Party Time

BLOCK HEADS: Last night was the annual "Night Out" event in the city of Seattle. Neighborhoods are encouraged to register their event and get a permit to close their street and have a good ol' fashioned block party.

Because we have a flat front yard in the middle of the block, our place has been Ground Zero for our neighborhood party for many years running now. That being the case, there's a fair amount of ground work to lay in preparation. (Think tables and chairs and coolers and cutlery and a fire pit and a ping pong table and ... you name it to haul to the top of our lot.)

We also make some food to share, of course. Last night, we made an enormous crockpot full of Sloppy Joe filling. I don't think I'd had a Sloppy Joe since the Lake Shore Elementary School cafeteria in the 1970s. We saw a recipe featured on "Dine Ins, Drive-Ins and Dives" recently, and gave it a go. I must say, it was tasty, and well-received by the crowd.

We also made a few dozen bite-sized spanakopita. Mmm, always so good.

Watermelon is always in order for a summer party. We turned to Pinterest for inspiration. That's where we found the watermelon shark idea, pictured above. But, when you picture it, will you please also picture the gummy fish I forgot to add to the water and the shark's mouth before taking the photo?!

We followed instructions from a website called Sun Scholars. It was a quick and easy project. The blue Jell-O Jigglers around the bottom were lots of fun. I was surprised how many people at the party had never seen Jigglers before. 

We also made a watermelon 'keg.' 

We hollowed out a watermelon, took the innards and juiced them in a food processor, strained that and then added it to pink lemonade. We put a sun tea container's spigot in the watermelon and poured the punch in and I'll be darned if it didn't work! So cute!

Of course, we also had to make some cookies. 

I was trying to think of a theme that was current and one we hadn't done before. The viral game Pokemon GO seemed the obvious choice.

 Let me tell you, it was not the *easy* choice, that's for sure!

Don't think I'll be making any of those again any time soon!