Our first street/block party

I'm sure I've said this before, but in case I haven't .. the street that we live on is ABSOLUTELY fantastic. Firstly, I'm convinced that it was God's providence and grace that placed us on this street. I arrived with only one week to find a place. I go for dinner at the Harrower's place and as I drive there ... just days before a "for rent" sign goes up. We now are neighbours with the amazing Harrowers (Kate is pictured above with May Yen), Scott studies with me and we car-pool and their kids and our kids get along great (they're coming over this weekend). But that's not all. This street is full of kids under 10 (I think there's at least over 15) who go to the same school as our kids. Everyone is so friendly and very helpful. So far we've had bikes donated to us, tennis rackets and even a kiddie slide lent to us. There's a real great sense of community here, and I'm so thankful to be on this street. Not to mention the fact that, by being on this street, we get allocated to this really amazing elementary school! Rachel and Nicky are thriving in the school. They have a high tech multi-touch whiteboard, and Nicky has a wireless voting console in his class so that each student can vote (real-time) for answers so that the teacher gets immediate feedback. Crazy. I'm so proud of Rach too. She just got her result back for her ISAT test (all of america standardisation test) and came in the top 2% of america for maths, and some other ridiculously high number (that I can't remember right now .. sitting in OT class) for reading. She's a champ.

OK, I'm digressing. The main point of that previous paragraph was. God has brought us to this place that is amazing and it really had nothing to do with our planning. So when the street decides to have a block party (as they do every year), we were so thrilled. I've put in a few pictures of the event (trying to avoid pictures of neighbours and kids because I haven't asked their permission to put them online). We hired a huge bouncy castle that we put infront of our house. The guy who rented it to us let us keep it all weekend. The kids had a blast! It was a great time. It feels like we all get along. I got to meet the many other people on the street. Topics of conversation were so natural too. There's disney fanatic on the street (no .. not me .. another one), there's a tech person (works with Western Digital), there's a theology major (PhD in Theology), there's an asian, there are young families .. ah .. so fun.

So we chat for ages, stay up till late, and generally have a great time.I don't think I've ever had a street like this in Australia or in Malaysia.

So, I would like to dedicate this post to our street and the many fantastic neighbours that live on it. You may never read this blog, but I think that you guys are great!