Rolled Fabric Flowers from Bandanas

 Here is a quick, simple way to add some Patriotic flair to your little ones this 4th of July!  Its also a great, inexpensive craft for Young Womens or Activity Days :)  All you need to make these cute fabric flowers are some bandanas and fabric glue...easy peasy, right?!

I cut my bandanas into strips, then once I had them rolled into flowers I hot-glued them to some barrettes I had on hand.

I followed this great tutorial I found HERE...she has wonderful pictures and step-by-step instructions!

This is the one Skylar helped me make, isn't she adorable?!  We did this with out 8-9 year old girls yesterday and they were all able to make them.  Now my mind is filled with possibilities...I'm thinking next year's 4th of July wreath needs to have these bandana rolled flowers!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  And if you like what you see, follow Blue Skies Ahead on Bloglovin!!!

Sparkler Favors with some Fun 4th Trivia!

 Hello my long lost friends!!

Is anyone still out there?! ;)  I have, once again, fallen off the face of the bloggy planet.  Something interesting happened to me.  

I had a baby :)  And like always, I just jumped right back into life, ready to tackle all the things I had wanted to do while I was laying around on bedrest for 4 weeks.  And you know what?  It was working out really well for me.

Then school got out for summer.

No Bueno.

I finally realized what all those tired, stressed-out moms were talking about!  It has taken me the last month to figure out how in the world to take care of these kids, my husband and myself.  Actually...thats kind of misleading :)  I haven't really figured anything out...I'm just finally feeling like my head is above water and I have a spare moment to get back to doing some fun things with my family...and actually taking the time to blog about them!

So today I am jumping back into it with a really fun Sparkler Favor you could use for your 4th parties or just for fun!  I am using them for my Activity Day girls.  The cool thing about this favor is not only will the kids love the sparklers....but they may learn a little something too!

Sparkler Favors with some Fun 4th Trivia!

To make these cute favors I just got 2 sparklers, rolled them up in a darling striped snack bag from Pick Your Plum, and tied them with some bakers twine.

Then I printed out this fun little tag I made up with some interesting 4th of July trivia your kids will love.  Heck...I loved it!  That's some interesting stuff!!

I found all these fun facts HERE

Just a quick, simple favor to add to the fun of the day and learn a little something too!!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, it feels great to be back!  I can't promise when I will post again, but I am hoping to get back on some sort of schedule ;)

4th of July Flag Pancakes

 Happy, happy 4th of July everyone!!  This is one of my favorite holidays, surrounding ourselves with family, good food and love of our great country.

We kicked off our day with these fun and yummy Flag Pancakes...did you really think I could let a holiday pass without themed pancakes?! :)

Instead of doing regular pancakes like I usually do, I thought banana pancakes with the fruit and whipped cream would be delicious...I was right!! ;)

Here is the recipe I used (originally from allrecipes.com...with some adaptions by me :)

Banana Pancakes

1 C flour

1 T white sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 egg, beaten

1 C milk

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 T vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all together, batter will be slightly lumpy.  Then spray your griddle over medium high heat and cook until golden brown on both sides!

Then I layered the pancakes with strawberries and used the whipped cream to make white stripes.  Finish it off with a few blueberries in the corner and you have your very own Flag Pancakes :)

These were super yummy and easy to kick off our holiday.

I hope wherever you are, you are having a wonderful 4th of July and God Bless America!

Mini 4th of July Ice Cream Sandwiches

 Wow!

We have been having a busy, FUN summer so far!  I haven't been blogging because I have been trying to just soak in all of the fun of swimming, splash parks, reunions, and more :)

However, I seriously realized this weekend...it is the 4th of July tomorrow!!!  I haven't decorated or done too many activities but I cannot let a holiday pass me by without doing SOMETHING  to make it feel a little more special.  This quick, easy snack is not something I came up with, but it is so easy to make and my kids LOVED having it for their after lunch snack!

At our local grocery store they had mini ice cream sandwiches on sale for $2 a package!  I thought that was a great deal for 16 sandwiches...and I LOVE anything mini :)  It's just so darn cute!  Then I dumped out some red, white and blue sprinkles in a bowl and dipped each side of the sandwich in until the whole thing was coated in sprinkles.

My kids loved them, and it was fun to do something a teensy bit festive :)

So if you are like me, and this holiday has completely snuck up on you...don't worry about it!!  There are lots of fun, SIMPLE ways to make holidays special for your kiddos.  The most important thing is spending time together, being with family, and renewing our gratitude for this blessed country we live in!

Fun on the 4th!

What a fantastic 4th of July we had this year!! All day was spent enjoying our little family and celebrating this great country we live in. The day started off with a fun, healthy 4th of July breakfast.

Greek yogurt parfait with strawberries and blueberries...the kids LOVED them!

After that we made our way to the splash park. The weather was a little iffy, cloudy and kept sprinkling, but it turned out really nice because there was nobody else there :)

Of course, my camera died after those pics, but later we went to the Farm at Thanksgiving Point and all the kids went on pony rides and we did the 4th of July scavenger hunt they had going on. After that we came home, made some white-chocolate dipped strawberries with blue sprinkles and headed over to a neighborhood block party. It was such a blast, the kids had a wonderful time running around with their friends and we all enjoyed the no longer illegal fireworks :)

4th of July Family Home Evening

This is a really great family home evening idea that I found on one of my favorite blogs, Chocolate on my Cranium. I LOVED the visual of turning the water different colors to represent the colors on our flag and the primary songs you sing about each color. Make sure you check it out, it is all ready to go, all you have to do is print it out! Get the full family home evening HERE.

After we spoke about America being the promised land and how blessed we are we focused on the flag and talked about some fun things we do on the 4th. Of course, Fireworks!! So this is what we did for a little craft

All you do is get some acrylic paint, water it down A LOT (I think that was my downfall, not quite enough water :) and then put some drops on a piece of paper. Then you give the kiddos straws and when the blow on the paint it makes these cute little fireworks. Pretty fun!!
And what is FHE without a fun, themed dessert?

Mine didn't look quite that professional, but you get the idea :) All I did was make a yellow cake, top it with cool whip and then use blueberries and strawberries to decorate! Since I am on a health kick right now it would also be yummy to do yogurt parfaits with layers of vanilla yogurt, blueberries and strawberries :) Happy 4th everyone, and God Bless America!!

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