I don’t think it’s any secret that I love holidays.  If you spend any amount of time here, you’ll see I take any holiday, large or small, as an opportunity to party and celebrate with my girls!  The Fourth of July is certainly no exception.  I think what I love so much about Independence Day is just getting to spend time together as a family.  Usually, we do something that involves swimming – either going to the lake or the beach or just hanging out in the girls’ little pool.  Last year was no exception.  The girls and I made cupcakes and all four of us enjoyed grilled burgers and potato salad and coke in a bottle.  Coke in a bottle is a special treat for the girls.  I try really, really hard to limit their caffeine intake, mostly because….well, have you met my girls?  They need caffeine like I need several extra holes in my head.  But, something about summer and the 4th of July and a cook-out lets me relax my rules.  (Actually, this summer, they’ve already each had one coke – that’s Gracie on the blog header drinking her first one at the beach on Memorial Day.  It was for a stylized photo shoot, so apparently, I relax my rules for the 4th of July and photo shoots!)

We made Rocket Balloons from Family Fun.  Basically, you take a balloon, fill it with 1/3 of a cup of dried lentils, blow the balloon up, and tie a streamer on the end.  Then, you’re supposed to toss the balloon back and forth. 

I don’t know what in the world made me think that adding the lentils to the balloons would make them un-poppable.  I mean, really.  I guess I though lentils had some magic quality that made balloons impervious to things like concrete and sharp blades of grass.  I don’t claim to be the smartest chicken in the hen-house, but still, I even amazed myself with how dense I was on this one.  We popped probably 10 of the balloons in about 8 seconds before I realized that the thing that the lentils do is actually weigh the balloon down, making it easier to pop and that they sound like rockets when you pop them and that’s why they’re called Rocket Balloons, not because they can soar around the backyard without ever popping.  Once I realized that, Gracie and I had fun tossing a few to each other.  Abigail wanted no part of it.  The popping lentils terrified her.  So, she ran inside after about two minutes.

Gracie and I played for a little while and then we coerced Abigail back outside with the only things that could overcome her fear of exploding lentil balloons….

Ice Cream Cupcakes!  I got the idea for them from Annie’s Eats and modified them.  I used the Colorburst Cupcake recipe from Our Best Bites, colored them red and blue and topped them with Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream.  (Last year, I didn’t have an ice cream maker…this year – if I can find all the parts – we’ll have homemade ice cream!)

Abigail really enjoyed these!  I think they more than made up for the balloons.

We did a few fireworks, just like we did in 2009.  And just like then, Abigail was not a fan.  She ran inside crying and once again, Gracie went inside to console her.  And that may be my favorite part about the 4th of July – watching my big girl comfort her baby sister.