Fire up the grill. Dust off your camp chair. Dig out the bocce set and let’s get ready to celebrate Independence Day as a family!
Fourth of July is one of our family’s favorite holidays. We’ve gone beyond the usual potlucks and firework shows when we fete our Independence and we’ve added a bit of our own spin to the day as well. What started as a fluke has become a tradition in our house that includes good food and making memories that last all year long.
It doesn’t matter what continent you live on you can make the most of your country’s independence day as a family.
When our kids were little we had to arrange our celebration days around naps and feeding schedules and all that jazz. Now, we have to arrange our days around parental naps. Raising kids is exhausting! But there are three things we always do.
Make donuts
I decided early on in our family life to make the most of our holiday by making a big to-do about our 4th of July breakfast. The first year, I made donuts from scratch. That tradition has definitely stuck.
They were such a huge hit I MUST now make donuts every 4th of July morning from here until eternity, I’m sure. Our tradition is to eat a big brunch together with egg casserole, fresh-baked donuts, juice, and fresh berry salad. Yum.
It’s taken me a few years to find just the right donut recipe but hey, that’s what Pinterest is for right?
I found the best snickerdoodle donut recipe on Pinterest but, the blog I got it from is no longer up and running. So, I scanned the recipe HERE and you can download it. (If anyone knows who came up with this, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!) These are devoured every time I make them so, they are here to stay. You can make them with or without gluten and dairy. You’re welcome.
Get out of the house
In the past, we’ve enjoyed local parades, participated in service project opportunities, gone hiking, and taken drives to explore our community. Since we’ve lived in four houses since our kids were born it’s all been dependent on where we are and what’s being offered.
One of our most favorite traditions has been to participate in a service project. Our favorite service activity to date has been the I-5 coffee ministry sponsored by our previous church.
Our family would take a two to four-hour shift at the local interstate rest stop where we served free coffee, tea, lemonade, and cookies to weary travelers. We met people from all over the world doing this and it was always a fun experience because we were giving goodies away for free. No strings attached. Non-Americans were always shocked by this.
Our kids loved making coffee and tea and handing out the cookies and we all loved being together and meeting new people.
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Take a family photo
No matter where we’ve lived at some point during the actual day we get spruced up and take a family photo. This is a tradition that happened by accident. When I was pregnant with our first child, my husband and I took a photo together. The tradition stuck. Now, we take our annual photo sitting on the chairlift swing that we have set up at whatever house we happen to be in.
If I plan ahead we all get matching shirts. Old Navy and Walmart are excellent resources for such attire, I’ve found. We try to keep it festive and in the red, white, and blue motif. (Except for that one year when Big Dad decided to wear green. But we won’t talk about that.)
It’s been fun to see our family grow and change over time.
I used to send out the photo as our Christmas card each year. But after reading Kathi Lipp’s book “Get Yourself Organized For Christmas” I decided to forego yuletide cards and now I send a summer update using our July 4th photo. The best part of this is that I don’t have to stress out about doing it in the middle of the crazy, busy Christmas season. I’ve got it ready by the end of July and sent by August first. Bing. Bang. Boom! That’s right.
I also keep a photo album just for these photos. The kids love looking at it to see how they’ve grown.
Other activities
In the evening we get together with friends, bbq, and eat really great food. One of our favorites is Quinoa Confetti Salad. I make a mixture of this recipe and this one. It’s the perfect blend of veggies, dressing, and cold quinoa. You can add and take away a lot of the ingredients so you can really make it your own. Plus, it’s a non-dairy-based dressing that won’t go belly up in the heat.
As far as fireworks are concerned we can take them or leave them. We’ve seen shows put on by our local community, bought our own, and even gone without. The day is about being together so that’s what we focus on.
We’ve truly made this holiday a family day when we can relax, hang out, and enjoy all that summer has to offer.
Independence Day as a family
If you want to make your Independence Day as a family special, try some of these suggestions:
- Make a special breakfast
- Make donuts
- Get matching shirts
- Go for a hike
- Take a family photo
- Play a rousing game of badminton or bocce or croquet
- Go play disc/frisbee golf at your local course
- Find a swimming hole
- Watch a parade
- Serve your community
- Measure the kids (this is a perfect time to take measurements to see who’s sprouting and how much!)
- Fly a flag or 10
- Watch a fireworks show
- Bake a special dessert
- Look at your New Year’s resolutions and see how you’re doing
- Have a block party or invite the neighbors over for a bbq
- Have a contest to see who can put the Presidents in order (FREE PRINTABLE HERE)
- Challenge everyone to name all the states and capitals
- Take a quiz to see who knows their American (or home country) history the best
- Decide as a family on a new tradition just for this holiday
There are a lot of ways to make the most of Independence Day as a family. What are you going to add to this fun holiday to make it special for your family?
Got a fun idea? Share your #RealFunFamily ideas in the comments.
Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash
Photo by Joe Pregadio on Unsplash
