This weekend we hosted our very own Independence Day Bash!  It was a blast and sometimes you just feel that special feeling when something is right… we felt it, and decided for sure that this is a new family tradition!

When were young, traditions are so valuable to us.  We look forward to each expecting one… and then we grow older and those memories drift away as we become adults and accept that life is about CHANGE 🙁

My mother’s side of the family has always held a big 4th celebration since I can remember,  we have tried to keep it going but as our family grows bigger and everyone gets spread out it gets harder and harder.  We tried to carry on the tradition the last couple years but ended up canceling because it just wasn’t working for everyone’s schedule.  We decided to host a family reunion instead on a designated date that isn’t around any holidays…

That left our 4th open to plan something new… We have a great location for summertime fun so we thought why not make the 4th our own family tradition.  We planned it last minute this year, but those last minute things always work out don’t they??? 😉  We sometimes hesitate to invite people over or host parties because were tired, or we need to get everything in order more before people come over, or just whatever silly excuses we all come up with.  Bottom line is it doesn’t matter, people don’t notice that you didn’t get a chance to weed eat, or your laundry is ten loads behind… They notice your hospitality and more than that they make memories that they’ll notice forever.

We threw it all together in a few days and made it super simple… I did the burgers and fixins and delegated ALL the other stuff out, even plates and napkins.  It doesn’t have to cost you a fortune to host parties, just get good at asking people to bring a little something.  I haven’t came across anyone who wasn’t more than happy to help out!  We have a big slip n slide (which is a tarp we purchased at lowes… with a little baby oil – you’ve got a babysitter all day… grown ups can’t resist it either;)).  We had a watermelon eating contest for the kids and the winner gets to take home the grand prize, you guessed it, a WATERMELON!  Then to wrap it up we do sparklers and fireworks in our field.  My hubs gets into this so I’m pretty sure we’ll be starting a fund for this next year- hehe:)  not really, but I can tell he plans to outdo himself with each new year lol!

After everyone left we felt good about what we had done…  create community with others and memories with others… we need each other, you’ll be glad you did.  You don’t have to just remember the good ole times of how things used to be… recreate it with your own twist.  share love<3

xo, kc