On Saturday, Chris and I hosted a little happy hour for our neighbors in our backyard. It was so fun! This summer, we'll have lived in our house for five years (five!) and I'm on a quest to be more neighborly. I'd love to live in the kind of neighborhood where people know that you can count on your neighbors if you need them, whether it's for a cup of sugar for a recipe or offering comfort and a hot meal during a hard time. We thought a happy hour couldn't be a bad place to start.

We are so lucky in that we've become good friends with two other couples on our street and they are definitely the kind of people we can count on. One couple friend even has a son who is Dash's age! Chris and I have met several other nice people in our neighborhood but we only occasionally stop for a short chat or just wave hello. 

Even though this time of year is SO busy we knew that life will always be busy and so we just decided to set a date for our happy hour. We told the neighbors that we do know that we'd be having an outdoor happy hour at 4 p.m. and encouraged them to invite any neighbors that they know. We made sure to invite anyone who lives around us that we saw out and about over the past week or so. I also knocked on a few doors on Saturday and extended the invitation to a few more families. I would have loved to print fliers or invitations and do a better job inviting more people but I had to keep it as easy as possible this time.

We ended up having neighbors from four different houses stop by, it was great! We had beer, wine, sparkling water and had a few snacks. A few people even brought snacks and/or drinks, so sweet! A mom and her two daughters who came over love to see Dashiell whenever we walk by their house and they were absolutely smitten to spend so much time with him. And I loved comparing notes with everyone about when they last replaced their water heater and painted their house (riveting!).

A low key happy hour outdoors was a perfect neighbor get together. I'd love to make it a yearly or twice yearly event!