Neighborhood Fun

Today the ministry hosted a block party in the empty lot across from our house (no, the beautifully landscaped and perfectly finished home you see in the background is definitely NOT ours). Our neighbor Cat (the proud owner of the beautiful home and yard) kind of spearheaded the whole thing and got lots of manpower and stuff donated for the event. If I'm not mistaken, the event originated as a way to get the word out about a neighborhood watch group she was starting and kind of blossomed from there. PSM (that's Parker Street Ministries, not Publix Super Markets - an easy mix-up here in the land of Publix) graciously agreed to pay for food - hot dogs, chips, cookies and kool-aid so it ended up being a really inexpensive event to plan. Along with everything you see in the pictures below there was a bounce house, face painting, water balloon games, bean bag toss, sack races... I am probably forgetting something but it was enough to keep my children busy for three hours without a single whine or argument. We had an awesome turnout and I loved seeing and talking to people in the neighborhood that I would never see otherwise. I even found out that one of the girls who works in the nursery at the YMCA lives a street over from me. If I had been to work out sometime in the last three months I may have recognized her sooner. It was a perfect day (except that a couple of my Lacrae CDs got misplaced) and I would love to see us do this a few times throughout the year.

Demonstration by Lakeland Fire Department - we even got to climb into the fire truck! That's my daughter walking around barefoot and my son chewing his fingernails - lovely!

Painting a suncatcher

K-9 Demonstration - this neighborhood may not have been the best place to bring an off-duty drug dog... Just an observation.

Ella enjoying one of her mom's favorite summertime treats :)