid left in bottom once it has all formed together and that's ok.

It is immediately ready to play with......and boy were they ready! Thankfully it makes a good size batch because they all wanted a chance to touch it and play with it right away.

So, we headed outside and started stretching, pulling, rolling, and shaping the flubber.  They had so much fun with it.  Just keep in an air tight container when they are done playing with it.

 G had so much fun stretching it.......pretty awesome!

B was not too sure about it.....he did touch it....once!

Reese was making an R. 

Cooper made a snake to go around his neck.

 

Homemade Sprinkler

I saw some awesome homemade sprinklers on Pinterest!  Mine is a very basic version of what I found.....I was doing it on my own (my husband didn't have a clue what I was doing.....probably a good thing.....he was gone for the day) with 2 kiddos trying to help and not really a plan in place.....so lots of trips to the Lumberyard.....I think the guys there thought I was a little crazy!  But, the kids love it so I think that equals success!!!  

Ryan had some ideas of things to do once he saw my contraption, so may be tweeking it a little bit......I have enough PVC to expand it so may try to make it a little more elaborate......we'll see......may be a project for next year!  In the mean time, the kids are having fun running through it and my own kids have even put it on the driveway and ride their bikes, scooters and trikes through it like a kiddie carwash.

It was so hot this morning, we stuck it in the shade to try and stay somewhat cool.

Maddox trying to get a drink from one of the holes! 

G was squeezing the sponge to try and get a drink!