Easy Summer Entertaining

We invited friends over today to swim and then stay for dinner.  By planning ahead, we all had a great time and enjoyed a tasty meal.  Did I mention that, including our friends, there were nine of us?

Yesterday we girls bought pool snacks - two small bags of Goldfish and a 10-pack of Capri Sun drink pouches.

Last night I made a pitcher of pink lemonade for the kids to drink with supper.

This morning I made a s'more ice cream pie - start with a graham cracker crust (I let the Keebler elves make mine), spread softened chocolate ice cream over the crust and let harden, then spread marshmallow creme on top of the ice cream.  Easy-peasy, and the kids LOVED it.

I also tossed three pounds of chicken breast pieces into my garlic-lime marinade (click here for the recipe).  The prep work for grilling was done.

My breadmaker whipped up a loaf of bread - everyone devoured it, and my kitchen didn't get hot from using the oven.

Our friends brought fresh fruits and veggies to help round out the meal.

We played at the pool for two hours.  Then the kids started watching a movie while the chicken was on the grill.  After eating dinner outside on the deck, the kids watched the rest of the movie before digging into dessert.

We all had so much fun, and it was a piece of cake hosting our get-together.