Have a blast this July 4th using the following recipes, backyard décor ideas, and fun outdoor activities.
Fourth of July Recipes
- These delicious July 4th picnic recipes will result in an all-star gathering.
- Stir this Provencal pesto into a bowl of boiled potatoes or pasta salad with shredded chicken.
- Mix a refreshing pear vinaigrette with this grilled vegetable and mozzarella ensalada.
- These open-face pesto-chicken mozzarella melts will be a huge hit at any gathering. Serve these grilled chicken burgers on a slice of ciabatta bread with a few fresh basil leaves for one incredible meal.
- Serve flavor-packed black bean chipotle burgers that will make everyone’s tastebuds dance with joy.
- Easy to grab, delicious to eat, these hamburger sliders with cranberry chutney are perfect for any backyard gathering.
- Bake one white and one red velvet cake. After they have cooled, cut each cake into about 1-inch slices and stack them alternating each layer, so it looks like the stripes on the American flag. Add blue food coloring to icing before spreading it on top, and then for the final touch, add white star sprinkles.
- End the day with a fresh and berry-topped, berry delicious flag cake.
- Bake an Independence Day cookie pizza! Press and flatten cookie dough into a 14-inch pizza pan and bake it until golden. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes, and then scatter mini marshmallows across the top. Then sprinkle the top with red and blue candy-coated chocolates. Easy and delicious.
- This patriotic berry flag tart is just as tasty as it looks.
- Make American flag pretzel sticks by dipping a pretzel into melted white chocolate about 5 inches. After it has cooled, dip the same end of the pretzel into melted blue chocolate about 1 inch and place white start sprinkles on the blue portion before it dries. Fill a piping bag with red icing and drizzle it back and forth across the white chocolate to create the stripes.
- Get your patriotic party on with incredible 4th of July drinks.
- Enjoy these refreshing summer cocktails that are exactly what your guests will enjoy at the end of a hot day.
Backyard Preparation and July 4th Décor
- Check out creative benches and built-in seating solutions for your deck or patio that are practical and look great.
- Learn how to build a freestanding deck to enhance your home’s exterior and host memorable outdoor gatherings.
- Summer is in full swing; here are a few outdoor patio ideas that will help you enjoy your July 4th gathering and all future outdoor parties.
- Red, white, and blue, these Fourth of July crafts are for you.
- These DIY planter rockets will be a blast to create and will make your yard look fabulous.
Outdoor Activities for the 4th of July
- Get your game on and discover some family fun with fourth of July games for kids.
- Make a photo booth in your backyard! Use construction paper to cut out patriotic themed props such as red hats and blue bowties. Take silly photos and share them with loved ones.
- Discover endless entertainment with these games you’ll be playing all summer long.
- Build a rocket out of cardboard boxes so the young ones can fly high. Take a large cardboard box, cut out ½ of one side, and place it upright so the opening serves as a window. Cut out two wings and tape one to each side. For the top of the rocket, cut out a triangle and attach it to the top. If you want to take it another level, you can paint the outside or wrap it in fun wrapping paper. Glue painted bottle caps on to look like buttons and use a paper plate as a wheel. Blast off!
- These fun outdoor yard games are great family entertainment and will be a hit at parties.
- Set up a kid’s craft table. Use toilet paper or paper towel tubes to make little rockets! You and the kids can paint the cardboard red, white, and blue and then glue ribbons or tassels onto one end. Paint little stars on the outside to give it a boost! For the top of the rocket, make a cone shape out of paper to glue it to the top.
