Chocolate makes time go faster....

So, one day last March, Miss K. (Prez) and I were sitting around chatting, enjoying a peaceful moment, when Miss K. says, "Hey, don't you think it'd be fun to be the Prez and Vice Prez of the PAC next year? Wanna run?! We'd work so well together." So I, in what must have been a drunken stupor brought on by the peaceful moment, the sun and the box of chocolates that Miss K. had presented (hmmm...I'm thinking wolf in sheep's clothing here), muttered, "Yeah, that'd be cool. Pass me another chocolate. Burp."

Fast forward to September.

Blink.

Say 'hello' to October.

That's how fast the month went. Honestly!!

What were we doing, you may ask?

Well, allow me to introduce you...

People, meet our Welcome Back BBQ.

BBQ, meet the people.

Here are some pictures of the BBQ that Prez, Miss J (Food Co-ordinator Extrodinaire) and I put on. At last count we had over 575 meals/people! That's pretty amazing considering we are all newbies.

Ouch! I hurt my shoulder from patting myself on the back!

(It's hard to be humble.)

This is Prez's truck after our second trip to the store. We filled it with pop, condiments, cutlery, plates, water, gigantic sized containers of mustard, ketchup and relish. As a side note, opening a 4 L jar of mustard and pouring it into a bowl is rather disgusting.

As if we didn't have enough to do on the day of the BBQ, Zee's teacher asked Prez and me if we could come in the morning and make pancakes for the little first and second graders. Prez, in all her supportive glory, smiled and said, "Sure, we're going to be around all day anyway." As I glared at her across my grande Starbucks vanilla cream she shrugged her shoulders and said, "What?! Well, we ARE going to be here all day!" So, we served pancakes to 60 of the most adorable children on the earth--two of which were absolutely angelic, billboard model gorgeous, and hungry--hers and mine.

As the day progressed, and the condiments bottles were all filled (ugh, sooo messy), the pop was transferred to the fridge, the tables and chairs were set up in the gym and a thousand other things were done, the food began to arrive.

Here's Miss J. (our amazing Food co-ordinator!) and E. beside the mountain of chips. The stack is higher than they are tall!

Prez got her hubby and a couple of his buds in on the work. They got to stand behind the grill all night and breathe smoke and fire! So much fun!

Halfway through the day, Prez and I smacked our foreheads in dismay when we realized that we forgot to contact the volunteers and arrange times! Oops! (Note to self: make note to self re: volunteer co -ordinator position for next year's PAC). We recruited our kids! Here are Kiki and Tan working the front table where they were in charge of handing out order forms and tickets to the hungry families.

Several people showed up to help despite not being notified of time/shift/location! You all ROCK!

This is one half of the gym. The line up was through the gym, out the door, through the foyer and out onto the sidewalk. We started cooking burgers at 3:00 and had over 200 pre-cooked by the time the onslaught started but 200 burgers go pretty quickly when you're handing out 4 and 5 at a time!

Here's Prez in her lovely green PAC apron (my idea/project!! Yeah me! No applause necessary) cutting the cake but I'm sure she really wanted to be cutting her wrists!

The peeps just kept on coming!

Where there's smoke, there's FOOD!

Princess and Miss J. doing the burger thang and trying to avoid the smoke. They say that smoke follows beauty, Ladies! You're HAWT!

Prez's hubby working the grill.

Jewel, the sweetest lady in the world, spent the entire night dishing out Caesar salad. That's my Mo in the background.

So, yeah, that's what I've been up to lately.

It's been insane...

...and it's all because of chocolate.

So the next time you reach for a chocolate in the presence of sunshine and a buddy, take caution...it makes time go faster.