"Rocket Men" 2009 Parade Champions -- YIPEE!

(big and little sisters rode behind lighting the rocket!)

Print out the template and fold into a cone. It overlaps at the top about about two inches to no overlap at the point. You could easily use tape to fasten, but I used hot glue. My local printing store was running a special so I saved the file to a flash drive and had them print directly from the file. They did look much better than if I had printed them on my printer, plus the color copy paper is heavier with a nice sheen.

Fourth of July Snack Cup Download

Cheers to you!

Here are some more ideas to help celebrate the Fourth of July!

and you have a star clip to hold your stuff together.

I didn't have a fork but I think I could squeeze it in. If I was being really helpful and not going for the look, it would probably be better to clip the napkin to the back. Actually I think I will just fold the napkin in thirds to slip behind the utensils on the front.  That way they can make it through the buffet line without having to adjust the clip and napkin then hold the utensils----and it would still be cute.

Perfect for windy outdoor eating!

Find more Fourth of July ideas here!

If you have a Cricut use the Stand Up and Salute Cartridge for the open star cut to 7 1/2 inches. For the smaller blue star hanging at the bottom I used the Plantin Cartridge for the star cut at 4inches. The larger red star was another Plantin star cut at 7 1/2 inches

Don't have a Cricut--no worries print out these stars for a template!

Double Star Garland Template

I left a long tail of thread (so I would have something to hang it with) and began sewing the stars together with the sewing machine with a long stitch length.

For the three dimensional star cut two large stars with the Plantin Cartridge cut at 7 1/2".  On one star cut a slit from the top to the middle and on the second star cut a slit from the bottom to the middle.

Slip the two stars together. I used just a touch of hot glue at the top and the bottom of the star to fasten the two stars together and keep them open and in place.

Here is a template.

Three Dimensional Hanging Star Garland

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These rockets will be filled with treats for the kids table.

I originally cut out the letters for the name with the Cricut, but if you don't have one I have made a customizable download for you.

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Fourth of July Customizable Rocket Party Favor

(I think you will need Adobe Acrobat  to make the letters and placement display correctly)

Fourth of July Rocket Party Favor Parts

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1. Download the PDF and customize with any name you desire (up to 7 letters- sorry you might have to use some nicknames if your names are too long)
2. Print both downloads on copy paper
3. Cut out the download and wrap the name paper around an empty toilet paper roll and fasten (I used hot glue). Not all toilet paper rolls are created equal so I made it fit the longest one I could find. This might make it too long for some and it will need to be trimmed.
4. Cut out template for the fins and nosecone and trace the nosecone onto card-stock and the fins onto poster board. In the picture I used heavy card-stock for the fins, but I am going to get poster board tomorrow. I think they will be much more sturdy.
5. Place fins onto rocket and hot glue.



6. Fill tube with treats. Treats needs to be large enough that they don't fall through the bottom opening where the fins are attached. It also should be light weight. For mine I removed the plastic package of saw dust and bang snaps from its box and put the package inside the tube.
7. Fold the nosecone, overlapping the edge about 1/2 inch at the bottom and glue.
8. Hot glue nosecone to top of rocket and you are finished!

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If you are looking for more Fourth of July ideas, you might be interested in:

Free Uncle Sam Hat Party Favor Download

Free Patriotic Pinwheel Download

more Fourth of July Ideas!

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The container is a cardboard Uncle Sam hat from the party store filled with hydrangeas and patriotic pinwheels. If you would like some patriotic pinwheels to help decorate for your Fourth of July celebrations you may download them here.

Large Patriotic Pinwheel

Medium Patriotic Pinwheel

Small Patriotic Pinwheels

Print template on card-stock, cut out, fold tips to center and fasten with a long pin through black dots. The pinwheels can be attached to a pencil by pushing the pin into the pencil eraser. I needed a longer stick so I placed a cap pencil eraser on a 5/16" dowel rod that I painted blue. I found they really spin well if you add a pony bead for spacing. A star cut out would be a nice touch on the front where the pin is placed.

now back to working on the float....

