pigs in a blanket!!!

so last friday at work we were told that june was actually AP dept's turn to throw the deck party.  this was quite a shock seeings as how the ENTIRE DEPARTMENT thought that we had july.  later in the day it was revealed to us that it was to be thrown the following wednesday.  which was yesterday.  so denise and nicole grabbed me and we started planning the picnic style (denise and nicole's idea) deck party.  we decided that we would all three cook for the event and that denise and i would go shopping on saturday for food.  

on saturday denise showed up armed with a pcard and re-useable grocery bags and off we went to grocery outlet.  i'd never actually been in grocery outlet and i'd always been interested in what kind of a grocery store they were and we were not disappointed.

i decided to make mini pigs in a blanket and to throw together ingredients for simple sandwiches.  denise was making a bean dip, macaroni and cheese and banana nilla wafer pudding desert.  nicole was making tater tot casserole.

it was nice to see such healthy food in the basket.

then we stopped off at fred meyers and got the beer and some other stuff:

we even got julie her very own beer:

she was either going to be super pissed about the clamato and bud light or super excited.  i wasn't too sure which one it was going to be.

after work on tuesday i made the pigs in a blanket:

alistair always cuts frozen blueberries on the cutting board, so it's stained a nice brownish purple!

i was really proud of myself that i only stuffed one in my face when i was cooking them.

i didn't get much work done at work on wednesday and pretty much spent the whole day setting shit up for the deck party.  other people from our dept volunteered to help out:

xine looked fabulous in her apron.  julie and her made ants on a log.  and julie got her beer early.  she needed a little something to help her through shiteloads of celery, peanut butter and raisins.  needless to say, she LOVED her beer!

everything looked fantastic.  amy found red and white tablecloths.  xine busted out a killer watermelon basket.  i think it all came together nicely!

the deck party was supposed to be located out on the new 6th floor deck, but since this is seattle and it's june  that was pretty much out of the question.  we stuck the beer out there in coolers and let people fight for their lives in the horrible wind.

it was a typical grey cloudy crappy june day.  although the sun did come out right when i was coming home at 5:30 so that's super neat.

i had a little of everything except the mac n cheese.

emily made the announcements: new hires, birthday and anniversaries for june.

i think everyone had fun...

it doesn't look like there were many people there, but that room was CROWDED and loud!  i really should have taken a shot of the line of people for food.  impressive.

dan didn't come up when ivy told him to and he missed all the food.  so he scraped the pans and got what he could:

ivy had a glucose test for the baby scheduled for today and she was drinking a tiki punch and then realized just HOW MUCH sugar was in it!

i'm sure she had fun fasting all night and today.

the wind was horrible and these brave souls were out there.  for hours. 

this was fun, but i hope we have a little more notice next year.  we were rushed, but i think we pulled it off!

YAY!