Fourth of July Extravaganza

One of my very favorite holidays is the 4th of July.  It's so much fun to have friends and family together to celebrate the birthday of our precious country.  

Today, I wanted to share with you a wonderful Fourth of July Celebration that we had here at our home in Ft. Myers, FL.   I am so sad that the old fashioned way we used to celebrate when I was a child is not happening as much in the lives of our children, so I decided to try to relive that experience as well as creating new memories and traditions today.  The Fourth of July means so much to me because of what it represents...a free Country.  Our forefathers wanted us to appreciate and celebrate our freedom, our roots and our country.  Thank God we are free and that we live in the greatest place in the world.  

Thanks to some of our great friends for sharing the vision with us to have this amazing party on the fourth.  It was a great day!

There were prizes for the best dessert and the best side dish.
First place for dessert went to Jeremy Dearinger for a Red, White and Blue Cake
decorated by his lovely wife, Teresa.  First place for side dish was Andrea Kinney
for her famous Pasta Salad.

Yep, it's the Fabre Home 4th of July Celebration, 2013.

These Red, White and Blue Deviled Eggs were heavenly.
I boiled two dozen eggs and when they were cool, peeled them
and soaked them for 15 minutes in cold water that had red food
coloring and blue food coloring.  (Separate of course)  Cut them
into two pieces with a zig zag cutter that I again got from Pampered
Chef.  Scoop out the center and I add mayonaise, salt, pepper,
garlic powder, onion powder, sweet pickle relish and a tad of
yellow mustard.  Then I put my mixture in a pastry bag with a
wide tip and fill my eggs.  I sprinkled them with Red and Blue
sugar crystals.  They were so pretty.  

Goody bags for the kids.  

These Strawberry and Berry Blue Jello Jigglers were delicious
and so easy to make.  Just use 4 packages of Jello and 2 1/2 cups
of boiling water and put in a 9 x 13 pan.  When  jelled, cut with
a small heart cookie cutter.  I got mine from Pampered Chef.

I adore my Cricut Machine.  It's so easy to make banners
and signs.  This one for my "Cold Drink" station was so
colorful and festive.  Everyone loved it.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries...the best this season.

We had the sweetest watermellon...oh my!

Secora was a doll.

Neveah, Bekka and Krysta flying the
R, W & B.

Yummy Pretzel!  It's Swim Time.

Krysta in her Tye Dye!!
First Place Adult in Best Patriotic Outfit.

Teresa, First place for Best Hat.  She was all decked
out from head to toe.

Grandma Shirley and Pastor Bob enjoying the day.

Time for the horseshoe tourney.

Jeremy, and Andrea and Brian Kinney having
a cold drink.

Red, White and Blue Rice Krispies Treats.  Just make the treats
and cut them with a star cookie cutter.  Before you cut them and
while they are still hot, sprinkle rows of color on them.  Put a
stick in them and wrap them individually.  They will be loved.

These wreaths are so easy to make and make
a wonderful front door welcome.  You can easily
get directions on line to use the mesh-net.

Teresa, Andrea & Krysta...all first place winners.

My front yard.  Stars and Stripes forever.  

My vintage blue Ball Jars make great holders
for flags, flowers or whatever you want to
decorate your tables with.

My dinning room table.

These are Dollar Tree Lanterns.  Yep, $1.00 each.

The Cricut machine makes great rosettes and
shapes and I just added a stick wrapped in
patriotic ribbon and a center cupcake topper that
I purchased at Hobby Lobby.

It's not a holiday at our house without chocolate dipped and
decorated pretzel rods.  they are displayed in a simple clay pot
with cut out decorations.

The Winning Cake by the Dearingers

Becky and Teresa

You can see that we had a wonderful day of fun, food and lots of good fellowship.  Decorations are simple and inexpensive.  It's great to have a potluck so everyone helps out.  It also gives you a great variety of food and flavors.  I think one of the most fun things we did was the fashion show of patriotic outfits and hats.  Can't wait for next year to celebrate once again.