The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. We love spending time together and celebrating our nation’s independence. It’s always a fun birthday party! Here are a few reasons I love this holiday.
Family Time. We love to spend time playing with our extended family on the 4th. We have gone camping, to a cabin, or even partied at home. I’ve found the most important part of the holiday is to spend it with those you love!
Dress for the occasion. It is so much fun to wear 4th of July shirts, headbands, bracelets, necklaces, flip flops, earrings. I made the star shirts for my girls one year. You can buy flag shirts at about every store out there.
Eat lots of yummy food. We love anything BBQ: chicken, hot dogs, sausage, steak, and hamburgers. It’s also fun to make patriotic colored food. We made this layered drink one year. It was super yummy! You can do flag cake, Flag dip, or colorful fruit. Don’t forget the patriotic tablecloth and paper products.
Water Fun.Water is at the top of the list for easy, simple fun! My kids love everything we do with water! This little kid pool has been around a lot of years. We like to add our Slip and Slide, water guns, water cannons, water balloons, sprinkler, or our water tetherball. Last year we filled up regular size balloons with water. They had so much fun and called them their “babies”. They carried them around all day and didn’t pop them. Some years we like to go swimming at a bigger pool, but when we have family and friends over, this pool does the trick!
Fireworks. We have gone to fireworks shows and have also hosted our own parties at our home. There are few neighborhoods that are still allowed to do fireworks so we host a lot of fireworks parties. We always get spinners, snaps, parachutes, fountains, and sparklers. Now that aerials are legal here, we get a few of those as well. Neighbors, cousins, friends, all are welcome! I like to get glowsticks every year. I usually get a big box for everyone to share. The kids have fun creating games with them. They play tag, use as light sabers, and come up with other fun games with them. We also just got some Laser Tag guns, and look forward to trying them this year as well.
Sitting on the lawn watching fireworks! 
Glowsticks are a hit!
Hiking. One of my favorite things we have done on the 4th is to go to the mountains where it is cooler and so beautiful! Lakes and mountains are a lot of fun but can be super busy so we try to go earlier in the morning during all of the parades. Some years we have just gone for a drive during the day.
Check out local events and shows. We like to mix it up! Some years we like to go to parades in different cities. It is almost always super hot so bring lots of frozen water bottles, spray bottles, umbrellas, bags for the candy, camping chairs, and blankets (to sit on). Some years we go to a concert and fireworks show or to the baseball game and fireworks show. If it is a free event we go early and bring games and snacks and drinks to keep us busy until it starts. Check out all the local city sites near you for 4th of July activities and events. Every city usually holds some kind of festivities-either the 3rd or 4th of July.
Watching the parade. 
Waiting for the concert/fireworks show.
There are so many different things you could do this 4th of July. I don’t think any year is the same for us. We like to mix it up for sure. If there are fun options locally, we’ll do those. Otherwise we like to have family and friends over or go out in nature and explore new areas. Have a safe 4th!
Check out these other fun Summer activities!