Here comes the red, white, and blue!
I try to take Fourth of July pictures of the kids every year but this is the first time I’ve decorated our home for the holiday. And I loved our Easter craft station so much that I decided to do it again for Independence Day. Come check it out!
Since I’m in my third trimester, I had ZERO interest in going out and getting a bunch of stuff to make this happen so everything besides the two American flags and the darling America garland were things I found around our house. Red isn’t one of my regular decor colors (when I got Ella dressed she said, “Red isn’t really my style. Pink is more my style.” Love her honesty!) so I decided to go in a sort of rustic direction that wouldn’t require a ton of red.
I reused the pinwheels and star plates from Ella’s graduation party, adding DIY stars to the pinwheels to make them more festive and get more red in there.
This was really easy to put together (a prerequisite for all of my activities now) and I wanted the craft to be simple too. So I took a look at what we had (see my curated DIY must haves here) and came up with these DIY, kid-friendly “sparklers.”
Here’s what you need:
Construction Paper
Craft Sticks
Markers
Trim/Yarn/Ribbon
First, I let the kids decorate their stars.
Then I taped the craft sticks on the back, to make them like wands. I had already cut all different types of yarn and trim in the appropriate colors and the kids could choose whichever ones they wanted to add to their sparklers. I taped those to the backs too and voila! Little sparklers without the stress. You could also use the trim to make little fireworks, just let the kids glue them to pieces of paper. And Ella took it upon herself to make little American soldiers using the craft sticks. That’s the great thing about all of these supplies; you can use them in lots of different ways.
A super simple activity but a great way to involve the kids in this important and fun holiday. As they crafted, we talked about how we’re celebrating America’s birthday and all our favorite parts of living here. Neither of them mentioned life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness but watching these kids grow up and make fun memories in safety and freedom is good enough for me.
Happy crafting and Happy Independence Day, friends!
xo
eb