What You’ll Need:

*1 ½ pounds (80% lean) ground beef
*4 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
*4 slices (2%) cheddar cheese
*4 fresh pineapple rings
*Boston lettuce
*Light mayonnaise
*1/4 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s barbeque sauce
*2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
*4 hamburger buns

How to Make It:

The Burgers:
1. Mix ground beef with 4 tablespoons teriyaki sauce.
2. Form into 4 patties. Do not pack the patties too tight.
3. Place burgers on grill.
4. Do not flatten the burgers with a spatula while they are grilling. Doing this releases all of the juices.
5. About 2 minutes before burgers are cooked to your desired temperature, place cheese on top of the patties, then place the pineapple rings on the grill, and close the lid. Cook for 2 minutes.

The Sauce:
Mix barbeque sauce and 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce in small bowl.

Assembling the Burger:
1. Spread 2 teaspoons mayonnaise on the bottom hamburger bun. On the top side of the bun, liberally spread 1 tablespoon of the mixed barbeque-teriyaki sauce.
2. Place hamburger patty on bottom bun.
3. Top hamburger with 1 pineapple ring and 1 leaf of lettuce.
4. Place top bun on lettuce and enjoy!

Yield: 4 Burgers

Front of the House

Grab wide (blue, red, and white) cloths and hang them lengthwise anywhere on the front part of your house. Be creative on how you hang them. You can twist the three colors into a braid, layer them together, or hang them separately in different areas. Cut some stars, and hang them on your porch, your front door, or your front windows. Go crazy with this one; you can add patterns, glitter, etc.

Main Door/Windows

On your main door, if you’re up to it, paint it using red, blue, and white. If you don’t have time, you can leave it be and stick red and blue stars on it. On your windows, post little US flag decals. You can buy them at your local arts and crafts store. If not, just get some poster paper and draw on it. You can also print small flag designs on the paper, and cut them up. Stick them your windows from the inside. Just use invisible tape, and you’re good to go.

Living Room

You don’t have to display flags of different sizes in every part of your house. The key is to be subtle. Use red, blue, and white pillow cases for your couch pillows. Use the same colors to cover your end tables. If you like displaying candles in your living room, use red, blue, and white. Or you can also make flaglets with sticks for poles, and stick them in your plants or flowers.

Don’t go overboard, because it can ruin the look of the room. If you want to display a flag in the room, use just one big flag, and hang it on a prominent area.

What other ideas do you have?

You will need:

1.White Poster board. You can use any size of poster board depending on how you want to display it. A big piece can be used for a prominent display, or smaller pieces that are laminated can make great place mats.

2. White cotton balls. This is to replicate the stars.

3. Red construction paper. You may need 3 or 4 sheets or more depending on the width and length of the strips.

4. Blue construction paper, 2 sheets.

5. Glue.

6. Scissors.

Start by figuring out the size of the blue square on your poster board. It should be approximately a third of the top left side of the poster board. Since this is a kid’s project, it is not necessary to take exact measurements, unless you are trying to get the flag proportionally correct.

Cut out the blue square, and glue it into the upper left hand corner. This will give you a place to start for the top red stripes and the length you need to cut the top stripes.

If you want to make a historically correct flag, you will need thirteen stripes. Seven of those stripes are the red ones. Start by measuring the length of the top red stripe and cutting the entire piece of construction paper to this length. You can easily do this by placing the edge of the construction paper to the edge of the blue and then cutting at the edge of the poster board.

Getting the width of the stripes can be a little tricky. You can do it one of two ways. You can have your kids experiment by cutting a few stripes with different widths and then choosing one that works best. Kids will like this type of experimenting. If you do this, you might need to stock up on more red construction paper. You can also measure the poster board and divide by twelve to get the approximate width of each stripe.

Once you have the width of the red stripes, use one  as the template to cut out the other stripes. Four of them should be from the shortened construction paper as measured against the blue square.

Glue the top red stripe in place. Then, glue a longer red stripe at the bottom. If the stripe comes up short, you can glue an extra piece to the end.

Lay out the rest of the stripes before gluing in place. Once you have the placement, glue them down.

