Summer bob

Would you be my neighbor??

I am so upset right now. It is no secret that we have a lot of parties in our house. Many birthday parties and get togethers as our house is the largest in the family and seems to be more child friendly. We have my brother and his bunch over quite often and a birthday party at least every month. The kids run wild, and though it's loud, it's supervised outdoor fun. Last weekend we had Shea's party from 2-4pm, and then yesterday we ended up having a birthday party for Glen and Bri, and so them, their 3 girls and our parents came from about 4-8pm. We had been gone all day Saturday to pick up Greg from the airport. Anyway, near the end of our party yesterday, the kids did get loud on the trampoline, so Greg went out and told them all to keep it down. However, at this point, the neighbor had apparently reached his breaking point, and without us knowing, set up his ghetto blaster and aimed it at our house and cranked it. The kids had come in, and we were saying our goodbyes, and we all wondered what the noise was. The company left, and then Greg stuck his head over the fence to notice this stereo pointing at us. The neighbor came out and said, "Like the music?" turned it off and walked away. Greg called him back and asked him if he had a problem he wanted to talk about. The neighbor then went off about how he can't stand the noise and that they can't even enjoy their yard anymore. Greg was asking him why he hadn't mentioned anything before, and why he had to react with his immature behavior (with the ghetto). He claimed he doesn't like confrontations? wth? It was almost surreal, their very heated conversation. I don't even understand how someone could be so angry without even talking to us once about it. He talked to me normally through the week and didn't say anything. The only thing he mentioned was that he revs his race car engine to drown out the noise of the kids sometimes. (He said this in front of me to our other neighbor, while I was out playing badminton with them...aka it wasn't insane noise, we were just playing a game.) I kept thinking about it all night, and though we know and confirmed with him that our kids can be loud, we aren't out there yelling all day. The kids aren't even home between 8-5pm, and we don't let them stay out past 7:30pm. So minus the supper hour, there is only an hour or so that they are even outside during the day. It's obviously longer on the weekends, but like this one, we were at friends Friday night, out of town all day Saturday, and then only outside a few hours on Sunday evening. I don't get it. He's a grumpy old guy, who now has stepped to a new low. I don't even know what I am going to say to him next time I see him. I hate conflict. Of course I want to respect our neighbors, but if the kids can't ever use an outside voice, in their own yard, where can they? Maybe it's time for him to move to a 50+ neighborhood if he hates the sounds of kids so much. :( Awkward. and sad. Don't come over to our place anytime soon, he might bite your head off.