If you are looking for more Fourth of July ideas, you might be interested in:

Free Uncle Sam Hat Party Favor Download

Free Customizable Rocket Party Favor Download

Star Garland

more Fourth of July Ideas!

It was a busy morning at our house before the Parade. It started off with breakfast for 23. What I had hoped to be a peaceful start to our thrilling day was instead chaotic and in reality had us all eating in shifts while intense work on our cannons was being done. Did you hear that? Cannons. Yes, we made air cannons that shot the candy out into the crowd. We had a few problems getting the generator to power all of the cannons, so things were a little tense for awhile. After a trip to Home Depot we had things under control.

The cannons were made from PVC pipe. Once they were made we (okay I had VERY LITTLE to do with the cannons ----but a huge shout out to Blake, Mark and George!) inserted them each into a carpet tube. The guys built a wooden stand to set the cannon on and then we (again I am using 'we' very loosely) nailed huge cardboard wheels to each side. We painted them and we had a Revolutionary War cannon---that worked!

We have had so much fun with the cannons. There was tons of "testing" going on around here. For the parade the cannons only needed about 15lbs. of pressure but my boys (I will include my husband in "boys") quickly figured out that at about 100 lbs of pressure a potato could be launched OVER our neighbor's house! If you would like to build your own cannon I wil be posting complete instructions later.

We used cardboard carpet tubes to construct the fort. The walls are supported by a brace that was screwed to the tubes. All cutting was done with a chop saw as these tubes are hefty! Flags were painted on cardboard than attached to the fort. The boys all wore baseball pants. Hot glued strips of white felt made the criss-crossed belts. Cardboard was cut into a buckle shape, painted and then hot glued to the boys' dress shoes. One of the biggest feats of the whole float was getting 9 boys to all wear polyester baseball pants and dress shoes. A few of the boys wore three pointed hats while others sported a bandanna.

Mary's group had a really great float also. It was colorful and fun. Their beach theme had them all lounging about sitting in front of a backdrop of fabulously painted surfboards.

They did a great job and I am trying to be very gracious when I say, "Isn't it lovely that we TIED for first place." Hmmmmm.........

from the July Country Living Magazine.

Mine will be filled with fireworks. They are (so far ---notice I haven't gotten that far) really simple to make.

You can download images from their site, here. I used vintage clip-art from this book.

We had a blast so last year we took a little more time. We turned two carpet tubes into red white and blue palm trees and sunk them each into a bucket of concrete. We strung a badminton net between the trees. The kids clad in their patriotic beach wear hit candy out to the crowd (okay a few spectators) with the badminton raquets. We were thrilled when we took first prize.

What it takes these days for us to participate in the parade,now with a title to uphold.

• One slightly scary ride home with more than 20 carpet tubes hanging (no I really mean hanging----like so far out that we were in serious jeopardy of hitting on coming cars) out from the back of our truck.
• One hot Saturday, cutting and securing carpet tubes. I mean to tell you these things are the greatest!
• A PAINFULLY long trip to Lowe's AND Home Depot to purchase and insane amount of PVC pipe, valves and levers.
• A late evening gluing PVC after the tiring trip to the store because no boy in my house could contain the excitement of what was to come. There is a new book out called Dangerous things for boys ----------we could have written it!
• Constant chatter about how this will all work.
• Lots of friends to help with the planning, building, painting, making and perfecting the float.

I figure we still have a day worth of painting and then we will be ready. There is another family (our main competition) that gets into this and has as much fun as we do. Mary, the other mom, has asked what we were doing but I tried to be very vague as I have been here incase she might hear about our plans. There are very few things I am competitive about. One of my kids loves sports and I leave it at that-------if we win great if we lose great. It really doesn't matter. I am not a "soccer mom" but maybe a little bit (okay alot) "parade mom." The parade, it matters and Mary she is going down!!

So as I hear giggles from the basement, the air compressor cycling on and off, blasts of air and hysterical laughter I pray that when my kids are old they will forget that they always had to hunt for clean socks and they will instead remember the parade.