What's your favorite part of Independence Day? My favorite part is the fireworks, but we're talking daycare here. So fireworks were out of the questions. We've celebrated Indepedence Day in little ways throughout the years. The most common is with a BBQ or picnic in the backyard, sparklers, and some kind of craft.
This year, we kept it pretty much the same. We watched Boss Baby 2 in the morning, fireworks painting, coloring sheets and word finds, sparklers, Pop Its, and a good ol' fashioned game of tag. We lined the sparklers up in the yard and lit them, much to the protest of a group of kids who tried to talk me into holding their own sparklers (not a risk I'm willing to take). They did get to take take turns throwing pop its on the ground and we quickly learned the parts of a firework, otherwise the day was pretty tame.
Festive food is always a hit when celebrating. We had flag toast for breakfast, cookie sandwiches for morning snack, a hot dog picnic for lunch, and a patriotic trail mix for afternoon snack (popcorn, pretzels, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and blueberries, chocolate chips, and M&M's).
The living room was turned into a movie theater for the morning so they could enjoy Boss Baby 2. I may roll my eyes at the number of streaming services we have, but it's wonderful to give a "yes!" when the kids ask to watch something.
Cheap scrub brushes from Dollar Tree (after a run through the dishwasher, they're still in perfect condition, so we'll be able to re-use them for other projects) and neon paint made this an easy art project to create fireworks on our papers.
I gave the youngest mini my phone to take pictures and wound up with some winners. After giving her permission to take selfies with her and her friends, I had no less than 20 pictures of just her face and some real winners of us lighting sparklers and smoke bombs. The colorful smoke bombs were the biggest hit with the kids. They were pretty bummed I wouldn't let them do sparklers themselves.
Two of the bigs got to help with lighting. They're at the age where they're actually helpful, which is huge for me!
Getting artsy with the pictures of the snakes.
Two busy days meant by the afternoon, everyone was tired. Dog, bigs, and everyone in between. After a couple of hours of downtime, they decided we really needed to do a nail salon. Nails were done, nail polish wound up in a lot of places (other than nails), and somehow nothing was spilled on the carpet.
We ended our celebration day with thai food and swimming lessons. It would have been glorious to have a restful night, but that wasn't in the books!
