FOURTH OF JULY FESTIVITIES
/The week of the Fourth is such a sweet holiday for our family, because we always know Blake and I will have time off from any military obligations and can truly spend quality time together.
It's been so nice to have daddy home and to enjoy celebrating America!
Here's a look into our week and all of the fun family traditions we have. We have LOVED following along with all of your traditions on Instagram and seeing you make memories with your loved ones!
We started the week with a little dance party (to Party In the USA) to kick off our long week of fun!
On the night of the Fourth, we had our annual (tiny) front yard fireworks! We started doing this three years ago when Everly was just a baby and have loved having mini fireworks just for our little family!
We also enjoyed some more fresh farm picked watermelon and drew the cutest fireworks chalk art! You can see more of my chalkart under the #hawthornegirlschalkart hashtag on Instagram!
Funny story about this pic...I am the most horrible watermelon cutter ever. If I concentrate REALLY hard, I can make it look decent...but I can fly a helicopter; just don't ask me to cut your watermelon. Ha! So, this time I just cut big pieces off and we ate out of it with spoons. And let me tell ya, it was just as delicious + juicy!
With all the time off work, hubs and I took the girls out back and we had a blast playing ALL DAY in our little blow up pool! I grew up playing softball, and Blake's just a great athlete, so we spent a few hours throwing the ball in the backyard while the girls played monkey in the middle!
Then came the fun part! Every year, for the past three years, our incredible neighborhood has thrown a huge Fourth of July celebration. We have a huge Easter egg hunt and Friendsgiving (for Thanksgiving) as well. We live in a neighborhood pretty far out in the country, so it's a very small secluded one, surrounded by trees and the simple sweet sounds of nature! But it allows all of us to be more like family. We help each other out during deployments, take care of each other's dogs and kids, do house projects together, and the list goes on. I know because of this neighborhood I will never ever settle for a neighborhood we don't love again.
This neighborhood means so much to us. Not only have we made the most incredible memories here with the best of friends, but we've also raised the girls here. It's the first house Blake and I have remodeled and truly poured our hearts into. We will be moving around December of this year, and our hearts are already trying to prepare for so much change and sadness that comes with moving every few years with the Army. We're just ever so hopeful that we'll find another neighborhood, just like this, where we too can start a new tradition of annual Fourth of July parties. We're so excited to continue this tradition somewhere else!
For the party the house with the biggest acreage rents a huge bounce house/water slide and all the neighbors pitch in money. They also are the ones that buy all of the huge fireworks and we all pitch in money for that too. Their backyard is huge so all the dads tag team to put on the BEST fireworks show ever! It's truly incredible what a few thousand dollars and a bunch of great neighbors can throw together. Everyone brings food so it's potluck style and we all wear glow in the dark necklaces and it's basically a big Fourth of July kid friendly rave! It's truly the best time ever. We're gonna miss it oh so much.
Here's a look into our very own backyard fireworks show!
I also made these super yummy stuffed sweet peppers which is our favorite appetizer to make for Cinco de Mayo and Fourth of July festivities!
Ingredients:
- 2 x bag sweet bell peppers
- 1-2 8oz. cream cheese
- 1 roll sausage (flavor of choice)
Directions:
- Cut peppers in half and clean.
- Cook sausage until brown and add in cream cheese.
- Stuff all peppers with mix.
- *You can sprinkle breadcrumbs or shredded cheese on top if you want.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
We ended the week with baking some good ole Fourth of July cookies to give to our brand new neighbors! You can find my favorite recipe here!
Thank you for following our holiday celebrations and we sure do hope they inspire you to create traditions and make memories with those you love!