4th of July Cupcakes and pool party!

Today Grandpa opens his pool. We all go up for a BBQ and we celebrate 4th of July too!  I think I’ll bring some cool fireworks so Tyler our resident pyro can have some fun.  AND some fun 4th of July cupcakes to share with all the relatives!
                                        

My son and his wife and 1 year old boatin’ in the pool…
My granddaughters swinging in the hammock…so sweet!

 I looked online and found lots of cute decorated cupcakes with the patriotic red, white and blue theme going.  I really wanted to find some I could use with blueberries and strawberries because I bought a HUGE package at Costco and I need to use them up! I don’t know why I bought tons of this stuff!
                                      

So on Diana’s Desserts website I found a simple 4th of July cupcake decorated with marshmallow whip and real cream that sounded great, and it uses the 2 fruits.  It looked very cute too so I decided to copy. Thanks Diana! Her website link is HERE.

They turned out really yummy.  I used cream cheese and marshmallow whip and cool whip because I thought the real whip cream would melt in the heat.  They were marvelicious!  Mmmmm…..I’m munchin’ on one of those babies right now! 
                              

This is my front entry table…I put out my 4th of July decs!

Another cute decorating idea was from Cupcake Heaven’s ideas at Hoosier Homemade. Her link is HERE.
I liked the red licorice striped cupcakes with the little candy blue balls.  I have some peel apart red licorice so I will try that one too. And the red, white and blue candy sprinkles? You can never have too many sprinkles!  And maybe I’ve got some flags too….so here’s what mine look like! 



My finished chocolate cupcakes! Yummo!

 So to my chocolate boxed cake mix… I always add about a 1/2 cup of sour cream and a small chocolate pudding mix.  It makes the batter a lot thicker looking….but the cake is then a lot richer TASTING!!

We had to stop and get a famous Raspberry SHAKE! Yummy! And look, I’m wearing red white and blue!
Such a patriotic lady, right?

Here we are riding quads at Bear Lake on the 3 day weekend…

The water is so blue there….it is really a beautiful place!

My icing I made with Marshmallow Creme (fluff stuff) about a cup or so, and cream cheese (about a half of a large block) and about a cup of Cool Whip. I just mess with it till it looks and tastes the consistency I want. And I gave it a little 4 drops of lime juice for a kick.  It is sooooo delicious!  You can also use it as a fruit dip. It’s to die for. 

I found some little flags and stuck them on toothpicks



These 3 ingredients make THE BEST ICING EVER!  (or fruit dip)



So…….Happy 4th of July everybody!  And God Bless the U.S.A.