Fun Family Fourth - the decor!

Fourth of July has to be one of the most fun holidays to decorate for! Oh and did I mention easy too? Yep - I think it's super easy because I just look for items around my house that are red/white and blue and use them and it all comes together beautifully!

First, here is our deck area. On the deck we have one of those canopies and we have colorful Christmas lights strung up all over the inside of it - it looks so neat at night when it's dark out and you plug in the colorful lights!

I bought these paper Chinese lanterns that were patriotic for $1 each and hung them up from the ceiling of the canopy. I have two long plastic tables which I covered in plastic tablecloths {also $1 each}. And the flag hanging behind the table was given to me for free from my Father in law many years ago - actually I have about 8 of them that he gave me and I just keep them in a box and use them year after year for our 4th of July BBQ.
I like to keep it simple for clean up purposes so I bought all disposable dishes, silverware, napkins and cups. Most of these items were also just $1 a pack.

A cute tin to hold the plastic ware ... paid $1.99 for it.

This is my favorite part ... first of all, I think everyone should have at least ONE red vase. Think of all the holidays when you can put it to good use - Christmas, Valentine's Day, 4th of July, fall time, etc. Flowers just seem to POP in a red vase! I have two {what can I say, I work at a flower shop, I get to see the cutest vases and get them at a discount!} and I just love the way my blue hydrangeas look in the red vases. I also bought some inexpensive ribbons from my local craft store and simply tied them around the vases and candles.

Oh yeah, the candles - I seem to have this thing for collecting too many candles - I actually have a whole cupboard for my candles! So I just went through it and chose some that were red, white or blue and added the festive ribbons to those too.

My other red vase - I love the pedestal and the shape of this vase!

The tin cans have candles in them - the girls did a punched-tin craft with them months ago and I just added more ribbon to make them festive.

A 'Happy 4th of July' banner that cost me a dollar - and yes you better believe I will save all of this stuff away in a box for using next year!

I have had this milk jug vase for years, can't even remember where it came from - but I love it with the blue hydrangea {are you seeing a pattern here with my obsession with hydrangeas?!}

More of the flags that my father in law gave me - we have hung these on the fence like this year after year and I always love them!

A pop up tent out in the yard to provide some shade - I added the star garlands which also cost me just a dollar.

And that's all for now! Decorating for a holiday or party doesn't have to be fancy, expensive or take a lot of time. Just keep it simple and have fun with it!

PS. for those that live in New England - all of my good $1 bargains were found at The Christmas Tree Shop. Love that place!

More of my Gardens and Yard

I absolutely love gardens, flowers and gardening. Unfortunately I tend to have a bit of a brown thumb and also just don't know how to do things properly when it comes to gardening. My dream is to have all perennials that come up in stages so that from spring to fall there is always something blooming. But for now I'm slowly adding a few new perennials every year and it's getting there little by little.

I also have a LOT of gardens around my house so it's expensive to try to fill all the areas with plants and flowers. But when we moved into this house there was basically nothing so we've definitely come a long way in the 9 years that we've been here.

This is one of my favorites ... I'm embarrassed to say I don't even know the name of them! I think they are some sort of Lily. This one is a little past it's prime which is why the petals seem a little thin.

Another fave - again not sure what it's called. I just added some of these last year and they add such a beautiful boost of color!

I have lots of Lilies and I still want more! Lilies are simply gorgeous and so easy to grow. I hope to keep adding more and more every year.

These are my white Easter lilies .... there is something so simple and beautiful about white lilies!

I added these cute beachy signs to the fence gate this summer. I love all things related to summer and the beach ...

The garden between the driveway and the fence - this is where a lot of my lilies are ...the buoys are all hand painted by my father in law. I'll have to post more pictures of those another time - he is a very talented painter and the buoys make a great addition to the garden area.

More gorgeous lilies - I love the bright orange!!

This summer I added a couple of hanging plants to the side of the deck area.

This is the other hanging planter ...

The side of the pool deck ... my little corner garden is below the hanging baskets.

I love this tiny little garden area but I don't plant a whole lot in it because my crazy puppy still likes to climb in there and mess with it sometimes.

I have some annuals - love this gorgeous hot pink geranium!

This is the patio area - this summer I added some pretty colored gems scattered in the rocks - I love the little burst of color that it adds! I actually would love to get even more gems at some point!

This is my little patio area - looking back toward the back of the house and garage...

When we bought this house 9 years ago I bought some hydrangea plants and planted them that summer. This is the FIRST time in 9 years that they have ever bloomed! I am beside myself with excitement that one of my favorite flowers has FINALLY bloomed for me!

And that's all for now! I hope you have enjoyed my garden tour - I would love any advice and tips!

We're ready!

Tomorrow is our big Fun Family Fourth - it's something we've done year after year for a while now. It's always a wonderful time full of family, food and lots of fun.

Some years we have done relay games, some years we have had a talent show, and this year we're doing our own version of the game show 'Minute to Win it' - I am very excited!

The food has been bought, the decorations are ready, and I spent this week planting some flowers and getting the gardens and yard ready and looking nice. Here are a few pictures ...


Please excuse our horrible front porch - it needs something, either a paint job or something, I'm not sure what. But I did the best I could with decorating it and making do with what I've got for now!

I had some old yucky planters and used some of that cool Krylon Fusion spray paint to fix them up - I love how they turned out.

In the past I have made shirts for all the people who attend the party - but this year I decided to just make them for the kids. I just used fabric paints and I think they came out cute!

So everything's all ready ... time to get a good night of sleep and then let the festivities begin!

Carnival & Fireworks night

One night while we were in NC we went down to the boardwalk area where they were having a carnival, live music and fireworks. The kids had a blast going on rides and then we all watched the fireworks together.

Sorry some of the pictures aren't the best - I'm always trying to figure out which setting on my camera to use for different situations.

The older 4 kids rode this crazy ride - it went soooo fast and looked kinda scary! The Moms were standing on the side watching and holding our breath the whole time!

The younger 3 rode this much tamer train ride.

Most of our group gathered together to watch the fireworks ...

The girls were mimicking the way the fireworks would burst in the air ...

Bob and I - just wish we didn't have that bright light behind his shoulder!

They are getting so big ... I can't believe they are big enough to ride some of these rides without us! Stop growing so fast girls!!

Riding the waves ...

One of the most fun things about our vacation was riding the big waves. We do live near the ocean here in New England - but we rarely get big waves here so we're really not accustomed to that.

In NC the waves were HUGE at times, much bigger than what we're used to. The kids would spend hours jumping in them, diving under them, riding on their boogie boards ... they had a blast!

I am usually not a big fan of getting salty and sticky in the ocean - but I couldn't resist getting in on the fun - plus it was like a thousand degrees out and I had no choice but to stay in the water!

I had a lot of fun riding the boogie board too - I'm so glad I got over it and just did it because it really was a lot of fun. And the salty/sticky feeling is easily remedied with a quick shower back at the house.