This post was originally published on BHGRE Life. https://www.bhgre.com/bhgrelife/have-a-memorable-fourth-of-july/
It's that time of year again - flu season! Be safe instead of sorry and get your flu shot. Below is a list of clinics in the Lake Sunapee Region where you can get your shot:
Upcoming 2019 Lake Sunapee Region VNA & Hospice Flu Clinics. For persons 19+ years of age. LSRVNA will take Medicaid, Medicare and Medicare Replacement Plans. Please bring your ID card(s). If paying with cash or check, the cost is $35 for the regular dose and $80 for the high dose (recommended for persons 65+ years of age). For more information go to www.flu.gov. Call 603-526-4077 for updates and info. www.lakesunapeevna.org
FLU CLINICS 2019
9/30 Newbury Library 5-7pm
10/1 Danbury Community Center 10am-noon
10/2 Warner Pharmace 9:30-11:30am
10/3 Claremont Senior Center 10-noon
10/3 Springfield Town Office 4-6pm
10/4 Lyon Brook, New London 10:30am-noon
10/4 Our Lady of Fatima, New London 1:30-3pm
10/7 The Center at Eastman, Grantham 9-noon
10/7 Sutton Town Hall, Sutton Mills 1-3pm
10/8 Bradford Senior Center 10-noon
10/8 St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, New London 1-3pm
10/10 Hilltop Place, New London 11-1pm
10/10 WCA Red Barn, Wilmot 1-7pm
10/14 Sunapee Cove 10-noon
10/15 Upper Valley Senior Center, Lebanon 10-noon
10/15 Kearsarge Area COA, New London 1-4pm
10/15 Washington Town Hall 5:30-7pm
10/16 South Newbury Union Church 4-6pm
10/17 Claremont Senior Center 11-noon
10/18 Kearsarge Presbyterian Church, New London 10-noon
10/21 Sunapee Seniors at United Methodist Church 10-noon
10/22 Cornish Town Hall Senior Lunch 11-12:30pm
10/23 Warner Pharmacy 9:30-11:30am
10/24 Plainfield Elementary School 11:30-1pm
10/24 First Baptist Church, New London 2-4pm
10/25 Newport Senior Center 11-12:30pm
10/28 Andover Town Hall 10-noon
10/28 Mascoma Area Senior Center, Canaan 10-11:30am
10/29 Marion Phillips Apartments, Claremont 12:30-1:30pm
10/30 Earl Bourdon Centre, Claremont 9:30-11:30am
10/30 Sugar River Mills, Claremont 12:30-1:30pm
10/31 Wilmot Town Office 9-11am
There will be plenty at the New London Food Truck Festival on Sunday, 9/15/2019 on the Town Green! It starts at noon and ends at 4pm and is hosted by the New London Rotary Club in conjunction with the New London Recreation Department. It will be a great day to sample all kinds of delicious morsels and enjoy great music by Rusted Chrome of Sunapee, NH. Proceeds will be used by the rotary's charitable foundation for scholarships to area students and to promote literacy. Admission is $8/Adults; $5/children, free for ages 3 and under. Tickets available from New London Rotary Club members, online at www.nl-nh.com/rec and at the gate. Get out and enjoy the day!
Get your tickets early for the upcoming "Dinner with Jack Frost" to be held on Friday, 2/8/19, from 5:30-7pm at the Colby Sawyer College Quad. Enjoy a New London tradition of eating outside by campfire. This progressive dinner is bound to please all with food supplied by area restaurants including Salt Hill Pub, New London Pizza Chef, The Old Courthouse, Tuckers, Peter Christians, Mount Sunapee Resort, Lindt chocolate, Blue Look Bakers and the New London Inn. Visit www.nlrec.com for more information.
Halloween-themed games are a fun way to get party guests into the spirit of the holiday and break the ice.
There are plenty of games to play that are perfect for every age. From bingo and word searches to pumpkin tosses and guessing games, entertainment is easy to find this Halloween.
Here are some of our favorite Halloween party games:
Halloween Pumpkin Patch Hunt
Set up a pumpkin patch indoors or outdoors with real or plastic pumpkins. Hide toys, candy and money inside them. Let guests search for treasures and tally each person’s findings if you want to name a winner.
Wrap the Mummy
Use crepe or toilet paper to wrap one guest as a mummy. Teams should decide if they want to play to create the most artistic, scariest or fastest mummy. When it’s time to unwrap them, make a game out of seeing who can pick up the trash the fastest.
Pin the Face on the Jack-o-Lantern
Just like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, your party guests will pin the face on a giant jack-o-lantern. Make this game out of construction paper or felt. Create funny and scary features to pin on a bare pumpkin.
How Many Candies in the Jar?
Before guests arrive, fill a jar with Halloween candies and make sure you count how many pieces you’ve placed inside. As guests enter your home, invite them to guess how many candies are in it. At a designated time, reveal the total and award a prize to the person who guessed the closest without going over.
What’s in the Box?
This game can be as fun or “icky” as you want to keep in line with the theme of your Halloween party. To play, place a variety of objects inside a box with a hole cut into the side or top. Have guests reach into the box and touch what’s inside. They’ll guess what they’re feeling and name up to five objects. After everyone has had a turn, reveal the contents and see who guessed the most items correctly.
Halloween Word Search
This party game is great for those who want to sit and relax while playing. Before your party, make your own Halloween-themed word search or download one from the internet. There doesn’t have to be a winner.
