Monday, September 05, 2016

Blog Party

One thing I like about our neighbourhood is how we all get along. Quite a few families at our stage in life- 30-40 year olds with kids about the same age. We have numerous gatherings and social events every so often.
And so, one activities that my wife, the unofficial social chair of the block, organized was the block party. This was something she's wanted to do for years, since her family did these when she was growing up. So we decided to hold the very first one, and boy, was it fun.
To close the street completely, we had to do a few things.
- Get signatures of the residents- at least 90% of homeowners have to agree
- Outline a party plan, and seek the approval of the city and fire department
- Rent barricades to close off both ends of the street

Thankfully, all the residents agreed this would be fun, and with that we were off!
We had the block closed off for 5 hours on a weekend; the kids could roam around, bike and scooter up and down the road to their heart's desire, without any parent yelling for them to get ff the street!
We had several bounce houses and carnival games set up. Had a long table in the middle of the street for food.
And Kris even got a sno-cone guy to come and set up a table- that was a  hit amongst the kids, and the adults! We even had sno-cones of the, err, 'adult' variety. Which contributed to a more merry evening.
As a bonus, she had the fire department send a firetruck for a visit. The kids went bananas when the firemen came, blaring their sirens- they got to climb into the firetruck and check out their equipment. We only recently found out that the fire department does this as a community service, and it's nice to meet your local firemen and show your appreciation for the work they do.


Anyway; it was a swell evening, and the first of an annual neighbourhood event, I'm sure.