Patriotic Stars & Bars Playdate for July 4th or any time

July 4th! It is pretty fun that we have a national tradition of making things go boom every year on 7/4… Unless, of course, you live in a state where that’s illegal, or you have a dog that is afraid of thunder storms. In that last case, you probably think long and hard about spending the end of June and the beginning of July in a foreign country every year. It seems “FIREWORKS” stands officially open on Juneteenth every year, so no naptime or bedtime is safe until everyone gets bored of the third degree burns after that. Sleeping is not patriotic.

When my brother and I were kids, I remember we were unable to contain our excitement about the fireworks. We would start pestering my mother about them at approximately 15 minutes before dawn, unless she got up earlier. By the time they happened, we were mosquito bitten, hot, and exhausted. At least one of us usually spent the entire display with our hands over our ears or a blanket over our heads. Once we were a little older, we developed a neighborhood tradition of a “kids vs. grownups” water balloon war. It was recently pointed out that every year we decided to take the high ground advantage, while totally overlooking the fact that the hose was actually on the low field. So we had height and cover, they had infinite ammunition. It usually worked out to be a draw that finished when everyone was hungry.

For your own survival, I recommend you distract your kids from badgering you. They’ll enjoy learning more about the holiday. (July 4th or any time.) Budding history geeks everywhere will be excited to have a Red, White, and Blue playdate with their friends- and you’ll be happy to have a few activities that don’t involve setting anything on fire. (Not that I’m against those. I mean, I enjoy our National Day of Inappropriate Use of Explosives. I spent plenty of time begging for another sparkler. But you know- variety.) Get your kids excited for the holiday or expand their horizons with these patriotic playdate ideas.