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Ready for this week’s MH? This is going to be a good one!
This week is a holiday week! Can you believe that it is already time for the 4th of July? I LOVE the 4th of July! We have a big family weekend on the agenda. What are your plans? What are your traditions? Well, share them here this week. That is our Mommy Homework for this week!
So, take us home with you. What are your plans for the 4th of July? Do you do something special? Do you always prepare a certain recipe/meal? Share it! Take us home with you!
Have fun! 
DIG IN!
Love ya!
Cindy
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We’re kicking off the weekend on Friday with Family Camp day. We’ve got lots planned like making T-shirts using fabric spray paint for our designs, building a bird blind in our backyard along with some treats for our bird feeders, we’ll hike at our local park (as in nature park), play baseball, water games, grill a special supper. We’ll end our day around our a campfire, singing songs and roasting marshmallows. It will be a full fun day, and a great way to start a the 4th of July. I can’t wait! By the way, this is our first time doing this, I hope it will go so well we’ll make it a tradition.
Have a wonderful 4th!
Kim Ehlers
We spend the day with my family–usually at my parents house. We cook yummy food over the fire. I usually bring a fruit salad with either watermelon or strawberries and blueberries. If watermelon, I serve it in a bowl cut from the melon with stars decorating the edge. This year we will be at my grandmother’s home. She just had a new firepit dug/installed. Same agenda, just a mile down the road. Some years we stay for the fireworks put on in the village. This year we won’t be. With church the next morning it is just too late for our children. I love the time spent with family, eating yummy food and having a relaxing time.
Enjoy your holiday weekend!
Mindy Brasher @ revelation1211@bellsouth.net
Our family tradition is to have the whole family gather at my mother in laws. But since she had her home going this last April things will be a little more quiet this year. The food is pretty much the same though. We always have good ol’ potato salad with our BBQ, baked beans, deviled eggs. Once our day is filled to overflowing we head home and watch the fireworks from our home.
POTATO SALAD
8 Boiled potatoes cooked until tender cut into bite sized pieces
6 boiled eggs – I use an egg slicer/dicer
2 T mustard
3-5 T mayo
salt
pepper
paprika
Mix all ingredients except the paprika. The mustard, mayo, salt and pepper are to your taste. You will need to test it through out the mixing process to get just the right taste. Once all ingredients are mixed well then you top with a sprinkling of paprika for color. Enjoy!
Our 4th of July tradition begins with a parade in town. Then we usually eat out some lunch. For dinner, we cook out on the grill and make home made ice cream. That night, we attend a local fireworks show that is really great. We have a couple that we are close to and they usually join us for the days’ events.
On the 3rd we are going to see the Houston Symphony Pop Conductor’s, Star Spangled Salute. This has been our tradition for years and we love it! It is full of fun songs, patriotic songs, occasionally a little John Denver, ha, and the best symphony music. Last year there was a quartet walking about before the show that was really good. My daughter and I wear all the red, white, and blue we can manage, both clothes and jewelry. On the 4th, we see the parade nearby in the morning, will grill for lunch, and that evening we are going back for a festival with outdoor concerts and lots of food, ice cream, etc. There is a fireworks display after dark.
We are traveling 5 1/2 hours to be with family we haven’t seen in TOO long and will see a parade and have a picnic.
We don’t have any set traditions, yet, for the 4th of July, but one we always did growing up that I hope to start with my own young family is decorating our bikes with red, white and blue streamers, balloons, bows and flags. A tradition started by my dear grandmother was to always eat a box of Cracker Jacks on the 4th.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our military past, present and future and their families who have given so much up to fight for our freedom and made America all it is today!! God bless You!!!
4th of July is the one holiday that some of our family and friends get together at our house. It is usually a very big event. Some of our relatives arrive early and camp outside or find a spare bed in the house. Then they will spend some time fishing our local lakes. On Saturday we will have around 50 people here for the big event. We will this year be serving hamburgers and hot dogs. I thought I would do something easy. In the years past we have had chicken wings, barbecue beef, and cornish hens. We try to do something every year. Then my mother and I will make some desserts and side dishes. We have all of the guests bring a dish to pass. There is usually more food than we know what to do with.
While everyone is here we play games with the kids. We have done water balloons, scavenger hunts, bomb tag (which is tag with balloons tied to your ankle last one with the balloon not popped wins). I try to fin something new every year to play with the kids. When the kids games are done and we have served dinner then all the adults head off to the volleyball court. We are a little competitive but it is a ton of fun.
My one niece looks forward to 4th of July even more than Christmas. The kids play all day and hit their beds falling asleep before the hit the pillow.
So this week will be busy for us. I hope everyone has a blessed and safe holiday weekend.
Jenni Schafran
Well, we usually look for a place that has a firework show and go to that. But this year the kids and I are going back home to Florida to visit family. We haven’t been back since we moved away 18 months ago. So this year we will be able to go to our old firework show and with family, Yeah!!!
For the 4th every year we go to a little town near us that has garage sales all day on the 4th and then stay for the fireworks. I pack us a picnic lunch and we spend the day looking for treasures and things, walking on the pier and beach and just have fun as a family. Friday we will go to my aunt’s for a cookout and to watch the fireworks from her front lawn. Also since this is also my birthday week we are taking the kids to our local amusement park – they know nothing about this one! But ds is tall enough to ride the roller coasters with me so we are making a exception ot our frugal budget (dh is laid off right now) but I have coupons for it so we decided to go for it (this is also the only place we will be going this year!) Sunday we will be fishing!
Mary Damask
We stay pretty low key and close to home for the 4th. We watch the parade here in town and the girls collect a bit of candy from the floats. Then, we check out the car show and everyone picks out their favorites. We usually run into friends there and visit off and on. Then, we head back home for a light lunch since we’re all overheated by then and usually munched something while we walked around. The girls will play around in the water sprinklers and blow bubbles while I get some ice cream going.
