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4 best apps to make your family’s Fourth of July better

The Fourth of July is a huge summertime celebration. There’s backyard grilling for family and friends, picnics, 5K’s, lawn games, and, of course, fireworks. A lot of preparation and food shopping goes into making your Fourth of July festivities sparkle. Don’t let yours fizzle like a bad firecracker because of traffic jams, grilling accidents, or getting caught in a rain shower while waiting for the fireworks to start. Yes, there are Fourth of July apps to help ensure your Fourth of July parties or firework excursions go off with a bang. From firework apps to grilling apps to an app to make sure the family dodges any raindrops or thunderstorms, we’ve got the best apps for your smartphone or iPad to make your July 4 stand tall like Lady Liberty.

Family enjoying fireworks at night
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Cave Tools BBQ Recipe Journal

Before you head out to watch the fireworks, you know the grill will be fired up with all sorts of dishes. Be the ultimate grill master with Cave Tools BBQ Recipe Journal. With this comprehensive grilling app, you get access to delicious recipes shared by the Cave Tools grill-loving community, a meat smoking guide, a meat temperature guide, and three integrated timers to help make sure your dishes are grilled to perfection. Another plus to adding this app to your smartphone menu is its price. The app is free to download.

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Waze

When it is time to pack up the car to drive to the nearest or most fabulous fireworks display in the area, make sure to have the Waze app before pulling out of the driveway. It’s rated tops for keeping drivers updated on accidents, road closures, and other annoying traffic issues that can make you miss the fireworks, or worse, not be able to get a parking space. Traffic updates are in real-time. The app is free to download, but it is notorious for draining battery life quickly, so be sure to have a charger on hand in the car.

Weather apps

Mother Nature really can rain on any outdoor activity. Staying updated on the weather and those fast-moving thunderstorms in the summertime is a big plus on the Fourth of July. Dark Sky is a highly rated weather app that gives you that hyperlocal forecast you crave, along with a minute-by-minute forecast so you know if you need to make a mad dash to the car. The app is compatible with iPhones, iPads, and the Apple Watch. It will cost you to download though. If you prefer a free weather app, try the Weather Channel app. It does have advertising and in-app purchases but is free to download and will give you a decent forecast.

Fireworks Arcade

While some love the bang and sparkle of the Fourth of July, others not so much. Fireworks can be torture for young children, people on the autism spectrum, and others diagnosed with disorders like misophonia and phonophobia, which cause sufferers to be super sensitive to loud sounds. Fourth of July fireworks also make dogs and cats crazy. With a cool fireworks app like Fireworks Arcade, users can enjoy the best of both worlds. You can watch the beauty of a fireworks display without the noise from anywhere. Kids who are afraid of fireworks can watch a fun display from the comfort of their own backyard. If you have to stay home for the furbabies, you can still savor the excitement of fireworks while keeping the pets calm. The app by Big Duck Games is free and does include in-app purchases. It also features games.

A great deal of preparation goes into organizing a fun day of festivities on the Fourth of July. Apps are a convenient way to help ensure the planned activities go off without a hitch. Leave putting the bang into the Fourth of July to the pros. With these easy-to-navigate apps, you have traffic, weather and grilling covered. If you, the kids and pets stress over fireworks, make your own display right on your smartphone or iPad with the Fireworks Arcade app. There isn’t a reason to stress over the Fourth of July holiday because yes, there is an app for that.

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Survive your next road trip with these 10 must-haves for the car ride
Family packing the car for a road trip

Summer vacation is almost here, which means many families are going to be packing up and hitting the open road as they embark on a road trip to see friends or relatives or just to experience a different kind of adventure.
Although planning your route and rest stops are one very important part of a road trip, there are some essentials you're going to want to pack to help make your trip as smooth as possible. Before you leave on your family outing, get these 10 road trip essentials and eliminate any cries of "Are we there yet?"

