Nita’s 4th of July Party

Family Fun on the 4th of July

See watermelon carvings, honeydew carvings, radish bouquet and a lovely watermelon bowl perfect for the 4th of July (or any celebration when watermelon is in season).

My husband and I, like so many people across the USA, had a 4th of July BBQ party. It was a crazy week with preparing for and appearing on the  San Diego Living TV show on July 3rd and then throwing a party for about 30 people the very next day.

When my husband and I left the TV studio at about 10:30 a.m. on July 3rd, we had done nothing to prepare for the party other than having a few fruit and vegetable carvings left over for the show to use for the party. So we got busy shopping and preparing for the party.

Red White and Blue Radish Bouquet for the 4th of July

The morning of the party, I cut fresh watermelon balls to make a fresh red white and blue fruit salad to fill the carved watermelon bowl that I had carved for the TV show. I had it all ready to go for when it was time to eat. I stored it in the refrigerator and put out the other carvings I had made as decorations, out on display.

The party turned out to be a lot of fun. Lots of family showed up and brought pot luck dishes. We barbequed the traditional hamburgers, hotdogs, and chicken. For entertainment for the kids…and as is turned out, the adults, too…we rented a bouncy house. And my husband, Frank made one of his famous pinatas. Well Frank’s pinatas are famous within our family anyway. Frank’s dad used to make pinatas from clay pots. Frank carries on the tradition of home made pinatas and likes to make them from boxes that we have left over from items that are shipped to us.

I carved this for the TV show. For our party I arranged them on a large circular platter so that the carved melons could be seen from all angles. I placed in the center of our serving table.

Carved melons arranged on a round platter for the centerpiece

After we ate dinner the whole family sat down to watch the recording of my TV appearance. It was the first time for me to see it, too. We had been so busy preparing for the party we hadn’t had time to watch it. My family, being who they are, all laughed good naturedly at the part where I hurry through the demo thinking that I was out of time. Near the end of the segment one of the teenagers asks, “What’s that made of?” He was referring to the watermelon bowl.

This is the red, white and blue watermelon bowl that I prepared and forgot to serve at our 4th of July party.

My first thought was, why is he asking that when I served it as part of dinner? In the next instance I realized that I had forgotten to take it out of the refrigerator! Arrgghh. By now, everyone was done eating and full.

Have you ever done that? Spent time preparing something and then forget to serve it? Oh well. It’s not the first time I’ve done that and it won’t be the last.

A couple of other fun and funny things happened during out 4th of July party. Take a look at what happened when some of the over 50 year old crowd decided to have some fun in the bouncy house. We got a lot of laughs over this. This is one of the things that can happen when grown ups try to play like kids.

Family Fun in a Bouncy House on the 4th of July

Then we had some more fun when the pinata did not work as pinata’s usually do. It stared out looking like Uncle Sam. Take a look. We had fun with this, too.

Franks’ 4th of July Pinata

After it got dark, we went and watched some Fireworks. So there is a bit of the fun my family had on the 4th of July. I hope that you and your family had a fun over this past week, too. If you made any 4th of July carvings that you are proud of, send me a photo.

To get the full lessons showing how to make the red white and blue radish bouquet and the star spangled carved watermelon fruit bowl, as well as one other idea for fun food for the 4th of July, click here.