Halloween Bingo
Who doesn’t love bingo? There are plenty of Halloween bingo games online for guests to play, but you might like customizing boards with pictures and markers. Get creative. Use candies to mark spots and use Halloween words or pictures in the squares.
Pumpkin Toss
Set a real or fake empty pumpkin on the floor inside your home or outside in the yard. Have party guests toss ping pong balls, bean bags, candy, coins or whatever you like into the pumpkin. Each partygoer gets five tosses.
Name That Spooky Movie
Set up a video screen or computer to run clips of scary movies for five seconds each. Let guests call out the name of the movie as soon as they recognize. You can play for prizes or fun.
Scary Halloween Story
Start this Halloween game by sitting around a fire or in a circle. Have one guest start a story by saying a spooky sentence. The guest to their left will continue the story with another sentence, with each person taking a turn telling part of the Halloween tale. Set a time to end the lore or finish when everyone seems ready to move on.
Whispered Ghost Stories
Another Halloween story game, this one is played like “Telephone.” One guest will whisper a very short story into the ear of the person sitting to their left. That person will then whisper it to the next guest, and so on. When the story gets back to the original partygoer, it will likely have taken on a life of its own.
These are just some of the Halloween party games you can play to keep guests entertained and make your event memorable. You can even set up a Halloween craft table for kids.
Source: www.bhgre.com/bhgrelife
Teamwork from the Team that works –Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate - The Milestone Team
As summer comes to an end and the leaves start changing, we look ahead to the crisp Fall air, picking apples, hiking and Fall Festivals.
Mt. Sunapee Resort will host their 10th Annual Fall Foliage Pig Roast and Barbeque on October 6 and 7. Aerial skyrides will be running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Family games played from noon to 3 p.m., live music and much more! For more information go to www.mtsunapee.com
The 71st Warner Fall Foliage Festival will be held in Warner, NH October 5-7. Concerts, parades, food, amusement rides, woodsmen's contests are all a part of this rural life and vibrant festival. Visit www.wfff.org for details.
The Lake Sunapee Region is coming alive for the summer and soon families and friends will be flocking to the Harbors and Town Commons to hear local musicians entertain. Dust off your lawn chairs and wash your blankets and enjoy the music! To view upcoming events, visit https://lake-sunapee-living.com/dartmouth-lake-sunapee-region/lake-sunapee-entertainment/
Come visit the Gallery of Trees at The Inn at Pleasant Lake, 853 Pleasant Street in New London, NH. A beautiful display of trees will be decorated by local businesses and available to view from December 26 through January 1, 2018 from 1-7 p.m. You will have the opportunity to vote for your favorite tree and donate to the New Hampshire Food Bank. Hot chocolate will be served to keep you warm. For more information, go to www.innatpleasantlake.com or call 526-6271. Enjoy the Holidays!
Teamwork from the Team that works –Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate - The Milestone Team
Springledge Farm will be having a "Seed Sowing Workshop, Part II" on April 29th from 10am-2pm. Another Workshop coming up on Saturday, May 6th will be "Pollinator Seed Sowing" from 11am-1pm. Springledge Farm is at 37 Main St. in New London, NH. Call 526-6253 or email to sign up.
New for 2017! Spring Ledge Farm will be a pickup spot for fresh NH seacoast fish this season. They're partnering with NH Community Seafood who are offering a CSF (Community Supported Fishery) for the season. A great way to have fresh, local fish every week and support the seacoast fishermen in NH.
Spring Ledge is the pickup spot only; in fact Spring Ledge does not make any money off the program. They are simply the pickup location for this area. All the monies go to the NH Community Seafood and the fishermen. The program details, payments, logistics and communication are all handled through NH Community Seafood. Any and all questions should be addressed to them. They have been working with farms as drop-off locations across the state for many years, and they have the experience and knowledge to answer all your questions.
NH Community Seafood will send out emails each week with information on the catch of the week, including recipes and cooking tips. The shares can be 1/2 lb., 1lb. or 2 lbs. and includes shellfish and oysters (in season), but you can opt out of these. It is all very well explained on their website.
Click here to read about why the program was started and how it benefits the local fishermen.
Sign up is super easy, pickups will be on Saturdays. Check them out on Facebook @NHCommunitySeafood and their website nhcommunityseafood.com.
Don't miss New Hampshire's Maple Sugar Weekend March 25 & 26. Visit local sugar houses and see how maple syrup is made and have a taste of maple candy. Visit http://www.nhmapleproducers.com/2016/11/04/2017-maple-weekend/ to find your closest sugar house and hours of operation. A good time for the whole family!