Strawberry Flag Poke Cake

Since I have gotten a few comments on Our 4th of July Festivities, I thought I would include the recipe for my strawberry poke cake.

Bake a regular strawberry cake mix as directed. I added sliced strawberries to the mix as well. Allow to cool.

While the cake is cooling, prepare jello as directed.

Poke small holes into the cake. You can use a fork, a wooden skewer, a chop stick, or whatever you have handy.

Then pour slightly cooled Strawberry jello over the cake, allowing in to seep into the holes.

Since this was for July 4, I wanted to be extra festive.

I poked another set of holes in different places and poured Blue jello into those holes.

*if you are out of a particular kind of jello, plain works just as well with a pack of Kool-aid for color & flavor*

I bake the cake for another 10 minutes on 350. Then I put the cake into the fridge to cool.

After the cake cooled, I added cream cheese icing and topped with sliced strawberries and grapes, because my family doesn't like blueberries.

It sure was a hit. There wasn't a single piece left.

Our 4th of July Festivities

I thought about posting this earlier with a look at what I "wanted" to do just in case people needed ideas for celebrating. But I decided instead to give you a glimpse of what we actually did.

This year, the 4th of July holiday turned into a 4 day weekend for us. Justin took off on Thursday & Friday, & then amazingly we didn't have ANYTHING planned for Saturday! It was nice not having to be somewhere.

We had a cookout Thursday with friends & family. Check out my Patriotic Punch! I was so excited that this actually worked. The taste wasn't that great, but then again, I don't like Sprite so I wasn't too surprised. I also took the time to make a strawberry flag poke cake & chocolate dipped marshmallows & pretzels.

I found some really cool patriotic music to listen too from Amazon. And here performed by the US Marine Band. Best of all, it was FREE! Austin was not too impressed though.

We worked on our missionary study Around the World in 60 Days. (I'll add a link later after we have completed it. Check back at the end of August.)

We made firework paintings.

Justin read the Declaration of Independence & we even signed a pledge saying that we would. In return, we are getting a free copy mailed to us!

No summer celebration is complete without a trip to Stone Mountain for fishing, swimming, & ice cream! The water was WAY up and much colder than normal due to all the rain lately. The current was very swift as well, so Austin caught the only fish ... with his HAND.