Be a Fourth of July Water Baby
To make your table more patriotic, purchase your paper products in red, white and blue. Many even purchase battery operated lights, such as stars to decorate your boat. There are all sorts of little crafts that you can do to pass the time with the kids. Many are simple and easy and will make the kids proud.
Being out on the water all day is great, but to keep your food cold, you will need to have lots of ice. Do be prepared to buy more if necessary. If you have two coolers, put beverages in one cooler and food in the other. Make sure that you put all your food items in freezer bags. If you only have one cooler, place your beverages on the bottom of the cooler, place the ice on top, then place your food items on top of the ice.
Prepare as much food as possible at home. Chop vegetables, dividing these into separate bags. Cut cheese into cubes, place in bags. When packing sandwiches, prepare the sandwich, wrap in aluminum foil and individually place in freezer baggies.
If you are planning to get off the boat and grill burgers, make your patties at home. Use wax paper between each patty and place in a large freezer bag to tote in the cooler.
To pack your condiments you may want to purchase mayo, ketchup, mustard in a squeeze bottles for easy convenience. Instead of taking a jar of pickles, remove pickles with a small amount of juice and place in a freezer bag. Individually wrapped cheese will not draw moisture if you place them in freezer bags. When carrying dry goods, such as bread, buns, chips use a cloth grocery bag. Items will carry much better in this instead of plastic.
Doing crafts with the older kids can make them feel like they have helped with the decorations. Making a Patriotic windsock takes a cylinder like with an oatmeal container. Cut the bottom off the container, wrap it with blue construction paper. With white construction paper cut out stars, glue to the blue cylinder. Using crepe paper cut some red and white stripes, glue or staple to one end of the cylinder. Put four holes in the top of the cylinder, across from each other. Cut two strings about a foot long; tie the strings to the wind sock, on both sides. Tying a longer piece of string to the two smaller ones and hang your wind sock by this string.
Being on the water this Fourth of July can be a lot of fun. Remember to be safe by using life jackets and following the rules of the water. Enjoy your day in the water and celebrate the Fourth to the fullest.
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