Pi(e) Night!

We had Pi(e) Night again for 3.14 (March 14th)/my birthday this year! Thanks again to everyone for coming and for bringing your wonderful pies! I made a chicken pot pie so people wouldn't have to worry about dinner, and 5 dessert pies (. . .though I only served 4). That was a downsized number from 2 years ago when I made 9 pies and had about 5-6 leftover pies if you combined them all!! 

I love getting together with friends and eating food! Those who stayed around for long enough got to play a party game with us too! (Games are another favorite of mine!)

Here are the dessert pies I made this year. 

Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake Pie

Banana Pudding Cheesecake

Ice Cream Pie (I just spread a layer of Breyers Heath bar ice cream on a graham cracker crust, followed by crushed up chocolate covered pretzels, followed by homemade hot fudge, followed by softened vanilla ice cream, followed by more hot fudge. . .mmmm!)

Pecan Brownie Pie (which I overbaked, so I didn't actually serve it. . .brownies are meant to be gooey or not eaten at all :)

Key Lime Pie (it's from my Betty Crocker cookbook, but for some reason I can't find that exact recipe online, so here it is:

Ingredients

Pastry for one-crust pie, or graham cracker pie crust

3 large eggs

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon grated lime or lemon peel

1/2 cup key lime juice or regular lime juice

Preparation

1) Preheat oven to 350

2) Beat eggs, milk, lime peel, and lime juice in medium bowl with electric mixer on medium speed
    for about 1 minute or until well blended. Pour into pie crust. 

3) Bake 30-35 minutes or until center is set. Cool on wire rack 15 minutes. Cover and refrigerate at
    least 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream if desired. 

Drawing Board Fun!

This is Leila's first picture of a person! The arms and legs are floating and he/she has no body,
but look at that well-formed head and well-placed eyes and mouth! . . .I was impressed :)

Just before this, she brought me the drawing board and said
"Mom, spell my name!"
To which I responded: "OK. What does your name start with?"
Not surprisingly she said "L!" (She's had that one nailed for months).
Me: "What's next?"
L: "I dunno, can you tell me?"
Me: "Yep. It's "e", then . . .what's the letter that has a dot on top?
L: "i!"
Me: "That's right! Then another 'l', then 'a' (all the while I was writing the letters on the board)

That was it! We didn't go over and over it. I just showed her once.

Then the next day my little 2 1/2 year old girl comes to me with the drawing board and says "Mom, can you write my name? It's L-e-i-l-a!"

This girl is such a sponge! She picks things up so quickly! She's known her alphabet for awhile, so I guess this is the logical next step, but still! I love seeing her assimilate knew pieces of knowledge into what she already knows. It's sure fun to watch her learn!