Whether you celebrate in your backyard or at your favorite park for the firework display, you can keep your toddler engaged this holiday with these easy Fourth of July picnic foods. Start this festive feast working together at your kitchen counter, and then transition to the picnic blanket!

Star Straw Skewers: Kids love the novelty of eating food off sticks, so consider using toothpicks, popsicle sticks and lollipop sticks. To liven up this fun activity even more, use straws! You can purchase straws that have fun and festive designs, such as the ones featured here. Look how we made a BANG using these Fourth of July themed straws for our fruit skewers!

Materials:

- Fourth of July straws

- Fruit

- Star cookie cutter

Patriotic Paint: Children love playing with edible paint, and the Happy Mat makes picnic cleanup ezpz! Place one tablespoon of blue flavored gelatin in one eye of the Happy Mat and red flavored gelatin in the other eye. Then stir in ½ cup of yogurt to make your patriotic paint! (You can add food coloring or beet and blueberry juice if the red and blue aren’t quite dark enough).

Some kids will stick their fingers in the “paint” for sensory food play, others will lick the yummy paint off a spoon, and the most adventurous of kiddos will use the paint as a dipper for the straw skewers. For an added bonus, have your kiddos use the straw from their fruit skewer to suck up the paint! Drinking a thicker consistency from a straw challenges their oral motor skills and improves attention and focus at mealtime.

Materials:

- Red and blue flavored gelatin

- Yogurt

- Happy Mat

Star Spangled Sandwich: I love introducing new types of fun meals, and this star spangled sandwich is toddler approved! Spread some cream cheese on your child’s favorite bread, and then add a dash of red, white and blue candy sprinkles on top. Use a cookie cutter to give the sandwich a fun shape. The sprinkles and the shape give this open-faced sandwich a bit of sparkle and holiday fun!

Materials:

- Bread

- Cream cheese

- Red, white and blue candy sprinkles

- Star cookie cutter

Love these fun picnic ideas? There’s more where this came from in our book Making Mealtime ezpz! We hope you have fun celebrating this holiday menu with your toddler. What are some of your favorite toddler treats and meals at Fourth of July picnics? Connect with us and use the hashtags #ezpzfun #fourthofjuly #picnic.