easy mittens and my boy's birthday

I have a simple mitten pattern that I can pull out of my head when needed. (I think a lot of knitters have those kinds of patterns, whether they're for a hat, mitts, socks, baby gear...) I can do socks like that as well, but since I had all kinds of Cascade 220 hanging around, left over from other projects, I cast on for some simple mittens.

I decided to add the red thumb stripe, just because I had the ball of red nearby. Now, even though this is my no brain required pattern, I did keep some notes, just so the stripe would match. I had no plans for these, I just figured they would find a home eventually. And it seems they have - My MIL wore them home last night after dinner at our place! Now I should probably cast on the reverse set - red with a blue stripe, since I still have lots of wool left...

And the reason my MIL, FIL and my Mom were at the house for dinner was to celebrate their grandson's 12th birthday. 12 years ago today, my boy came into the world. My baby is now 12! I'm having trouble with that number for some reason. He loved his gift - we gave him new golf clubs - he has outgrown his cut down set, and is really enjoying golf and his lessons in the summer, so this was a good thing. The not so good is that my 12 year old now has nicer clubs than I do! I offered to trade and got the requisite eye roll from him.

Yesterday, for his basketball game, I made some candy melt lollipops for the team. No one should be surprised by the mold I used.

the kids loved them, and I even had a few extra for the referees and coaches.

I really am one of those annoying Martha Stewart like moms...