patriotic party in your pocket

Summers. They’re all about playing in the sprinklers, melted popsicles, sweet belly laughs…

And parties in the back yard. Here’s a little impromptu party in your pocket idea we cooked up for the fourth.

First up: Nana’s fantastical sugar cookies.

It’s a recipe Jamin grew up with, that we altered a bit. Here’s what you’ll need:

1 cup coconut oil {if you don’t have coconut oil, you can use shortening. It called for shortening, and I used organic coconut oil. I think it made them light and fresh-I had to cancel myself out with the cold cokes I gave my children – see below} • 4 cups flour – all purpose • 1/2 cup of milk • 2 eggs • 2 cups sugar • 1 tsp baking soda • 1/2 tsp salt • 1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring

Cut shortening {or coconut oil} into flour using pastry blender, fork or food processor until consistency is similar to corn meal. Combine remaining ingredients and mix with flour/shortening.

You can chill the dough, or go ahead and roll to desired thickness {1/8″ to 1/4″}. Cut out your desired shapes. We used these cookie cutters because the stars had various sizes and we were able to cut out the middle.

These cookies are a fabulous, versatile recipe. You can add frosting, keep them plain and simple, or do this:

We took two different colors of Jolly Ranchers {those of the patriotic variety} and decided to turn them into stained glass cookies. They’re oh so pretty! Simply unwrap the desired amount of jolly ranchers {divided by color} and put them in a ziploc bag. Then using a soft mallet {or basically whatever you have-we totally used our tile mallet} lightly tap until they’re all broken up.

We moved the cut out pieces of cookie {we had the best results with the thinner cuts of cookie – remember cookies fluff when cooked so the candy will take on a different shape} to the cookie sheet and sprinkled desired colors in the middle.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. And… tada! You have an instant back yard party.

We even splurged and let them have a few glass bottled cokes to up the ante. Is there anything more all american? I say not.

Cheers!

Confession: While I was shooting, I wasn’t really watching Malone’s total sugar intake. He may or may not have consumed the entire coke. This was the late afternoon. The child never gets coke – Jamin and I consider them rare treats. He may or may not have stayed up til 10 that night.

Glad it’s summer! MOTY.

We threw in these little banners…

And it was a party -in-your-pocket, sugarhighrampage kinda afternoon.

Is there anything better than simple summer soirees in your own back yard?

The cookies were a total hit.

Also? She enjoys working the camera.

Sweet fun.

Pssst… want the fun printables?

Simply click, print and enjoy! {All should work on your standard 8.5 x 11 sheet – we love card stock: americathebeautiful, landthatilove, little star bunting, polkadot bunting, straw flags, stripe bunting}

Do you guys have any Fourth of July traditions?

We love making our own each year!

Because it’s never too early to get free printables all lined up for fun summer events…

This was originally part of a 4th of July DIY blog hop hosted by the fabulous My Sweet Savannah, that we thought was worth a re-visit this week, in case you’re in need of some fun 4th freebies. Be sure to hop on over to her site and see the rest of the series.