Top off with thirteen pieces of cotton balls placed in a circle.

Your child will have a flag that they will be proud to display.

Here are a couple of games you can play with everyone, no matter their age.

Sidewalk Chalk

Give all participants a couple pieces of chalk and let their imaginations fly. Draw up a theme (patriotic, American symbols, etc) and have them draw it on the sidewalk. Best drawing wins. You can designate drawing spaces so no drawing overlaps another. Have categories for the game so that everyone’s on equal footing, i.e., separate the adults from the kids. Or to make it even more fun, just put them all in one category. Have them use the three patriotic colors: red, blue and white, to make it more creative. If you don’t have a sidewalk, driveway, other gravel areas or you simply don’t want to do it on gravel, you can use any paper, whiteboards or anything else you can draw on.

Roll Out The Marble

Use a cardboard tube (from a tissue roll or paper towel tube) and cut it into two, forming a trough. Place a marble in the cardboard trough and each player must pass it on to the next trough without touching the marble. If the marble falls, they’ll have to do it all over again. Make it more challenging and form teams. First one to do it two (or three times, if you’re confident) times as a group wins.

Color Guard

This is a fun game that anybody can play. All you need is a pail and plastic balls (or plastic eggs) in different colors. Place them all in the tub and have a person guard the pail. The guard must close their eyes while the players grab a ball each from pail. The guard shouts out a color and the player with the color must try to shoot it in the pail without getting tagged by the guard or landing outside the tub. If a player gets tagged or ball gets caught by the guard, then they’re out. The last man standing wins.

Enjoy the celebrations and always be safe!

One simple and fun craft is the Patriotic Wind Sock. This is a great summer craft to do, and with Fourth of July coming up, it is a fitting craft. You will only need a few supplies to get started.

Supplies:

A cylindrical cardboard oatmeal box
Construction paper (blue and white)
Red and white crepe paper streamers
Glue
String
Scissors
Hole punch

Directions:

Start by cutting the bottom off a cylindrical cardboard oatmeal box. Then, cover the box with the blue construction paper. Finally, glue on white construction paper stars.

You should then cut red and white streamers with the crepe paper. Glue or staple them to one end of the windsock. Then punch four holes along the top of the windsock. After you have the holes cut,  you will need two pieces of string, each about a foot long. Tie the strings into the holes of the windsock. After you have threaded the string through the four holes in the windsock, you can hang it on your porch or from your window.

You can make this windsock in any theme. In fact, you can make one for every holiday, birthday, or any other celebration. It is a cute way to dress up your yard, and the kids will enjoy seeing their creation on display.

But if you need help, here are some suggestions to keep everyone occupied while you tend the grill and wait for the fireworks.

Note: All these activities can be done by anyone in the family. Best to have teams with all groups (kids, parents, grandparents) represented.

United States Puzzle

Note: This takes some time to prepare as you will need a pre-drawn map of the US, as well as pre-cut figures of the US states.

Arrange the materials beforehand, number of materials will be dependent on the number of teams you plan to have. Pin the maps to the wall, in front of the teams. Remember to pin, not tape, because taping it might cause the map to fall when the game starts. Give the pre-cut states to the teams and tell them to arrange all the states on the map. First one to put all the states correctly wins.

Flag Tag Relay

Divide into two or three groups. Have the team members line up to form a line. Place a bucket (or box or container) of sand filled with flags. One by one, the members must march (not run) to the bucket and retrieve one flag. They march back to their team and tag the next member. First team to have all members with a flag wins. Make it more fun by mixing other flags from other countries in the bucket.

4th of July Pictionary

We all know how Pictionary works. But, instead of using the board, just use a big sketchpad and a marker for the teams. Arrange the topics according to Action, Person/Place, etc and include only topics about US history and/or the 4th of July.

Don’t forget to decorate the place with flags and other 4th of July-appropriate decor, including fireworks-shaped decorations and stars and stripes banners.

If you’re celebrating… anything… this summer, a cookout is the way to go. All cookouts are pretty great, but there are some things you can do to ensure that your summer festivities are extra special.

