Thursday, August 16, 2012

4th of July

Dear Reader:  My wholehearted apologies...I started this post ages ago and thought I had posted it.  Alas, I had not.  I am a slacker!  Slap me silly with a wet, soggy noodle and consider yourself way ahead of the game with tons of ideas for NEXT year's 4th of July festivities.

The kids helped me get a 4th of July package together for our missionaries - my son, his girlfriend and my parents.  Wow!  I can't believe it's July already.  Mason comes home in just a few very short weeks.  We are so excited around here...but also just a little sad.  I will miss having a missionary BUT we still have my parents and his "friend that's a girl but not his girlfriend" so I will still try my best to come up with creative, fun package and letter ideas.

This one is oh, so easy to pull together.  Red, white and blue everything.  Grab some festive patterned or plain paper/card stock and some coordinating tissue paper and you're good to go.


Suggested Contents:
small flags
Cracker Jack
Firecracker Cookies
(see recipe below)
Red Licorice
Cinnamon Bears
Peanuts
Pistachio's
Hershey kisses
Salt water Taffy
Peppermint swirls
football
Frisbee
squirt guns
Patriotic ties

...is that enough to get your creative juices flowing?



Firecracker Cookies:
I found the recipe for these delicious cookies on Pinterest (of course!) from the Cookin' Cowgirl.  They were so easy to whip up and look so festive for the holiday.  The recipe calls for an 18.25 oz. box of cake mix.  I don't know about your local grocer but mine only carries the 15.25 oz. size.  I added an extra 1/4 cup flour and they turned out just perfect.  The recipe also calls for lots and lots of sprinkles that are added to the cookie batter.  Each container was $2.49...yikes!!  And I needed 6 of them because I was making a double batch.  I grabbed two and headed to the bakery to see if they had any that I could buy.  They had a mix of red, white and blue stars.  One cup for .99 ...score!!

Firecracker Cookies:
1 box French Vanilla cake mix
     (18.25 oz. size or 15.25 oz. and 1/4 cup flour)
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup red sprinkles
1/2 cup blue sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix together cake mix and baking powder.  In another bowl, mix together eggs, oil and vanilla.  Combine mixtures and blend.  Stir in the sprinkles and drop by rounded teaspoon or small cookie scoop* onto a greased or parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool completely.  Place inside a clean Pringle's potato chip canister that you have covered in colored/patterned paper.  Reseal.

*I use a #60 scoop (the higher the number the smaller the scoop)




More ideas to spark your creative genius:


Do you prefer Red Vines or Twizzlers?  Either way, these are so CUTE!!


    
 





(with free printable)


(with free printable)

4 comments:

  1. Hi! I just found your blog and it is fantastic! Do you have any ideas for College? My mom always asks me what I want but I always say not Candy.. She ends up giving me Candy anyways because she can't think of anything else to put together. Any Ideas please! Thanks!!! :D

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  2. Oh, my goodness, Kaitlynn! How did I not notice your cute comment before this? Some days I seriously have 'senior brain.' I'm glad that you're enjoying my blog. I really try to include healthy snack ideas in my package suggestions but for some reason most of my packages revolve around food. Crazy. I must really like the stuff. Must nothing, I love food. Kidding aside, I will work really hard to come up with some non-food related package ideas AND I will work even harder to always make sure there are some healthy snack options included in the package suggestions. Thanks for your feedback! Study hard, girlfriend and HAVE FUN!!

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  3. Trying to get the free fourth of July printable, it says I'm not an invited viewer! HELP...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can't get access to it either. The author must have changed her blog to private. You could try google-ing 'free 4th of July printables' and click on 'images'. If you see something you like you can just click on the photo and it will take you to the site. If you can't find anything that will work you could email me and I could whip something up for you tonight...but if you're like me you need it right NOW...my email is shalanb@comcast.net.
    Cherylann

    ReplyDelete