We are very blessed to live on a quiet cul de sac. I grew up outside of town, and therefore did not experience the townie life in the way that lots of kids do, walking home from school, or walking a few streets over to your friend’s house and heading to the park or the corner market. I had neighbor friends, but they lived a mile away on a country road and while we did ride our bikes back and forth, it was a bit more of a commitment to get there. I guess you could say I never really learned the tricks of in-town kid living. So in a lot of ways, I feel like I stumbled into some neighborhood magic when we moved here to our present home.

When we bought our house people would comment that it was awesome that it was on a cul de sac, and I would naively nod and smile. To me that was like saying, oh, you are so lucky your house is green. Green is nice, but so is blue, or white, or yellow. I never really understood what was great about green, or in this case, a cul de sac. And then we moved in. We moved in November 1st, 2013, and I remember that first Thanksgiving in our house. I went outside in the front yard and yelled for my husband to come out and take a look at the Norman Rockwell painting we were suddenly living in. Kids from multiple houses were outside, in the street, playing all sorts of different games with each other. I was dumbstruck.

I was, and continue to be, completely charmed by this new world I have discovered and the wonderful new friends we have made here. There are long lovely summer evenings with outside games, and yes, there are parents with libations chatting each other up night after night. We even get to experience the quintessential roving kid group as it moves from house to house in search of entertainment, games, and gullible parents who are willing to ply them with food and sweets (For the record, I am an easy mark and they know it). And just to guild the lily a bit more, our house backs up onto some lovely open space with a seasonal creek in it. It is honestly just a 10-acre parcel in the middle of our town, but we get deer that come back year after year and frogs, and yes, even an occasional skunk out there. Five years ago I nicknamed it The Wild, and we still call it that to this day. It is where our neighborhood kids build a fort and hunt for frogs after the rain, and in general do things that kids are supposed to do outdoors.

I guess you could say I am madly in love with this little neighborhood we lucked into here, and the kids that came with it, so when I was looking to do a giveaway I decided a Saturday morning treat was in order for the neighborhood kids. I packed up a basket and let my daughter go door to door delivering some Whole Wheat Apple Muffins one morning. I knew as watched her make that delivery that it was yet another wonderful memory in the making of this neighborhood I call home.