Happy 4th of July! Welcome to the one holiday nearly as fun for kids as Christmas, only with fewer financial obligations for parents but with the painful twist of the grand finale (fireworks!) at the very end of the day instead of first thing in the morning.

If you aren't the lucky owner of a cottage or waterfront property (or related to someone who is) it can be really tempting to let the kids plop in front of the television while you work on marinading the steak and prepping the potato salad for a cookout.

However, with just a few craft materials you probably already have lying around and some easy instructions, you can quickly throw together a last minute 4th of July Kid Parade that will be the talk of........well, everyone who was actually around on the 4th! (And if you keep the neighbor kids occupied for a few hours, their parents might even invite yours over to burn some daylight out of gratitude!)

Every kid has some set of wheels, whether it is a bike, stroller, scooter, wagon, or even a just skateboard. Decorating their ride is a great outside activity that will keep kids busy and the mess to your home to a minimum.

Have your kids gather whatever neighborhood kids are available while you gather the following materials:

• Red, white, and blue construction paper
• Pipe cleaners (any color)
• Paper plates
• Red, white, and blue washable paint
• Plastic straws
• Red, white, and blue curling ribbon
• Red, white, or blue gift wrap, bows, buttons, beads, glitter, or whatever other embellishments you can scare up in your crafting/gift wrap supplies
• Kraft paper or any other large roll of paper (used newspapers or an old sheet would work too)
• And to keep the mess from coming INTO your house: A large bucket of warm, soapy water (with a washcloth or fingernail brush in it), a large bucket of warm, clear water, and a couple towels

One of the first things you can share with the children is how to fold an ordinary sheet of construction paper into a perfect five point star that can be tucked in between bike tire spokes, taped to the side of a wagon, or strung together on a piece of curling ribbon to form a garland. To accomplish this simple act of origami magic, you'll need the construction paper.

1. With the short side of the paper on the top, fold it in half to meet the bottom. (If you want to get fancy, you could use a Popsicle stick or the flat side of a spoon to make your folds extra flat.)
2. Fold the paper in half from the top down (the first fold you made) down again.
3. Unfold that last fold. All you needed was that line.
4. Grasp the top right corner (it is a folded corner) and bring it across the entire width of the paper and line it up with that center crease.
5. You should see a perfect triangle in the top left corner, fold that triangle down toward you.
6. Now fold the sides of the paper together like you are making a paper airplane.
7. There should be visible crease marks on the front and back of your paper. Cut along the longer crease.
8. Unfold your lucky star!

Making a Perfect Paper Star(click thumbnails to view gallery)

To decorate large buntings for wagons or strollers:

1. Measure and unroll enough Kraft paper (or old white sheets or taped together the newspaper in a pinch)
2. Holding four four pipe cleaners in a bundle, fold them in half.
3. Twist them together a few times to form a little loop at the folded end. This will serve as a handle.
4. Arrange the pipe cleaners in a circle. It should look like an octopus when you're done.
5. Fold up the ends of the pipe cleaners to make them roughly the same length
6. Repeat making octopuses (octopi?!) of various leg sizes for variety
7. Pour washable paint on the paper plates and use the pipe cleaner octopuses to stamp fireworks on the paper.
8. Add glitter to wet paint if desired
9. Trick we discovered: a plastic straw makes interesting dots on the paper as well.
10. After the painting is done, let the kids scrub up in the soapy water, and rinse in the clean water and you're good to go!
11. After the paint dries, tape the paper to sides of wagon. The Red Flyer never looked so good!

Pipe Cleaner Fireworks Stamping(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Other easy decorating ideas for bikes:

• Plastic straws are a super easy way to spiff up bike tires, just trim the straw the correct length for the spoke and then cut the length of the straw. Kids can easily cut straws with even blunt-nosed scissors and it's extremely satisfying to snap them on the spokes!
• Cutting long lengths of curling ribbon and folding it in half and cutting it and repeating that process is a quick and easy way to make some impressive handlebar streamers.
• Leftover wire-wrapped garland can also be woven among bike spokes for some pizazz. The metallic kind adds a lot of sparkle!
• I ran across some really nice, thick felt stars in the dollar store. Some kids simple attached those to their bikes with masking tape and it was simple and nice.
• Old plastic bead necklaces in patriotic colors were looped around handlebars for a bit of color.

Let the kids go and see what sorts of great decorating ideas they can come up with. The only rule is that the gears and brakes need to be kept free of obstructions (like curling ribbon, we learned that one the hard way!) so the bike can function properly.

4th of July Decorations(click thumbnails to view gallery)

After the 4th of July entries are all properly prepared, assemble the neighbors and invite over local friends to enjoy the rare and special sight of kids being kids and having some old-fashioned fun. Treat your parade participants to a plate of Star-Spangled Strawberries. In spite of the small ingredient list (only three ingredients: strawberries, white chocolate, and blue sugar crystals) these little nibblers have big, juicy flavor that kids and adults will love!

• Wash the strawberries thoroughly, keeping their caps on. Let dry.
• In a double boiler (I set a glass bowl above a small pot of bowling water because I don't have space for fancy things like double boilers in my small kitchen!) melt the white chocolate
• Pour 1" of blue sugar crystals in a small bowl
• Holding the strawberry from the top, dip in the chocolate until the bottom half is covered
• Immediately put the bottom tip of the strawberry in the blue crystals
• Set on a wax paper lined plate, and allow chocolate to harden completely before eating.

Star Spangled Strawberries(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Hopefully these ideas will keep the kids happy and busy and help them make some fun childhood memories while they wait for darkness and the REAL show to begin!