The fourth of July is just around the corner! And whether you’re headed to the lake or headed to the neighborhood pool, one thing is certain. Your family and friends are going to be hungry before snuggling up (or fanning off) to watch those fireworks! Especially the kids.

So this year, I thought it might be fun to give you some festive and simple food ideas to try out with the kids that are easy for them to help while also being good for them and not loaded down with sugar. And because I know my kids love to eat outside, I picked a menu that can be easily transferred from the kitchen to a blanket on the lawn!

Fourth of July Menu for Kids:

Star-Shaped Sandwiches

For the main meal, try making your favorite sandwiches into star shapes! You can easily order the star cutouts online from a plethora of places, but Party City is one of the easiest locations if you live in a bigger city.

And if you are comfortable with free-hand art, you could easily cut out the sandwiches into your own star shapes. Hey, imperfection is the spice of life, right?!

Our favorite sandwich choice for making red and white sandwiches is 1) white bread, 2) ham or pepperoni, 3) provolone or muenster cheese (since they are white), and mayonnaise. If you aren’t one to avoid food dyes and are just “dye”ing (pun intended) to have the treat as red white and blue as possible, you could even put blue dye in the mayonnaise! Unless the thought of blue mayonnaise totally grosses you out!

Water with Red and Blue Ice Cubes

Question: What is more fun than crunching ice cubes in your mouth? Answer: Crunching ones that are red, white, and blue, of course! Which is why we love this RECIPE for making red and blue ice cubes. The kids will be so excited they have blue and red cubes of ice in their drink, they won’t notice they are drinking water! If you wanted to give them a little more taste, of course, you could use sprite too. Or lemonade! We just used rectangular ice cube trays to make our ice, but if you wanted to take it up a notch, you could order star-shaped ice trays on Amazon.

Fruit, Veggie and Cracker FLAG Tray

What child doesn’t like food in the shape of a flag for the Fourth? Not one! But the majority of the recipes out there are sweets in the shape of a flag. So here is a healthy and simple alternative to creating a flag for kids that is not loaded with sugar. We used blueberries for the star portion of the flag, red bell peppers for the red stripes, and white cheddar Cheez-its and small pieces of provolone cheese for the white stripes. The kids will be so excited about the flag, and they may not notice they are eating their veggies.

Strawberry and Blueberry Kabobs

There is no trick to this recipe, my friends, other than buying some skewers and letting the kids have fun putting on their own fruit! Because fruit is always more fun to eat when it’s on a stick!

Watermelon Basket

Nothing screams Fourth of July like watermelon! So this easy watermelon basket allows the kids to scoop their watermelon from something more fun than a regular bowl. There are hundreds of ideas online with how to creatively carve and sculpt the perfect watermelon. However, since I had littles helping me, we chose to carve a basket. And essentially, we used the base of the watermelon to create a fun star! But if you are feeling very ambitious, here is an actual step-by-step guide for a somewhat more extravagant flag design! This RECIPE will surely wow your crowd of kiddos and adults.

Red White and Blue Trail Mix

As you know, trail mix can be made of anything to your choosing. But for our favorite red, white and blue trail mix, we like granola, chocolate almonds, yogurt-covered raisins, dried cherries, and dried blueberries (and a few dark chocolate chips!) This mix is yummy, healthy and full of the red, white and blue theme!

Red White and Blue Popsicles

I love, love, love this recipe for red, white, and blue popsicles from Miranda at the Pinterest Project. Not only is it a healthy ice cream-like treat for kids on the Fourth of July, but it’s also amazingly beautiful with little sugar! The recipe is made up of strawberries, blueberries, honey, plain greek yogurt, and popsicle molds. Check it out HERE and enjoy!