where to buy second hand books, a patriotic menu, and an Americana summer
a holiday special weekly report 07.02.26
Welcome to a holiday edition of The Weekly R.E.P.O.R.T. I wanted to send this out a day early because I know many people may have Friday off and you’ll need some food ideas! Very exciting to celebrate America’s 250th Birthday. Also I would LOVE to hear any special holiday traditions you have! Comment them below!
If you’re a long time subscriber, you know that I love rotating picture and chapter books with my kids for each holiday. I tend to add one or two books a year for each holiday so I’ve built a solid collection over time. (I am also lucky to have access to a great second hand bookshop!) I also love hunting down great out of print books and my best resources for those are Thriftbooks.com or Abebooks.com
Some of our Independence Day focused books are:
Sam the Minuteman by Nathaniel Benchley: a great early reader book
The Fourth of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh: We own several of Alice’s books and they are beautifully illustrated and simple enough for young children
The Star Spangled Banner by Peter Spier
I Pledge Allegiance: A friend gave us this book and it is wonderful at explaining the pledge beyond rote memorization. It’s illustrations are really cute as well.
Welcome to Felicity’s World: This is an old out of print Pleasant Company book and I think they are exceptional scrapbook style history “textbooks” for elementary aged children. I personally have learned from every single one we own and I think it’s a travesty that they are out of print. (Check Thriftbooks, Abebooks or FBMP)
Meet Felicity: an out of print oldie but goodie. If you don’t own any of the original Pleasant Company books, you should scoop them up! They are generally very affordable second hand. I know some friends have had luck at Half Priced books with these. My favorite place is the Facebook groups because you can usually find a set. In my opinion, they are some of the best chapter books for teaching elementary aged girls history. (Check Thriftbooks, Abebooks or FBMP)
Some books we’ve checked out at the library and enjoyed:
Phoebe the Spy, Judith Griffin
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Independence Cake, Deborah Hopkinson
They Called Her Molly Pitcher, Anne Rockwell
Patriotic Summer Salad: it’s so light and refreshing for a hot day and takes almost no prep minus a few minutes for some salad dressing.
Split Top Dawgs: Have you ever split them in half and grill them with salt and pepper and a drizzle of avocado oil? They are so much easier to top and they can be a little more “elevated”. (Can hot dogs be “elevated”?) Top the split dawgs with grilled onions and red bell peppers for a flavorful and festive look. We opt for all beef hot dogs like Teton Brand or Applegate and for gluten free buns, I use Unrefined Bakery. (They ship nationwide!) I know there’s nothing special about a hot dog, but I remember that’s all I wanted the one year I spent the Fourth of July in a foreign country studying abroad.
Berry Cobbler: a super easy gluten free crowd pleasing dessert
Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream: Step up your cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream, and you won’t regret it one bit!
PREP AHEAD: chop your strawberries, make your dressing, and churn your ice cream and freeze ahead of time.
One of my favorite traditions that I’ve done since being married is grabbing a giant pack of glow in the dark bracelets, but I think I’ll need to do that locally because Bezos can’t get any to me in time.
I also love grabbing July Fourth themed sunglasses for my kids and nieces and nephews. We also started doing these coloring paper table banners for fun at holidays and I found one on the ‘zon.
I keep seeing this hair stick on TikTok with really cute hair do’s for little girls. I’m not a dance mom with all those products, but this looked really fun to do especially if you have a parade to go to!
I’m still totally obsessed over Rifle Paper’s Americana Summer collection. I love the floral flag tray for serving outdoors and I’m still obsessed with those melamine plates. That cherry kitchen towel would be perfect for serving with my berry cobbler!
I know this may be an unpopular opinion, but I will always choose melamine plates over paper plates for hosting. Gasp! I know! I hate eating off paper plates because I think food tastes different on them. (Also some are made of wheat or corn!!) I will occasionally use paper plates if I simply don’t have enough or for a kids birthday party. It’s not like I never use them.
(I also use cloth napkins only at every meal, so you know I don’t mind the extra work ha!)
If you’re making your own ice cream, I love this set of measuring cups because I can measure all the ingredients in the largest measuring cup, mix and pour into my ice cream maker.
It’s a simple set that I use every single week. I would prefer glass but I honestly don’t have the space for a nice glass set. These nest small enough to shove into my overflowing baking drawer. I have paired my kitchen down so many times, but honestly I use everything and don’t quite have the space for all of it!
I haven’t bought ice cream from the store in years, and I know I talk about it all the time but it’s the easiest recipe you can make. I’ve been working up several new ice cream flavors including a strawberry shortcake ice cream that will drop in July.
This week, I combine my faux-reo cheesecakes with my chocolate ice cream, and it was incredibly rich. I made the cheesecakes the day before and let them set up in the fridge. After I churned the chocolate ice cream, I chopped up the cheesecakes and layered them in the ice cream container with the ice cream before I let it set up for a few hours.
I hope I can influence you to make your own ice cream because it is truly so easy and has way less ingredients than the store. (If you have food intolerances like me, it’s a must!)
Let me know any of your recommendations below! I would love to hear them.
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Have you ever read Johnny Tremain? It is the story of a young silversmith apprentice and his part.in the start of the Revolutionary War. It was required reading 50+ years ago when I was in Junior High. I read it several times because I liked the story.