Red, White and Blue Popsicle Stand
Growing up in Salt Lake City the Fourth Of July was the absolute biggest community building holiday each year. On the 3rd of July everyone in my town came together to the local high school for a beyond memorable firework show that included a live orchestra, carnival rides and of course Neil Diamond blasting “Coming to America” from the loud speakers. It was an opportunity to see school friends that I had not seen in over a month, catch up and look for our crushes as we circled the crowd of thousands of people until it got dark enough for the show to start. The next morning on the fourth, the city put on a parade that lead to a full blown carnival at the local park. My family could always be found marching in the parade, waving and throwing candy at the people camped out along the parade route. My Mom would spend weeks preparing our family float, getting special tee-shirts made displaying our family name, “Davis Kid” followed by our birth number. For the record, 'I’m “Davis Kid #5” out of 8.
In the afternoon on the 4th our entire family would pack into our industrial sized van to head up to my Aunt Zella and Uncle Jacks house on the eastern mountain side to swim the day away in their pool, BBQ and have homemade strawberry ice cream. When it was dark enough, we would walk over to the school field from their home with our blankets and sun burned skin to watch all of the fireworks displays exploding across the Salt Lake Valley from the eastern bench of the Wasatch front. Nothing in the world could beat these memories for me and I had hoped the traditions would continue for the rest of my life. Then Shane and I moved to Seattle.
The first few years living in Seattle were hard for me on the fourth knowing that I was missing out on amazing traditions and memories. It was just Shane and I and honestly we didn’t do really anything terribly special besides a BBQ and walk over to the downtown Bellevue park (across the street from us) to watch the fireworks.
It all changed when we met Erin and Kevin. Erin invited us to come over to their home to celebrate the Fourth Of July with them and do all the the traditional fourth of July things. This was such a treat because I had longed for and missed the special memories with family and friends back in Salt Lake City and had felt so lonely on the Fourth for many years. Getting to create new memories with our new friends was exactly what was needed to get us back in the patriotic spirit. Ever since then, if our little family is not in Salt Lake for the fourth, we spend the holiday with Erin and Co. Sometimes we meet at their home, sometimes they come over to our home. Last year we had a BBQ followed by an outdoor movie night showing of Top Gun.
Erin and I love to celebrate and think up fun new ways to create long lasting memories for our kids. I especially want my kids to look back on the fourth as fondly as I do. This year we wanted to create a fun Popsicle stand that is not only functional for any Fourth Of July festivities but also provides an adorably patriotic photo opportunity.
Patriotic Popsicle stand
To Create this look you will need:
Balloon arch Red, White and Blue 5’ balloons (50 of each). I prefer qualatex brand balloons as they hold up better in the sun.
Balloon arch kit- Use the glue dots in the kit to add in extra balloons after its hung to add dimension.
Erin made the popsicle banner by making a paper template and gluing out cut pieces of red, white and blue felt and added sticks with hot glue. We strung with bakers twine to finish it off.
The adorable popsicle stand was something that I made for my kids to sell lemonade. It was made by putting together 4 painted wooden crates, adding a counter top and dowels to hang the banner from. Alternating the direction of the crates gave it structure and made for some great shelves to display festive decor..
Patriotic balloon arch and handmade Popsicle bunting
Erin hand painted this wood star and cut out vinyl stars
Erin had a wood star that she had collected a few years back just waiting for a reason to use it. Here is a similar one. She painted it white with acrylic paint and cut out vinyl with her silhouette machine to decorate it. If you do not have a cutting machine, you could easily buy vinyl and hand cut a design.
Davis, Janie, Jensen, Callen and Clara getting into the patriotic spirit!
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