Happy 4th of July

Last year I decided to throw a last minute 4th of July.

For years my friend has hosted an amazing 4th of July party so I never even had to give a thought of what to do or where to go. 

Then my friend moved and her new house doesn't have a pool! Here in Sacramento it is HOT on the 4th of July. Swimming is an absolute must! I agreed (with some nudging by a few other families who don't have pools either) to have one. I told them- OK, but it is going to be LOW KEY! Nothing big - basically just show up and bring food......I didn't have much time for serious party planning! 

Then...I woke up at 6am the morning of the 4th and had an idea. A flag backdrop. easy peasy......and it was!

I happened to have the white and red striped and the blue wrapping paper already and I just used my silhouette to cut out the stars. My husband and I went to work assembling the flag backdrop.

 The banner, drink labels and a whole printable kit I got for free here and the subway art I got for free here!

For the drink labels I have an ink jet printer and if the labels get wet they will bleed so I tried something new. I adhered the label to the water bottle with double sided tape and then I used clear packing tape all around the label and it worked like a charm. The drinks sat in the ice all day and the ink didn't bleed at all!

Beautiful and delicious cupcakes! The cupcake piks and drink tags come from that same collection!

See, nothing fancy with the table but it still looks festive!

We have a portable fire pit and thought it would be fun to make smores that night after swimming. We tried some different smores this year:

Oatmeal Cookies

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Hershey Bars

Graham Crackers

Marshmallows

My new favorite is definitely the Peanut Butter cups with the graham cracker and marshmallows. Delish!

Some enjoyed it more than others!

Lots of fun was had by everyone!

 

So...how will you decorate for the 4th of July party your having this year? If you still need more ideas - Pinterest has lots of fun links to some great ideas! Enjoy!