Independence Day Games!
I can’t believe the 4th of July is already here. It feels like I just put away my Christmas decorations last week. Well, many of you may have just put them away last week. HA!HA!
I was thinking (I know– that always gets me in trouble) that for something fun this year you might try having an old-fashioned 4th of July. Instead of just spending the day sitting around barbecuing and waiting for fireworks, why not plan some activities like gunny sack races, rope pulls, wheelbarrow races or just a good old-fashioned water balloon fight?
If you’re able, you can tie a gunny sack stuffed with straw in a tree for the kids (and adults) to swing on or, if nothing more, sit and have a watermelon seed spitting contest. I know that we usually think of apple bobbing for Halloween but apple bobbing would be great for July 4th and would help keep everyone cool!
Have a few fun, silly, inexpensive little prizes to give away or even simple blue ribbons for the winners!
-Jill
photo by:fort_vancouver_national_trust
I agree. Get outside and have some simple, REAL, old-fashioned fun instead of staying on the computer, listening to your Ipod, or texting on your cell phone. Have a real day with real, right there with you, people. What a concept?
Three-legged races too! Or what about a “Pop the Balloon” race with WATER BALLOONS! Wouldn’t that be hilarious AND fun?! You can even set up a few silly carnival game type of games like throwing a ball to knock down a stack of soda cans or Bozo buckets with buckets of water and water balloons… ooooh, you can have each bucket have LESS water as you advance, with the last bucket being empty… and the bucket you MISS on, gets dumped on your head! LOL!! There’s also a frisbee toss you can set up with pretty much anything… tossing it at a stack of cans as well or into a cardboard box or a box with a hole in it… or a poster board with a hole in it… Wow. I’m on a roll! LOL!
You are on a roll. Thanks for more good ideas Tammy.
Hello Jill
I am still learning this new site,but I do like it. I had to tell you how blessed I am! This little store that had been in business for years decided to close. The owners are retireing. anyway they were having a going out of business sell and so I decided to stop by and boy am I glad did. I asked the owner if he was selling his little display box that lights up and turns around
and he says if you want it you can have it! I ‘m thinking wow this will be a great display for my husband’s collection of nascar cars. I insisted that he take at least $5.00 for it. It is one of those that they don’t make any more it is kinda small but lights up with removeable shelfs,not a mark on it. He even put it in a nice box for me,when I got home my neighbor’s son who is studying art said I will be glad to paint some nascar flags on the top for you and he did.It looks great. so I have put this away for my hubby’s christmas present he will be thrilled. Also while I was at the store I found my daughter an animal print bedspread,sheets, pillow cases and bed skirt all $12.50 ! I am so happy because this animal print is the one thing I know she has been wanting and it also will be put back for christmas and I know this is long but at a yard sale I found two touch lamps that will go perfect with her room and they are like new the lady let me have them both for $5.00 ,she even had the box they came in. she said they were her Mothers and she never used them. So I am almost finshed with my Christmas shopping! Have a happy 4th!
I had to chuckle Susan at your excitement because I know exactly how exciting those kind of finds can be. Tawra and I are forever calling each other with our newest “good buy”. Sounds like you “done good” :) :)
PS My son has been dying for one of those display boxes. He collects Superman things and wants one sooo bad so I know exactly what you are talking about.
Don’t forget to attend a local parade! Our city is about 60,000 in population, but we live 1 block from the “old town” area, where the parades and other festivals are each year. We often invite family and friends to park at our house and walk together with our lawn chairs to watch the parade. If we invite others, we have a potluck and everyone comes over for lunch after the parade.
years ago while in the YMCA Indian Guides program, we would have sponge fights. Fill buckets of water and throw in those big sponges you wash the car w/ and then it’s ON! Everyone runs around throwing these soaked sponges at each other and of course once they’ve had their fill of that,buckets of water start getting tossed at people! Loads of fun, WAY less clean up then a water balloon fight and the kids loved it.
Canada Day weekend we have celebrations but one that goes on in town is the fish festival.
The fishermen go on lake superior and fish for lake trout and they have the deep sea fishing gear. So show off their boats they have a parade down the main streets of town.
Last night was the night and they went by our house. The family next door was over and we heard the police cars so I sent them out to the front yard and they watched about 25 big boats go by. The people on the boats were tossing candy to the kids and it is nice to see boats that probably cost more than a lot of the houses here in town.
The motels get quite a bit of business as a few of the boaters come from as far away as southern Ont and a few from the states.
So check out your town or city and find out if things like this are going on, for your 4th day celebrations.
Who doesn’t like a parade?
As to the watermelon seed spitting contest. We had those all summer and grandpa always won. But now a days it is hard to get watermelons with seeds big enough to spit. Sometimes innovations take away some of the fun we had as children.
My friend came shared this but I don’t think she’d mind if I shared. Get 7 feet of PVC roof gutter with the caps so the gutter can hold money. You can make 4 or 5 “racing tracks”. You will want just some dollar store squirt guns and some gold fish. The idea is to coax your gold fish with the squirt gun to the end of the track. The first one get’s the gold fish. You might wonder what the trick to this is…..Don’t squirt the fish in the back with this the water. Lead the fish with the squirt in the front. It’ chases the water. Have a fun time. But keep the tracks in the shade. You can understand why. Warm fish won’t swim very well.
It’s going to be around 115 here in Phoenix for the 4th. No-one wants to be out in that. LOL
I am sorta jealous of all the small-ish town things everyone else gets to do. We are such a big town & it is so hot during the summer, that it is not enjoyable at all. :( However….come “winter” time, it is AWESOME! ;)
I am also in Phoenix! We plan a BBQ and spend the day in the pool!!! We also have a pack of novelty fire works that we light up at night! We wont see the fireworks because you have to get there early and it is just too hot sit around for 20 minutes of fire-works so we make our own. All the ideas I listed in a previous post are what we do.
If you can’t afford to buy decorations for you 4th have your kids or grand kids make them. We decorated toilet paper rolls with red, white and blue tissue paper. I got the tissue paper for a buck and it comes with 30 huge pieces! Also you can make your own paper flag with it or you can paint one! You can also make paper crackers (same as Christmas crackers) but in red/white and blue. You just take toilet paper tubes or paper towel tubes and cut them down to size and them fill them with a treat and wrap them in tissue paper. You can decorate the outside by adding stickers and then tie the ends with ribbon (great use for Christmas ribbon!) Take water bottles and fill them with water and red or blue food coloring. You can also put glitter or confetti/ beads/pom-poms just to name a few ideas in them with plain water glue the tops on and let the kids play with them!
Also have your kids decorate their bikes with streamers of red white and blue paper and small flags and have a bike parade!
Put together a box of old clothing and have the kids dress up in a Funny Fashion Show.
Have the kids dress up as clowns and put on a parade!
Love Susan’s post about Christmas present. I hit it at Walgreens in February. They had their toys they had stocked for Christmas for 70% off. Obviously the toys did not sell as well as they had hoped, there were lots of them. We have 5 grandchildren, ages 4-8, so I knew this would be great for the budget. I filled a buggy with trucks, play doh, puzzles and lots more. We have one granddaughter, and for her I picked up a Disney Princess make-up set. Well, the toys were falling off the sides of the buggy as I went to the register! The total was $70, and the grands are taken care of! Now I can concentrate on finding good deals for the adults. I know this is a July 4th post, but I guess we are thinking Christmas in July!