National Night Out/One Great Week

Have you ever heard of National Night Out? Here in Carlsbad all of these signs went up over town talking about an upcoming National Night Out, and left me very puzzled. Just so happens our neighbors showed up at our doorstep to explain and invite us to participate in what I think EVERY TOWN EVERY WHERE should do.
Basically, on one night every year all of the blocks in Carlsbad get together and have their own block party. The basis is to support and encourage neighborhood watch and safety, but I thought is was just a great way to get to know your neighbors. Someone on the block offers to host the party in their front yard and then everyone brings a dish and their own drinks. Luke and I showed up with my Vidalia onion casserole (had to go GA on em) which went over well. We have the fire department on one end of the street, so the firemen that attended especially loved my dish. We have the town's funeral home on the other end of our block, so those residents didn't participate, but everyone else on our block showed up.
Great food and great time getting to know everyone. We got labelled the new kids on the block and were by far the youngest people on our block. Most people have been living in their house for over 10 years. We also invited Luke's boss who was in town and really enjoyed when everyone stood up to introduce themselves and point to their house and he stated, "I'm Dave and I live in West Virginia" everyone got a good laugh and surprise to find him crashing out block party.
We had such a great time that our block is planning another party for the winter time! I forgot to bring my camera and take pictures of all the food (I guess I could have walked 20 steps back to my house and gotten it) but I decided to just take a few pics of my neighbors with my phone.
Oh...and I must explain the other half of the title as well. This week has just been wonderful for a lot of reasons, but the BIG reason is Luke got a promotion and raise!! CONGRATS LUKE!!! YOU'RE AMAZING, and AWESOME, and WONDERFUL!

Some of my neighbors--you can see our house--the tan one in the distance

More Neighbors hanging out!

Luke and his boss Dave (the block party crasher)