Farewell

Last night after church, the young adults threw a goodbye party for our friends Ian and Lauren before they take off to Scotland for school. They have been attending our church for I think about 2 years now and we have enjoyed them very much. Ken & Sabrina gratefully hosted the party at their house last night and it was very nice to have the party in a house that is large enough to fit 20 people - very quickly many of our houses are running out of room for our ever expanding group it seems.

For the party I was asked to make a dessert. So because this was no ordinary get together, I thought I would go all out with my dessert. I looked through numerous cookbooks to find the perfect cake to bring and many did not seem good enough. Then I found the most perfect cake ever. It was in the back of the "Eat, Shrink and be Merry" cookbook. I think it was called Once Slice to Heaven or something. I spent about 4 hours putting this triple layer chocolate cake together. It is 3 layers with a generous amount of chocolate cream cheese icing between each layer. It wasn't a very large cake, but we didn't need very big pieces at all to get our fill. The cake was quite rich and sweet. All the chocolate was made with Bernard Callebaut and belgian cocoa. I am not a big chocolate or cake fan, but this cake I must admit was quite yummy. My thinking is that if you are going to go to the trouble of making a cake, it might as well be made with decent chocolate and cake mix. I would highly recommend this cake to bring to any special function. If you want the recipe just let me know.

We pulled a very "mennonite" party as the boys went downstairs to play poker and the girls stayed upstairs. However, Kristen did mess with this a little as she eagerly went downstairs to play poker with the boys. Way to go Kristen!

For those people who have not been in Ken & Sabrina's basement, they have this awesome mural wallpapered on one of the walls, so Lauren and I decided to have a little "photo shoot" with Ayla.

Mostly the evening was spent enjoying each other's company, sharing stories and have tons of laughs together.

opening up some gifts

By the end of the evening, we were all a little tired.

In these past 2 years I have gotten to know Lauren a little better then Ian, but both have been a joy to get to know. I have enjoyed your friendship immensly Lauren and I hope that in the months and years ahead we will be able to keep in touch and get some visits in at some point in time. We wish you guys all the best in Scotland and may this be the beginning of some great things that are to come. You guys will be missed very much, but I know that God has some amazing adventures ahead for you guys. We have been so blessed to have you a part of our young adults group these past couple of years.