Weekend Family Street Party

I grew up in neighbourhoods where we knew our neighbours, thanks to the effort of my parents. Now as a parent, I want to have the same neighbourhood for Oscar as he grows up. Having noticed that our street has TONS of families, Aubrey and I decided to organize a Family street party in our garden this past weekend. Although it was surprising easy to do --- it wasn't without some effort. The biggest hurdle was just getting around to organizing it.

Should you like to do the same, here are some tips of things that we did that may help you do one for your street ...

1. I dropped off an invitation at all of the houses on our street that I knew had kids, or had sign of kids. On the invite I said to also invite other families from the street had I missed anyone. I asked for an RSVP if a family was coming, so that way we knew numbers.

2. Although we provided hot dogs and hamburgers, we made it a pot luck. Not only did it help keep our costs in check, it meant that we weren't stressing about food and it also meant that parents could bring something they knew their kids would like. In the end about 13 families came which made for an awesome time and a buffet of food and goodies.

3. I had my camera out and I made sure that before leaving each family got a photo together and last night sent a link to the photos to everyone via e-mail. As the years go by hopefully we will all have some great family photos of the kids growing up.

4. I stocked up on treats/toys for the kids from the dollar store. Each child got to pick bubbles or their own chalk basket to take home. I also had ring pops that were kind of a huge hit (they were fruit ring pops not sugar which was a nice thing too) This was really a wise investment as it made the kids super excited to get something to take home, or to play with at the party. Each child was encouraged to take a balloon home too.

5. We bought a 10x10 canopy from Canadian Tire to have the food under. It was the *best* purchase. It's so much cheaper to buy a canopy ($120) than renting one, especially if you are going to use it multiple times. With Oscars birthday in the Spring, I know I'll have a use for it for years to come.

In the end my intention was to make it fun for the kids. Adults you give us food and drink and we're happy. But I wanted to make it memorable for the little ones. And I hope we were successful. At the event Oscar had his first ice cream cone, I think he fell in love with a little girl (he kept staring at her the whole event) and was in heaven. He did so well, crawling from family to family making new friends.

I'm excited about this new tradition, and watching the kids grow up together. It gives a nice sense of community for us and Oscar having an event like this. I hope he looks forward to this every summer, as do we, and other families.