This craft-turned-snack is meant to let toddlers make “flags” in the run-up to the 4th of July. Will your toddler really be able to make a snack that looks like an American flag? Most likely not, but it’s never too early to introduce a little patriotism and show your child that our national colors are red, white, and blue!

Scoop vanilla frosting into three paper cups. Add a few drops of red food coloring to one cup, blue to the second, and leave the third as is. Stir and repeat with more food coloring until you have the desired hues of blue and red.

I gave Veronika these cups along with craft sticks as “knives”. Ideally, have your child then paint the frosting onto graham cracker sheets. Because the store was all out of vegan graham crackers, we used saltine crackers instead!

It turned out that Veronika was way more into snacking on the crackers than spreading the frosting!

To capture her attention, I scooped the frosting out of the cups and let her spread the colors around this way. Now it became more like edible art!

All in all, a delicious first lesson on our flag.