1. Phone mount
Thank goodness for smartphones and GPS systems that tell us exactly where to go, if there's traffic, and that will reroute us in the event of a road closure or other traffic delay. Having a phone mount for your car is important because it not only lets you place your phone where it's easily visible, it allows you to be hands-free, which is a must. This extension from Weather Tech fits right into your cup holder, while this one by iOttie attaches to your dashboard and fits a variety of mobile phone brands.
2. Audible subscription
Road trips are a great time to catch up on your reading, and just because you're driving doesn't mean you can't listen to a great audiobook to pass the time. A subscription to Audible allows the entire family to enjoy podcasts, audiobooks, guided wellness, and Audible originals that are a great alternative to music playlists or searching for a new radio station while driving. You can even download books ahead of time in case you'll be driving in areas where your cell reception may not be so great. There's also a free 30-day trial if you're not quite ready to commit to a monthly subscription.
3. First-aid kit
Bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes, and minor headaches can all happen while road tripping, which is why having a fully stocked first-aid kit for the car is important. This kit by My Medic contains everything you'll need for minor injuries, but it also includes a tourniquet and a window breaker for auto emergencies. This kit by Johnson & Johnson contains everything you need to help care for minor cuts, scrapes, burns, itches, pain, skin rashes, and insect bites.
4. Car organizer/trash bin
If you want your road trip with kids to be successful, you're going to need to be organized, which is why these car organizers are so handy. This organizer by Lusso Gear acts as a mini travel tray for your child, while this holder by Eveco straps between the two front seats to allow for easy access for those sitting in the front seat. This organizer by Luckybay goes over the front seat so your backseat passengers have easy access to everything they need. You're going to want a trash bin in the car to keep things neat and tidy and this portable bin by K Knodel can either sit on the ground or hang over the seats and is leakproof.
5. Mobile hot spot
A mobile hot spot, like this one by Simple Mobile, allows you to stay connected no matter where you are. You can connect up to 16 devices and it has a long battery life that also allows you to use it as a charging station for other devices.

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Use this easy guide to make your own delicious bunny sugar cookies
yummy Easter bunny cookies decorated for the holiday

Hop to it! The Easter Bunny will be hopping down that bunny trail soon, which means it's time to bake some tasty bunny sugar cookies. Of course, the Easter Bunny prefers carrots, but your little bunnies love sugar cookies and cookies in the shape of cute bunnies just taste better, especially when they're decorated with icing and candy. So, let's get hopping. Bunny sugar cookies are easy to bake. All you need is a recipe and a bunny-shaped cookie cutter.

How do bunny sugar cookies keep their shape?
Before you can bake bunny-shaped sugar cookies, you need a cookie cutter. Plastic cookie cutters will get the job done, but metal ones tend to go the distance. Metal bunny cookie cutters won't melt and you can use them to make bunny-shaped pancakes too. Bunny-shaped cookie cutters are available online and in local craft stores. Usually, bunny cookie cutters are either shaped like bunny heads or like a bunny's full body. Either make adorable cookies.

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Why the new iPhone 13 camera features make it a must have for families
Family capturing moment with iphone 13 camera

The iPhone 13s are here, and the new camera is the talk of the town. So, what's so awesome about the new iPhone camera and why would families want one to help capture those awesome memories? Well, the iPhone 13 camera does come with some additional features, making it a big step up from the iPhone 12's version (as well as older models). Since most families rely on their iPhone to take photos of those special moments like the first day of school or Susie's first penalty kick, it's important to have a reliable camera on your smartphone. If your family takes all or most of their photos with an iPhone, you'll want to put the iPhone 13 on your list of must-haves.

Best upgrades for the iPhone 13
Each new iPhone gets Apple lovers excited, but the top two pluses to the iPhone 13 lie in the battery life and the camera. An extended battery life is a huge deal with a smartphone, especially when heading out to areas where you can't find a charging station. Next to apps, iPhone users probably utilize the built-in camera the most. Smartphone cameras are how most people capture those special moments in life whether it's selfies, landscape photographs, portraits, vacation pictures, or action shots of the kids and fur babies. So, what is it about the iPhone 13 camera that makes it so good?
IPhone 13's camera features
Size
The iPhone 13 sports a wider camera lens. This extra width may not seem like a huge deal, but when it comes to your photos, the wider lens actually grabs more details in those dark areas in the frame and lets you capture the entire picture without having to keep stepping backward. Now, you can fit the whole team or family into one photo. It also seizes almost fifty percent more light. More light means better quality photos and videos, and who doesn't want those?
No more shaky photos
Do you have difficulty holding the smartphone steady when taking photos or videos? It's a common problem, but not with the iPhone 13. Thanks to the sensor-shift optical image stabilization feature, photos and videos won't be ruined by a shaky hand. That means the next time you Facebook Live Johnny's hockey game the video won't look wobbly to grandma and the rest of the relatives.
Cinematic mode
Have a budding filmmaker in the family who loves to make videos for his or her YouTube Channel? With the iPhone 13's unique cinematic mode, users can use what filmmakers call rack focus. That's the art of changing the camera's focus from one person or thing to another for us novices. The result is just cool, especially when coupled with the fact that the videos are shot using Dolby Vision HDR. This feature will come in handy when videoing those special moments. The iPhone 13 still boasts a portrait mode along with time-lapse.

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