Fourth of July goodies

Every July 4th my family gets together, all 20 of us. I know what you are thinking but we all actually like each other so it works out great. Each family is responsible for bringing an activity for the kids and a side of food. This year I chose fruit and had so much fun with it. As I was preparing the fruit, I remember thinking if I had fruit served like this as a child, I would have eaten more fruit!

I started with an idea I saw on Pinterest, a bowl of star shaped watermelon. The hardest part was getting the slices of watermelon about an inch thick straight across. I delegated this task to my husband and he did a great job!

Next I just used a star cookie cutter and cut out the watermelon. I also added some sliced strawberries and whole blueberries to the bowl. I was pleasantly surprised at how great it turned out. The bowl of fruit actually looked like the pinterest picture and that never happens!

When I went to JoAnn's to buy a star cookie cutter for the watermelon, they had plastic reusable push pops on an end cap. They were so cute and called my name! So of course I bought them (it also helped that I had a 50% off coupon on my phone). They are meant for cake, you layer little pieces of cake and icing in them. However, I thought it would be fun to use them as fruit push pops. So I used blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cool whip and some other fun fillings. It was so simple, I just layered the fruit with cool whip and added some other fun things like chocolate chips and almonds. Everyone loved them!



I was really happy with how the fruit turned out, however I am afraid I have raised the bar and the expectation is high for next year!