Pinterest dessert

Tried a dessert from Pinterest tonight for our community groups potluck. It was a winner!
Top a small pretzel with a Hershey kiss, melt it in a 275 oven for 2-3 minutes. Don't go much over this or the chocolate goes back to hard.
Take them out and smoosh an m&m into the top of each one. Cool and enjoy!
Pinterest sats hugs work well too but I'm a chocolate purist. My sister says her MIL makes them with circle pretzels and rolos, sound yum to me!

Church shopping and swimming crises

So with our church (and my work) move from Lakewood and Forefront, we have to find another church home.  Both for the kids to have friends in our area and for me to have women (and adult) friends close to home as well.  We have found a great contender in Journey Church!  Very near to home, kids like it, we like the teaching...  We went to the info/new member meeting this last Sunday and were very impressed with their background, vision and focus for the future!  We are going to give it a few more weeks before we jump in to become members but it is great to have found a place we think we could belong.

Saturday was the kick-off of the summer reading program at our library and my super reading guy made sure that we attended!  He's already been reading a bunch this summer and he really wants the prizes :-)  They had a little show that he got pulled up for - he was a hippo!  She went on the parade afterwards with a friend.

So then we come to the dreaded swim lessons...  The kids are fairly comfortable in the pool, we've been 2-3 times this summer already but they really need to learn to float and strokes and all so I signed them up but didn't tell them where we were going until we were in the car.  The boy cried all the way there, had to carry him in, wouldn't get into the water until the last 5 minutes when I bribed him with hockey cards.  The girl did pretty well, wouldn't go under, but tried hard on everything else.
Then today (day 2) the boy was watching the clock all morning to make sure that we didn't leave a minute too late because he was all excited.  Both kids did everything the teachers asked and had a great time - goobers!

LOVE the goggle eyes!

Strawberries from my garden - captured before the bunnies got them!!

Recent Craftiness!

I <3 pinterest and this summer I'm actually doing some of the things I've found on there!
Mother's Day gifts:

 These are "fried marbles" that I wrapped in wire to make pendants.  We baked regular marbles in the oven and then shocked them in ice water to crack them on the inside.  They are pretty cool!

 Then I used polymer clay to make hearts and ovals and had the kids press their fingerprints into the ovals.  I baked them and then put some black paint on and wiped it off to accent the prints better.  Used some ribbon to make necklaces for my mom, mother in law and I for personal gifts.  These are really great!
Knitting:

 This is the adagio shawl that I finished recently.  My mom gave me the yarn and pattern for my birthday.  It is more gorgeous in person - gradients from purple to navy!  My friend Caitlyn taught me how to wear it with the point in front and wrapped around a couple times so I don't look like a grandma :-)
Just for fun!

And this is the most recent finish!  I melted pony beads in different muffin pans, drilled holes and strung them together with fishing line to make a sun catcher/wind chime.  It is even prettier than the picture when the sun is out!  I have a few left to put into a couple more lines for the tree out back.

Now off to find the next project for the kids and I!

This is the summer of ending well and new beginnings!  Ending well in that I've just finished a great season working for Forefront and we've finished with 1st grade and preschool.  New beginnings are all over the place - finding a new church community, new friends closer to home, new craft projects, new summer adventures, figuring out who I am now that I'm not on staff at a church, lots of new things!!

So I thought I'd document some of our summer and our changes to remind my self of our forward progress!  And away we go!