Neighborhood Block Party

On Friday evening, our neighborhood held a block party. Each family had to bring a main dish and a side dish to share. Jeff made some fried chicken strips breaded with his secret recipe. I made a Texas sheet cake (chocolate cake with chocolate frosting). Jeff's chicken was a big hit, and my cake wasn't too unpopular, either.

We met a lot of neighbors and it was a lot of fun. Our neighborhood has a lot of people of different ages: we sat next to a woman who has lived here for 45 years, and there was a 2.5-week-old baby in attendance too.

The police department sent out their neighborhood watch coordinator to talk to us about starting a neighborhood watch. Apparently there's a bit of a drug problem in town, which is what probably motivated the thefts that we had a few months ago. We got some brochures about keeping our house and neighborhood safe, and neighborhood watch stickers. We should be getting a neighborhood watch sign soon, too.

Our neighborhood is amazing. Apparently there has been this annual party for 30+ years. Everybody knows everybody else in the neighborhood, so we are one step ahead of some of the city's neighborhoods. I really like our house and neighborhood. It's nice because everyone is so friendly and they all look after each other. On the other hand, we have a lot more privacy than we did at our house in Illinois, because our houses are farther apart, and we have no backdoor neighbors (unless you count the people hundreds of feet down the hill). I think we picked a really good place to live.