Decoration Ideas

1. Set out red, white and blue umbrellas to shade your friends and family. You can find great prices on umbrella covers on amazon. 
2. Add in Red, White and Blue straws for your guest drinks. These are great from Amazon. 

3. These Fourth of July Confetti Poppers are a fun thing for guest. 

4. For the barbecue, use red, white and blue spatulas. I love these Star Spangled Spatulas from Amazon.

5. Another cool idea is wrap your utensils up with red, white and blue bandannas. You can tie a string around them and they can also be used as a napkin. 

6. Don’t forget tableware. These are neat American Flag Tableware your guest will love. 

Drink and Food Ideas

• Make a patriotic punch with red, white and blue liquids. The important thing about this drink is making sure that you use plenty of ice so the colors stack correctly. Take Red Tropical Punch Koolaid, White Gatorade Frost and G2 Blueberry Pomegranate.

 DIRECTIONS:

• Use the Tropical bunch at the bottom because it contains 38 grams of sugar so it is heavier. 
• The next layer used is the Gatorade Frost which is around 29 grams of sugar and last use the G2 Blueberry Pomegranate which has 7g of sugar. That’s all it takes. Just make sure to use the ice between each drink and the layers will stack on top of each other. 

No Bake Flag Cheesecake

Ingredients

3 h 30 m 12 servings 381 calories

• Crust:
• 1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• Filling:
• 1 cup cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 cup mascarpone cheese at room temperature

• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups cold heavy whipping cream
• 20 large fresh strawberries, hulled and halved lengthwise, or as needed
• 24 large fresh blueberries, or as needed
• Add all ingredients to list

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and melted butter in a bowl until mixture is thoroughly combined and crumbly.
2. Transfer crust mixture to a 9×11-inch baking dish. Press crust into bottom of dish until smooth and even. Cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.
3. Mix cream cheese and mascarpone cheese in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract into mixture.
4. Whisk 1/3 cup sugar into whipping cream in a separate metal or glass bowl until the cream is fluffy and forms soft peaks. Add whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture and gently whisk until filling is soft, fluffy, and well combined.
5. Spoon filling on top of the graham cracker crust, spreading and smoothing the top. Tap the pan gently on a work surface several times to settle the crust and filling. Cover pan tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and set, at least 3 hours.
6. Starting at the bottom long edge of the cake, arrange strawberry halves in a horizontal line with the pointed bottoms of the strawberry halves pointing to the right. Start a second stripe of strawberry halves at the top right of the cake, arranging strawberries with the bottoms pointing right in a line stretching about 2/3 of the length of the cake.
7. Continue to make strawberry stripes, starting about 3/4 inch up from the bottom stripe and laying down 3 more stripes stretching the full length of the cake. Make 1 more line of strawberries beneath the short stripe to leave a square space for the blue field of stars.
8. Lay a line of blueberries with the blossom ends pointing up in the upper left square space. Continue to lay down blueberries in lines, berries touching the previous line, until the square is filled with blueberries. Cut cake into squares to serve. Recipe found at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/233327/no-bake-cheesecake-flag-cake/

Amuse your friends and family with fun games to make your party a smash. 

1. Take red, white and blue water balloons and have a balloon throw between guest. 
2. 4th of July Cornhole Boards and Bags. Amazon sells some great cornhole boards or you can make your own with whatever design you feel. 
3. Have a watermelon competition. Take several watermelons and cut into fourths and lay them on the table. Have your guest place their hands behind their backs and see who the first guest is to finish their slice of watermelon by only using their mouths. The first to finish wins. 
4. Have a balloon pop. Tie up red, white and blue balloons and use thumb tacks to secure them to a fence or a piece of plywood. You can also arrange them in an American flag to be even more festive. Have  your guest have a competition to see who can throw darts and pop the most. 
5. Last, put on the Red, White and Blue shout out game. Have friends and family sit in a circle and the first guest will name something in the color red, the next person says something in whit and the next person shouts out something in blue. Keep the circle going and if one person says something already called out, they are out of the game. Allow each person around 5 seconds to guess and then they are out as well if they cannot think of something.