Fun times – Hive and Nest

I had the most exciting thing happen last night.  It’s exciting for me, but not so thrilling for you.  OK, let me backtrack. A few days ago I saw the most wonderful cake in a magazine.  This cake looked so good, but I couldn’t think of an excuse to make it (knowing full well that Mister and I would eat it entirely). My solution: “I need to invite someone over and make it for all of us!”  So the next day at church I heard of a new family that had just moved in with–gasp–six children.  And the four oldest are the same ages and genders as my four oldest.  (you have no idea how amazingly rare that is!)  And the mom seemed pretty cool.  So I invited them over for dinner and Family Home Evening last night.  I did not get around to hanging my new family room curtains, but I did make the cake.

It was gooood! The inside was devil’s food. The frosting was boiled icing which tastes a bit like marshmallows, but isn’t sticky; just smooth and fluffy and very lovely to work with. Unlike buttercream it has no fat (just tons of sugar) and doesn’t have that nasty greasy feeling. Click here for the recipe.

We had a really nice dinner and all the kids got along beautifully (except the boy Finn’s age so seemed quite shy. They bonded over Rayman Raving Rabbids, though.) I must admit it was incredibly loud and we didn’t get to socialize as much as I’d hoped. At one point we looked around at all the mayhem and Mister said, “do you think this is how noisy it must be in a polygamis’ts house?” I’m guessing yes.

The family also has no TV (like us), and the mom homeschooled last year, but they’re trying out the schools here to see how it goes. I’m pretty thrilled to find someone like us. Thrilled enough to not say anything snotty about two of their boys being named Nephi and Moroni.

I just wished they lived closer. We could use some more older kids in the neighborhood.