Sparks Will Fly

After the early morning parade and after-party, we headed to the pool for loads more family fun in the sun!

When the littles fingers were wrinkled as raisins and they were sufficiently sugared up on cotton candy and sno cones, we headed home to set up for our evening fete.  Now, I know y’all all know what they say about the best laid plans…  Well, we had some pretty solid ones to celebrate the Fourth, resplendent with party tents, buntings, a jumpy jump, zip line, bubbles, side walk chalk, a play set and loads of blankets for watching fireworks on the golf course.  And just as we had set up the last table and stepped back to admire our handy work, the storm rolled in.  Honey and I frantically moved all the tables and some of the seating under cover and the back yard celebration we’d envisioned quickly became a garage hootenanny.  With the unexpected shuffle, I failed to take as many pictures of the little details as I should have.  Though, they were admittedly a little less fabulous in the lovely space generally reserved for car parking and wood working :-)

The “Eats” table went un-photographed but housed the delish Lowcountry Boil cooked up by Honey and all of the side dishes graciously brought by the other party-goers.  The “Sweets & Treats” table was loaded with all sorts of patriotic goodies – cupcakes, pretzel sticks, marshmallow pops, rice krispies treats, popcorn and buckets of candy.

I topped the cupcakes with pinwheel picks found at Michael’s and red sixlets.  I made the quatrefoil wraps.
Everyone in blogland makes marshmallow pops look so easy.  I suppose I’m marshmallow pop challenged…
The PCP was most impressed by the red and blue popcorn.  I’ll post the recipe as soon as I have a minute to type it up.  It was pretty tasty – you know for those of us with the refined taste buds of a five year old.  See here for the how-to on the popcorn cones and display box (that I recycled from our last baseball game).
The chocolate dipped pretzel sticks were a crowd favorite and so easy to boot.  And I nearly swooned when I ran across the ikat melamine plates at Tar-jay.  Love that place.
Sister inspires me to always have fresh flowers at a party – these were causal daisy and carnation arrangements thrown in Mason jars and topped with a pinwheel (from Party City).  I made eight… EIGHT… of these little flower arrangements from two bunches of flowers at Costco that totaled eighteen dollars!!!  That’s two twenty-five a piece (to spare you the long division in your head.)

The “Drinks” table had fixin’s for all sorts of Southern summer libations.  Sweet tea, lemonade, firefly, fresh mint, fresh lavender AND the requisite Coke, beer, wine and water.

At the first break in the clouds, we toted the newly painted picnic table out for the littles… only to carry in back in at the thunder that boomed and rain that ensued oh…about two minutes later :-)

It was raining cats and dogs at fireworks time and the club had to cancel the show.  But rest assured that the littles at our shin dig were just as happy as a lark putting on their own sparkler show.

All rain and little hiccups aside, we celebrated our country and our freedom enjoying the company of friends and family!  I can’t think of much better than that.  And TODAY we had a visit from childhood bestie E and her THREE littles AND old neighbor S and her twins.  I adore looooong weekends!!!
xoxo

By dixiedelights | Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: , ,

13 thoughts on “Sparks Will Fly”

  1. Looks amazing….even if you did have to make some changes due to the weather! Glad to see you had a wonderful 4th!

  2. How festive! Did you use pinking shears to make the scallops on the cupcake wrappers and popcorn cones? Care to post a template…pretty please? :)

  4. What a lovely way to adapt.. I wish my garage was clean enough to host the crowd. Your tables look fabulous.. so many great ideas. Many blessings, marlis

  5. I LOVE reading your post and seeing what festive ideas you have created. Would love to know how you make your own designed paper and how in the world did you make that CUTE banner!! I am trying to come with ideas for my son's "camp out" party. Thanks for keeping me inspired. ;)

  7. Super Amazing!!! Love it! We had the same problems here! One hour (after it poured) to set up for a party of 30, ugh! and then we had to set up a semi formal under our carport instead of the green grass in the yard. Of course then it DIDN'T rain! Fun was had by all any way and the fireworks, which we can see from our back yard went of without a hitch!
    Love that the little ones were content with their own little fireworks….wish it was always that easy!!
    So Southern Delightful….I am your newest southern follower from east TN
    ~~Wendy

  9. The cupcake covers are my favorite. Everything is so well conceived and executed. Thank you for sharing your marvelous Independence Day celebration. Cherry Kay

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