Community Fun!

This weekend, we went out with our dear friends for an adult night out. First, we went to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, Fiesta Cafe (http://www.fiestacafe.com/Welcome.html). Besides the fact there was no waiting, we got to sit outside! What a treat. The food was great...they drench everything is cheese. And they have fabulous margaritas...I don't drink often but I was out for the night, let's have some fun (and my husband did!). We like to go to local places, if possible and this is a great one in Champaign.

*This is a great place for the family. The menu varies enough to meet everyone's needs. The kids' menu is reasonably priced and they have kiddie cocktails. The service is fast and our kids love to sit outside in the summer (and they have room to move around).

So, after eating and talking about our ever-changing lives, we went to see our friend play in one of his many bands. He was playing at a fundraiser for our local organic food co-op. It was an amazing event. First of all, it was free. They had a potluck dinner (which we could have partaken of if we wanted). You could also make a donation and eat. They had wine from a local wine place for sale, as well as t-shirts and membership information. In addition to the food, wine, and people, they had fabulous music. So, the band played and people danced...lots of people danced. We had gone there to see our friend but we found this group of people that were so great.

They have this community that can party like this. Everyone chipped in and everyone was hanging out and having fun. There were people of all ages...little ones in baby wraps, kids, college students, adults in all stages of life. Besides that they welcomed us into this celebration, it really made us feel like we should be a part of this...which we have considered before (but that's another entry).

So, if you are in CU and interested in joining an organic and local food co-op, check out Common Ground Food Co-op (http://www.commonground.coop/). It's more than a grocery store!

We also enjoyed our daughter's capoeira festival this weekend. Which is another great community to participate in in town and throughout the state and beyond. (Here's a link to that info...https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ro/www/CapoeiraClubatUIUC/). Additionally, we took the kids the to Annual UIUC Vet Med Open House...an awesome, free event for all ages. We got to see and touch lots of animals, milk a cow, see where the animals go to the doctor, see x-rays, watched a video of a cow's c-section (completely fascinating, btw), horse-shoeing, police dog demo, goat cheese tasting...and on and on.

Every time we talk about moving out of our community, we have a hard time thinking about giving up all the great things about where we live. There are just so many wonderful things here...we love it.