One of the hardest parts of celebrating July 4th with kids in the in-between stages of babyhood and pre-teens is the tricky timing of fireworks and bedtime. Add rain on top of that and it's sanity saving quite tempting to completely skip over the holiday with a young family. Our first July 4th as a family of four was super easy: we lived in Jersey City at the time and had an amazing 360 degree rooftop view that allowed us to see about 5 sets of fireworks from Manhattan to deep into New Jersey.
Here's a throwback pic...
This year with our basement recently finished in our (new-ish) house I decided to use the blank slate to show how you can throw a festive desert picnic with your kids right at home. I'm a fan of traditional flag cake in a 9x13 casserole dish, but decided to get a pre-made pound cake (on sale for only $2!) and make a deconstructed version for the kids.
Ingredients:
- Pre-made pound cake
- Whipped topping
- Assorted washed berries (Grayson especially LOVES "finger berries" aka raspberries!)
Directions:
Slice a few plain slices of the cake to get started. Spread whipped topping on the rest of the cake, spreading the berries on the serving platter alongside it. D.O.N.E.
It's SO simple, and my kids were delighted eating it because they could reach right in and get what they wanted!
They especially liked using the top of the cake as a dipping tray for the cake and fruit. Clever, right?
I added a few items from our local dollar bins surrounding our red and white star mat including a string of white star lights and lanterns (I'd go with battery operated tea lights for these). The kids know juice is a rare treat in our house, so they were giddy when I fill their glass milk bottles with festively-hued cranberry juice with red-striped straws of course to match. Grayson was happy to take breaks from eating his berries to spend some time trying out his pinwheel!
This was our first time altogether in our finished basement, and it makes me so excited to show more as we pull it together. For now the kids love running around in it which is perfect for a rainy day July 4th-alternative, and if it *does* indeed rain we can always put up a video of past years' fireworks (pre-bedtime!) on our TV and the kids may not even know what they're missing!
When you were a kid did you stay awake for the fireworks? What's your favorite July 4th treat?
