Happy Fourth of July from Sport Court!
What are you doing with your Fourth of July? Have some fun in your backyard with friends and family! We’ve pulled together simple and kid friendly recipes and backyard Sport Court games that adults and kids are sure to love.
Kid Friendly and Easy Recipes
Blueberry, Strawberry and Jicama Salsa
This easy to make salsa will be a fresh and fruity addition to your Fourth of July spread. The combination of sweet strawberries and crunchy jicama make this the perfect summer treat, and its color coordinated with the holiday!
Ingredients
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup diced strawberries
1 cup diced jicama
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeno pepper, stemmed and seeded
Juice of 1 large lime
Salt, to taste
Tortilla chips, for serving
Cooking Directions
1. In a medium bowl, combine blueberries, strawberries, jicama, cilantro, red onion, jalapeno, and lime juice. Stir until well combined. Season with salt, to taste. Serve with tortilla chips at room temperature or chilled.
Note-this salsa is also great with grilled fish or chicken. It is best eaten the day it is made.
Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod
Tortellini Kabobs
These easy to make kabobs are the perfect finger food for a relaxing Fourth of July. They are easy to make and even easier to clean up after!
Ingredients
Cheese Tri-color Tortellini
Grape tomatoes
Fresh Mozzarella balls marinated in oil and herbs.
Wood Skewers
Salt and Pepper to taste
Fresh chopped parsley (optional)
Cooking Directions
1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.
2. after the pasta is done cooking, layout all ingredients on the counter for easy assembly.
3. Start assembling tortellini, tomatoes and mozzarella balls on the wood skewers.
4. Once you have assembled the kabobs, drizzle some of the mozzarella balls marinade on top of them.
Recipe from Real Women and Homes
4th of July Firecracker Dogs
These Fourth of July dogs are sure please both adults and kids. Adults will admire your creativity and kids will be more than happy to eat one of their favorite foods on the Fourth.
Ingredients
1 can refrigerated breadstick dough
2 packages -16 hot dogs
16 thick slices Colby cheese
16 skewers
Cooking Directions
- First take your skewers and stick them all the way through your hot dogs leaving about an inch and a half exposed out of the top of each hot dog. Then take a piece of breadstick dough and carefully wrap it around the hot dog until you get to the top. Place the wrapped dogs on a silpat (non stick baking liner) or parchment paper and bake according to the package directions for the breadstick dough. It took us about 20 minutes at 350.
- While the hot dogs are cooking take out your cheese slices, the key to this step is to go to your grocers deli counter and ask for them to slice you pieces of cheese that are 1/4"-3/8" thick. Then using a small star cookie cutter cut out your stars. Depending on how big or small your cookie cutter is will determine how many stars you get out of each slice of cheese. We could only get one star out of each slice.
- After your dogs have cooled for 2-3 minutes stick the star through the skewer at the top.
- A pail with a styrofoam ball hidden by crinkly papers was used to display them here, which would also be a great way to display them at a gathering. You can also just layer them on top of each other on a plate.
Recipe from Handmade in the Heartland
Strawberry and Blueberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
These patriotic cookies are full of strawberries, blueberries, white chocolate, cinnamon and oatmeal. The blend of ingredients creates a perfectly chewy and soft cookie. These won’t last long at your BBQ!
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter 
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup cut strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
Cooking Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
3. Mix in egg and vanilla extract.
4. Add cinnamon, flour, cornstarch and baking soda to a medium sized bowl and combine.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to butter and sugar mixture.
6. Stir in old fashioned oats and white chocolate chips. Dough will be thick.
7. Carefully add strawberries and blueberries.
8. Make dough into balls of about 2 tbsp, roughly the size of a ping pong ball. Flatten them out a bit and place on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
9. Bake for 10-11 minutes. They should be slightly golden on the edges and look a little underdone in the center.
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a couple minutes before putting on a cooling rack.
Recipe from Life, Love and Sugar
JELL-O Firecrackers
Add a little jiggle to the Fourth of July with these festive JELL-O Firecrackers!
Ingredients
1-1/3 cups boiling water, divided
1 pkg. (3 oz.) JELL-O Berry Blue Flavor Gelatin
1 pkg. (3 oz.) JELL-O Cherry Flavor Gelatin
1 env. KNOX Unflavored Gelatine
1 cup milk, divided
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
20 maraschino cherries with stems, well drained, patted dry
Cooking Directions
- Add 2/3 cup boiling water to berry gelatin mix in small bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Repeat with cherry gelatin mix. Cool.
- Meanwhile, sprinkle unflavored gelatine over 1/4 cup milk in medium bowl; let stand 5 min. Bring remaining milk to boil in saucepan. Remove from heat; stir in sugar and vanilla. Add to plain gelatine mixture; stir until gelatine is completely dissolved. Cool 10 min.
- Spoon berry gelatin into 20 (1-oz.) plastic shot glasses sprayed lightly with cooking spray, adding about 2 tsp. to each. Refrigerate 15 min. or until set but not firm.
- Top with unflavored gelatine mixture, adding about 2 tsp. to each cup. Refrigerate 10 min. Insert cherry, stem end up, into white gelatine layer in each cup. Refrigerate 2 min.
- Cover with cherry gelatin, adding about 2 tsp. to each cup. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm. Remove from cups before serving.
Recipe from Kraft
Backyard Games
It’s sure to be hot on the Fourth! Use these backyard games to beat the heat on your Sport Court. Don’t have a Sport Court? No problem! These can easily be played on the patio or lawn.
Decorate a Tree Relay
Decorate a Tree Relay is a fun activity for the backyard!
Setup
For this activity you will need a variety of equipment— just what ever you want to use; scarves, lummi sticks, cones, balls, jump ropes etc as the tree ornaments, cones and hoops.
Line up participants in relay lines on your backyard Sport Court. One person per team is the tree and stands at the opposite end of Sport Court from their team. All the equipment will be in a hoop at the front of their relay line.
How to Play
Someone will signal to tart the replay. The first person on each team will take one piece of equipment (ornament) and run/grapevine/skip/crabwalk to their tree and put it on the tree. Have trees hold their arms out horizontally. If an ornament falls off, they cannot put it back on.
When all the ornaments are on their tree, the game is over. See how many ornaments were able to stay on the tree and declare that team the winner. Then change who is the tree.
Adapted from PE Update
Feet Pass
Divide kids into two teams and give each team an equal number of water balloons. Have them sit down and line up side by side on your Sport Court. Set up an empty container at the end of the line. The object is to pass the balloons down the line using only their feet. The last person in line places the water balloons in the empty container. The team who has the most balloons at the end wins.
Water Balloon Volleyball
Play water balloon volleyball on your Sport Court. Its just like regular volleyball except instead of hitting a ball over the net you throw a water balloon underhand and the other team must catch it without breaking it. If the balloon is caught without breaking, then the team throws it back over the net. If it breaks, is not caught or goes out of bounds then the other team gets a point. Play until a team earns 21 points.
Wrap it Up Volleyball
Add a new spin to playing volleyball on your Sport Court with wrap it us volleyball. Each team will need beach towels or sheets a bowl full of water balloons. Teammates will pair up and hold the ends of a towel or sheet between them. The serving pair places a water balloon in the towel and throws it over the net to the other team. The receiving team catches the balloon with the towel and tosses it back across the net. If the water balloon goes out of bounds, breaks or is not caught by a towel then the other team gets a point. Play until a team earns 21 points.
Adapted from Birthday Party Ideas For Kids