We nearly always end up inviting someone over last minute to grill burgers or chicken with chips and whatever anyone might bring. Then, we’ll have ice cream and answer a hundred times that is not dark enough yet to head over to the fire works – LOL! Most years we have a close call with an afternoon storm blowing over the mountains, looking like it will bring a canceling of fireworks. It rarely does, but the threat adds to the anticipation. After the skies clear, we’ll walk over to the field to watch the fireworks. Well, Julie (3yo) will probably hide her head again but the rest will watch. We’ll likely visit with friends again and then head back home, stopping to see distant fireworks from other town and the various fireworks that neighbors are setting off in their yards. By this time, Julie will probably have fallen asleep, but the bigger girls will be too wound up for bed, so we’ll wash everyone’s bug spray off and play a board game to settle everyone down.
Bobbi Beeson
We will be camping in the backyard for the weekend.
At some point during the weekend we will be heading down to the park for Civil War re-enactments and the on the 4th fireworks at the air museum. Might head to the parade too but not sure as it is about 45 minutes from us and that eats up a lot of the day driving to the parade..
O.K., I’m going to confess! We don’t have a 4th of July tradition. This year we are planning on going to a breakfast and parade in the tiny town of Notus, Idaho. Then just hang out with my in-laws and watch fireworks in the evening.
Linda Sprague
We do a hamburger cookout, and homemade ice cream. We watch the local fireworks show from lawn chairs in the back of the pickup truck. This year we plan on taking popcorn and cold soda to the fireworks show. Sparklers are always fun.
I don’t celebrate the 4th of July the way you do because I am British (I know Boo Hiss – at this time of the year you think of me as the bad guy LOL)!
But I do celebrate it because it is my birthday!!!!!
This year is going to be a bit unusual because my lovely hubby is working loads of extra hours (in fact just about every day for a month). So I am throwing a craft party instead. I am having my mum, sister, daughter and best friend in attendance, together with a collection of small people!
The idea is for the adult ladies to share their crafting skills with the little ladies. (I am sure that the boys will be well occupied with some games.)
We will be sharing a very simple lunch of sandwiches, pies and cakes which can be prepared beforehand (so as not to take any time away from the crafty goings on).
I am sure we will have a wonderful time and the adults will learn from each other as well as passing on what they know to the little ones. Roll on the sweet memories!!!
Love and Blessings
Angela Marchington
We haven’t had much of a 4th of July tradition since my husband and I have been married. It seems like he is gone for work or we are busy with some house facelift project.
I do have great memories of 4th of July when I was a child. My dad’s side of the family would get together for games and food followed by fireworks. Those were fun times with my cousins, aunts and uncles. We haven’t had a family get together like that for a long time. Next year I am planning (since it was my idea) a family reunion over the 4th of July weekend, also celebrating my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. I hope that my kids will have happy memories of the day to carry with them as they grow.
I do have to say that 4th of July isn’t complete without my mom’s ice cream jello salad. She would make it for my cousin Vince who LOVES it. Just another memory I love!
Karen Gebes
Hi Cindy,
Well, we’re in Canada and we just had our big day yesterday! SInce June 30th is my baby’s birthday, my grandparents anniversary and my brother-in-laws birthday we had a big family part on the 1st – potluck style. Then we went to the fireworks late at night with all of our little kidlings (and me!) dressed up in their red and white outfits. It was hard for them to wait until the big show, but they said it was worth it after the fact!
Our 4th of July celebration includes 2 birthdays! We have a great time and as the birthday boys say, the whole USA celebrates their birthdays! So, our plans include party fare with birthday cake ( I am making an ice cream cake!), chips, dip, ice cream, and a big lasagna dinner with bread and italian salad! Early Sat. morning we will attend our local parade and then have parties followed by community fireworks! We love this time of year and as a mom, this day is special to me as well, because this day reminds me of our baby boy, the little firecracker!
Thanks
Well, normally we spend 4th of July with my inlaws . . . but this year we are picking our daughter up from church camp on Saturday, so it will be a home day after that just enjoying some special family time. Not sure what all we’ll do — I’d like to find some fireworks to watch, but we may not since we have to be up early for church the next day.
The past two years we’ve made special t-shirts for the kids to wear that are red, white and blue . . . so maybe we’ll do that! (Can you tell I haven’t thought much about it yet? 😉
The fourth of July is one of two major holidays that my family gets together, Christmas being the other. We have a traditional fish fry at my Uncles house that includes fried corn, french fries, potato salad,and lots of fattening sweet things. We also swim in their pool. The kids have a blast with the pool usually while all the grown ups get to talk old times and catch up. Its always a great time to get to hear some of the old stories and atleast one or two you’ve not heard before. We travel to go there so once we have come home we usually go to our Civic Center Lake and watch the big fireworks show they put on, this year with the drought we won’t be doing any at home. In our family it is a special time to spend together as most of us live atleast a few hours away from one another and don’t get to spend a lot of time visiting so we really enjoy the fellowship with the family as well as the great food.
Carrie Clark
We are going to be going on a road trip to see more of the beautiful state of Colorado that we moved to 6 months ago. We are probably going to head to the Steamboat Springs area to see what we can find up there. My hubby also mentioned taking our kids to a candy store and loading them up. I found some that have tours so I thought a little education on candy making would make a well rounded visit.
On July 4th we will be going to see the metro areas largest fireworks display which will be in Aurora, CO. This is great that it is nice and close to us. We live in Aurora.
Not sure what else we will find to do but I know that once we head out tomorrow we won’t be back before the sun goes down.