paxbaby
Each Independence Day, our family celebrates with a tradition filled with streamers, flags, hot dogs, laughter and sunshine! The PAXfamily opened our home to another family a while back, and now we can’t think of having 4th of July without the Browns. Our children have grown up together over the years, the mamas have breastfeed each other’s babies, the dads have exchanged parenting advice, Volkswagon tips, and Star Wars inside jokes. Not related by blood, but by the friendship and the knowledge that the bond created by listening,caring for each other’s children,and being available any time, any where, our friends have become our family.
When we get together, our children romp and bicker while the parents try to have a conversation over the chaos and uproar that is 10 children under 13 years old. We eventually have to give up, and give in to the conversation that is the loudest – that is the one that the children want to have. Singing Let It Go at the top of our lungs, launching rocket fire crackers in the back yard, creating Pinterest fail patriotic fruit skewers, our little gathering is food for our souls.
Days after this celebration is over, my cheeks will still hurt from laughing, and my husband and I will most likely still have a private giggle over something hilarious said between the parents. In such busy times, such a friendship is a commitment, a unity not easily broken. This year we have high hopes for another amazing holiday spent in the company of friends who have helped to create a nonstressful, generous atmosphere in which our children can be themselves unhampered by the outside world’s perspective.
Here, in our happy bubble, our friends join us and make us feel ever grateful to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Have a happy FOURTH of July, PAXfriends
paxbaby