1) Repel the bugs. A fine summer day can devolve into an itchy bugfest with the onset of dusk. Setting a bottle of Off on the picnic table isn’t enough to protect your guests and your reputation as a host. Prepare your yard ahead of time with a lawn spray. You can generally get a full day of bug free living with one application.

2) Food. Cookout time is no time to worry about diets. The grill is meant to cook meat, and lots of it. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and various sausages are the preferred fare. You can supplement with salads and fruits and such, but don’t neuter your BBQ by taking away the good stuff.

3) Plan for the Weather. You can’t control the weather, but you can mitigate its effects. Consult the Farmer’s Almanac when picking the date. If you live in an area prone to late afternoon showers, move the party earlier in the day. Work around the things you can’t control.

4) Shake things up. It’s easy to plan one great cookout. Planning a string of them over several months year after year requires a little more. You can’t just do the same thing every time. Adjust the theme for each event. Aunt Betty’s 70th birthday party should feel distinctly different from your Memorial Day celebration.

5) Piñatas. If you’ve got kids at the party, you can’t go wrong with a piñata. Just remember two important things: Make sure you’ve got a video camera and keep out of the way. Trust me on this one.

This the the perfect excuse to invite your neighboors and just chill out in the sun while enjoying grilled kabobs, barbeque chicken, pasta salad, and a few ice cold beverages. After lighting up sparklers with the kids, its time to enjoy a little dessert. This year instead of serving ice cream cones, why not suprise your friends with a unique sweet treat? Read below for a few super creative and tasty ideas to satisfy your guests’ sweet tooths!

Build-Your-Own Parfait
This is a win-win idea for both children and health-conscious parents.Bring out several varieties of yogurt (both plain and flavored), cottage cheese, fresh or frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, bananas,raspberries, etc.), and granola, and let everyone create their own custom dessert. Don’t forget to bring plastic cups, spoons, and paper napkins.

Chocolate Covered Frozen Bananas
Starting with a bulk of ripe bananas (make sure they are not too soft), cut each one in half and place them on wax paper. Using a clean popsicle stick, stick each half-banana in a chocolate sauce mixture (melt two cups of dark chocolate chips in the microwave) until each banana is covered.Take the chocolate bananas and freeze them for several hours, or until they are thoroughly frozen, before serving.

Easy Strawberry Shortcakes
This dessert is so simple! Just take a small poundcake, fill it up with freshly chopped strawberries, and spray on a dash of whipped cream. Add a little something extra and garnish each shortcake with a little bit of coconut.

Fruit Salad
Here’s another crowd-pleaser that is easy to make. Start with fresh fruits like apples, grapes, bananas, watermelon, or whatever else you want. Chop the fruits to bite size pieces (you can also use a food processor for this), and mix them in a bowl.

Patriotism is high on this most important of American holidays. It is a day to be proud of the red, white and blue. There are lots of ways you can celebrate Independence Day that are equally special. For many people July 4th is an excellent day to also celebrate summer with a picnic in the park or a barbecue. Let us hope for sunshine for the holiday.

Perhaps you have been telling your loved ones for years that this year it will be your turn to throw a barbecue in your own backyard. Well, maybe this year is that year! A barbecue is an excellent way to have some fun on a summer holiday.

The July 4th barbecue is a classic for many people. Nothing says July 4th more than stars, stripes, loud and colorful fireworks and blueberry pie. If you want your barbecue to be a smashing success, then it is best to stick with tradition, but you can add a few surprises if you like.

You also need to make sure that there is plenty of food to go around! Everyone loves to eat- especially on a holiday! You will find that most of your guests enjoy the tried and true while others may be curious about what new items you have added to the menu.

Some traditional food items are all too familiar to you. These include hamburgers and hot dogs, ribs, potato salad, corn on the cob, and plenty of munchies to get the barbecue off to a good start, such as potato chips and dip.

Incorporate some of the colors of the day into your menu as best as you can. Offer red pepper slices with a blue cheese dip or blue tortilla chips with salsa. Offer blueberries and strawberries with a dollop of whipped cream (for the guests that have a sweet tooth!).

Make sure you offer plenty of choices in beverages and use red, white and blue dishes at every opportunity. Most of all, have fun!

Enjoy your July 4th celebration!