Memorial Day Celebration

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We are so blessed to live in a country where we are free to believe what we want, and say what we choose…and we have our dedicated service men and women and their families to thank for our freedoms.  I am so thankful for all that our military has done to provide safety and freedom for me and my family.

Every year we host a small, informal  Memorial Day celebration.  It is great to spend time with friends and family celebrating the start of the summer season.

This year we kept our celebration simple.  We served hot dogs and fries, baked bean in Ball canning jars, a small variety of sweets, and cold beer and soda.  One of the biggest hits at the party was the Ball Jar ketchup and mustard dispensers I made.  (Look for the DIY later this week)  I set our long farm table in the yard against the house, and moved our adirondak chairs to the deck for more covered seating.  Remember the Rustic Wood Flag DIY I shared?  I used the flag as the backdrop.  I draped the extra long table with my blue paisley table cloth, and added a ruffled table cloth runner to break up all of the busy blue paisley.  I put drinks in an old galvanized metal pail with ice.  The food was served on melamine plates from Target, I love the small ones with the coastal blue designs, my kids loved the ones that looked like inexpensive paper plates!

I wanted to be able to enjoy our celebration without too much prep work.  I bought premade mini cupcakes at Target and added SweetWorks gum balls and Edible Details fondant toppers to them to make them look a little more special.  I made popcorn and served it in snow cone cups and sprinkled red and white Sixlets in the popped pop corn.  I  picked up a bag of red, white, and blue star Jet Puffed Marshmallows for everyone to graze on throughout the party.  The kids and I made mini cookie ice cream sandwiches and added SweetWorks red, white, and blue stars to the outer rim of ice cream.  I also embellished sugar cones with SweetWorks gum balls on top.  The kids LOVED that, but they really got a kick out of the red, white, and blue gum balls on bamboo skewers.  I used Sixlets to hold the skewers in place, and added a little ribbon to several.  We also had blue rock candy sticks left over from another party, so I popped them in a plastic Aladdin mason jar full of Sixlets.

I picked up a few boxes of sparklers for the kids to play with after the sun set, but the boxes are ugly, so I put them in a small vase of white Sixlets (don’t eat them) and stuck a small American Flag in the vase too.

We had a great time, and we truly feel fortunate to call America home, the land of the free because of the brave.

Tags : America, American Flag, Americana, Everyday Party Magazine, Flag, Memorial Day, Red White and Blue