Block Party

In our former neighborhood, we used to have block parties periodically to get together and socialize with our great neighbors. I really missed that in our new neighborhood, so I decided to organize one myself! I asked a young mom on our street to help me with the planning and setting up, getting permission, and crowd control. Then we set to work. I made 160 flyers and the kids delivered them to everybody in our neighborhood. We planned the date for the evening of the last day of school--sure to catch everyone before they left town for vacation. My friend got permission from the city (a real feat) to block off our dead-end street for extra safety, since kids would be everywhere, including the middle of the road. We provided hot dogs and drinks and asked everyone who came to bring a side-dish to share, their own paper goods, and a blanket or chair to sit on. It was a hit! About 150 people came throughout the evening (we billed the time from 5:00-9:00 p.m.). Jared grilled the hot dogs, his dad brought homemade root beer (a huge favorite), a lady on the next block over brought a pony and gave rides to the little kids, and a man down the street brought out a cotton candy maker and let the kids make their own. We had a huge variety of ages show up. The teens and tweens played four-square, lots of kids decorated the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, we had several games of twister going on the lawn, John set up chess games, the old folks sat in the shade and chatted, and a group of people played croquet. We also had bobbing for apples, ball games, and other fun activities. Everyone was enjoying themselves very much and I was at liberty to take a lot of photos. This will definitely become a tradition for our neighborhood!