I'm a military brat so the 4th has always been special to me. I thought nothing could top the fun of a 4th on the base surrounded by other families of soldiers. This 4th topped it all though.
We moved up here the end of April 2009. When 4th of July came around we weren't sure what we were going to do. We had a 6 mo. old baby and didn't really know anyone, but a friend Erik hadn't seen since high school lived really close to us and invited us to their house. It was so nice of them. We have made more friends since then but it wasn't until last night that I realized how far we have come. We bought our house last spring and were delighted to find out we could see the fireworks from our front yard as well as hear the music from the big festival our community does down the street. This year we decided to have a party and it worked out perfectly!
We started the day at the parade. It was SO crowded. Right as we were getting frustrated we saw a friend whose kids go to the girls daycare. They were nice enough to let us sit with them right up front and watch the parade. It was so much better because the girls got to watch it with their friends.
Then we headed home to finish getting ready for the party. All of our friends brought dishes which took the stress off of me and we enjoyed sitting around in the front yard, the kids played in the pool, Erik and our friend Scott (the same one that invited us to their BBQ 4 years ago!) grilled, and we played fun games like bags (cornhole) and ladder ball.
The kids did sparklers (except Ashlyn who was scared it was fire), and threw poppers and then changed into their jammies for fireworks.
There's never been a fireworks show that hasn't made me teary and thankful (that military brat in me...) but this one made me feel so blessed. We were surrounded by wonderful friends and their awesome kids. Kids that my girls are comfortable being themselves around. Little girls I hope Ashlyn will be BFF's with for many years. We have come so far from having nowhere to go to have an incredible group of fun families joining us to celebrate birthdays, holidays, and every little triumph in between. I am so proud of us for making this move, taking a chance, and giving our kids the lives we've always wanted them to have!
Ignore the fact that we look like a beer commercial... we kind of are... we got the beer (REDD's Apple Ale) free as part of a House Party and this is the group pic we had to take. I just had to add it because these are the people I'm talking about! Good times!
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