Happy Birthday, America!

PRINTS Celebrates the Forth of July

This year marks the 238th birthday of our beloved country. We gathered together to prepare for this special day. Although we would be celebrating 4th of July with our families at home, we figured that celebrating a day early would suffice. After all, birthday's only come once a year, so we have to celebrate. Thus, we set off to plan an exciting birthday celebration!

The celebration had to be spectacular in order to honor such an important day. Like every other event, we learn how to plan and prepare. We began our preparation three days before so that we would be ready by the third of July.

On the first day, we took a trip to the local Safeway, just down the street from campus.

On the way to the store, we held hands with a friend to make sure we were going the "Safeway".

Ready to go shopping!

But first, let's take a group photo...

On the second day, we gathered our ingredients to bake muffins and cakes for the birthday event! Because strawberries and blueberries are in season, we used them and whipped cream to represent the American colors -- red, white, and blue.

Our mini pastry chef prepared the batter of the muffins for the oven. 

He carefully placed a blueberry in each muffin.

After the muffins were baked and cooled, we took turns embellishing the muffins with the remaining necessary colors with strawberries and whipped cream.

We even made an American Flag cake! It is important that we place each fruit on with precision. We wouldn't want the stripes to be crooked, now would we?

While the food is important at every party, we mustn't forget about the decorations!

Finally the big day has arrived! We decided to take a trip to the park first. Who doesn't like slides and swings? The Children's House children invited the Elementary students to join in for a day of fun. To the park!

We explored the park with curiosity and excitement. Sometimes, we found ourselves in unexpected situations.

"It looks higher up than I thought. Is there any other way to get down..."

"I wonder what happens if I put sand in here." 

"Will poking at it make it disappear faster?"

But this gave us the opportunity to use our creativity and minds to solve the problems.

"Peekaboo ~ I see you!"

"Let's take a ride, shall we?"

After we had enough fun at the park, we headed back to school to eat the delicious desserts that we've been preparing. It was a nice day outside, so we set up the food in the yard. A day in the park and a picnic outside was such a wonderful way to celebrate Independence day. 

Happy birthday, America!

July 1-3, 2014 - Children's House & Elementary, San Mateo