Memorial Day BBQ Extravaganza

I have three favorite holidays. 

Christmas (given), 4th of July, and Memorial Day. 

Memorial Day is kind of a silly holiday to get over excited over, but I love it. The "memorial" part of Memorial Day I find incredibly powerful and touching. Though I'm probably only part of maybe 1% of the population that actually takes a part out of my three day weekend to consider all of the veterans that never made it home. 


But why would I love a holiday about death? I don't. I like it for other reasons. I like celebrating patriotism. It's fun, it's colorful, it usually involves barbecue and fireworks. And the food and decor options are endless. What better way to celebrate America than outdoor barbecues, swimming pools and hot sun?

ultimate memorial day bbq (Calen edition). Hot dogs, potato salad and watermelon.

We had a huge barbecue potluck extravaganza in the big backyard of our house today. Hours and hours of kids running in 184 different directions up and down the yard, climbing all over the playground and drowning themselves in the plastic swimming pool. Our poor neighbors probably assumed that a wild pack of howling baboons were stampeding through the area. 


Yes, baboons stampede. Don't ask questions.

Wild baboons

Thanks to Pinterest I had tons and tons of ideas for patriotic themed twists to standard barbecue fare. I used a cookie cutter to make the watermelon pieces star shaped. I put condiments for the burgers in a neat baseball condiment holder that I got at the big yard sale on Saturday (hey, baseball IS America. If you say football, you can go stick your head in my toilet). I also made red white and blue fruit parfaits (layers of blueberries, then whip cream, then strawberries, more whip cream, then raspberries and blueberries on top).  Then I thew them in red and blue bins with star shaped blue and red ice cubes.

Why did it never occur to me until now that I could use food coloring in ice cubes? Tasteless and fun! Brilliant!

Red, white and blue fruit parfaits chilled with colored star ice cubes

Unfortunately my poor kids are still sick and weren't very energetic. Camden actually fared better than Calen today, who at 5:45pm came to me and asked to put pajamas on him so he could go to bed. (and he did). But while they were awake, they had lots of fun. (and so did we). 


And then this enormous brontosaurus great dane (oh and her owner) showed up and stole the show. The kids thought Amador was the coolest creature they had ever seen in their life. They were pretty much right. 

Camden standing next to Amador. LOOK at the difference!!

 

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