Patriotic Fun

Few things are more delightful than grandchildren fighting over your lap. ~Doug Larson

Posterity is the patriotic name for grandchildren. ~Art Linkletter

Today, I was reminiscing about my childhood Fourth of July's and how my friends and I whiled away those hot, lazy, hazy days of summer.  We certainly did not feel deprived when our main source of celebration came in the form of a roll of caps and a big stone for banging them.  Later, we learned how to thread the caps into a cap rocket and spent hours throwing them up in the air and listening to see how loud the caps would fire when hitting the ground.  We may have indulged in a snowball from a neighborhood snowball stand or a soft ice-cream from the Mr. Frosty truck.  We were most certainly in bed by dusk and may have heard the sounds of crackling fireworks from a distance, while slinking into a satisfying slumber.  I remember enjoying every moment of those days. 

It wasn't until years later, when our own kids came along, that we began to line-up chairs along the parade route in town and chow-down at our friend's community picnic where we delighted in grilled hotdogs, and frequented the red-checkered, tableclothed bake tables.  We would visit with our friends until late in the night and once again line up our blankets with a million other folks in town who had found just the right hill for viewing the fireworks display.    These are the special memories our children hold. 

I am hoping that the grands did not feel left out today as we did not view any parades but what we did  have was some wonderful patriotic fun in the backyard, complete with a military jet fly-over. (Nana did not organize the fly-over).   

We made patriotic rice using food coloring and a few drops of rubbing alcohol.  Place the rice, food coloring and rubbing alcohol in a sealed baggie (one for each color) and squish it around until thoroughly colored.  Lay out the contents on  wax paper to dry for a few hours or overnight.  The grands decorated coloring pages with glue and then added the patriotic rice. 

Patriotic Rice

Dry rice on wax paper

 The grands enjoyed spoon races using the patriotic rice.  Each grand measured his/her own rice before, halfway, and after the game to see how much rice was dropped during the game.  They had to walk their spoons of rice across the grass to the wagon where they each had another drop cup for emptying their spoons.  They would run back and collect more spoons full or rice, then repeat the whole process from the wagon back to start.  The grands loved the weighing part as it helped them to guage their speed and steadiness. 

What Fourth of July would be complete without potato sack races?  Even Nana got in on the action. 

A word of caution to grannies:  If you haven't done this since you were nine-years-old,  go slow at first so you don't sprain your toe or fall on your head.   

Mia and Ty decorated spinners while PJ worked on assembling a confetti shooter.

 

 Visit www.Familyfun.com for complete instructions for assembling the confetti shooter. It was simple enough for Nana to help with and it was a lot of fun for a grand who likes to construct.

 The grands spent some time listening to the story America the Beautiful as written by Katharine Lee Bates.  Afterward, they used blue, purple, green, and gold paints along with white construction paper and diagramed the first verse of the song. Nana played the song for them as they painted their masterpieces. 

O beautiful for spacious skies,

  For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!

America! America! God shed His grace on thee

and crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!


 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord - Psalm 33:12

How did you celebrate the Fourth of July with your Grands?

                                It's grand to be a Grand!