Happy Halloween

Our Halloween Books

We are waiting for daddy to get home from work early today. We are going to St Rose to see their cousins in their costume parade and then out for a little trick or treating. This will be Moe and Coles first time out. Right now Moe is walking around with Cinderellas headband and glass slippers on. He's tried a few times to get the dress on. He has his choice of an army man, Woody from Toy Story, a Pirate, Bob the Builder and Spider man. He has no interest in any of them, just Cinderella.

Dinner and a Show in NY

A few times a year we have a girls night out in NY. Yesterday we went to see Grease and then to dinner at Carmines. The food was outrageous. If your ever in NY you have to eat at Carmines. It's by reservation only. The portions are so enormous most of us took food home. It's family style and the pasta platters contain a whopping pound and half of pasta.
I think we had 30 to 34 people. We had so many people we had to have two tables. Each table got a Titanic for dessert. The thing was so huge. We could have easily gotten only one for all of us.
We are already making plans to see The Little Mermaid next.

Battle of Monmouth before and after

I really shouldn't be playing around with these old images. I have so many other things I should be doing. I'm kind of in a funk right now. We have all been sick and it's been raining for days. We haven't really left the house all week.

recreating

For 15 years I worked at a professional photo lab. I used to restore old photographs- among other things. Now when I get the chance I play around recreating that old weathered look that I spent so many years eliminating from photographs.

ahhh.....15 WONDERFUL years !!

My husband called me from work today to wish me a Happy Anniversary. He's such a wonderfully, thoughtful guy. I love him so much. 15 years together! Sometimes it amazes me that it's been 15 years already.

BUT-After 15 years you would think he would remember the date we got married. Today is not our anniversary.

So, honey try again in two days.

Jeanie and Mike's Wedding

Congratulations Jeanie and Mike

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kochfamily/sets/72157602561662163/

Wow it took me almost a full day to upload all these pictures. I took over 700 pictures for Jeanie and Mike. Follow the link to see all the images. I'm pretty happy with most of them. I just wish I had better lighting for the really low lit areas. I'm surprised that, that many of the images came out. I did have a few over and under exposed images. I noticed that when my batteries started to run low the flash would really blow out the images.

They have such great friends. I've never been to a party where people stop you and ask to have there picture taken.

Can I just say-I LOVE my new niece!

Just having fun

IMG_8881B, originally uploaded by patteykoch.

I love this is picture of Moe. OK it's the only one where he is looking at me and not making a silly face.

Kitchen Colors

We took a trip to pick out tile for our kitchen last night. We bought one large tile to see what it would look like against the cabinets. So what do you think?? ---- I just realized it looks very similar to the wall paper we had up.

The cabinets we have are a antique white. The knobs that came with them are the copper. Since I have to order two more cabinets, I know I'm not going to find the same exact knobs for the new cabinets. So, I figured I would change the knobs on the cream cabinets to a wrought iron looking knob with a copper crackle finish. I have to keep the copper knobs because they match the hanging lights and the faucet. I'm going to put them on the island. The three cabinets that we have for the island are oak, but they are stained in three different colors. I get the fun job of sanding and painting them. The island is going to be a very flat- lightly antiqued black. I also picked up a small sample for the counter top. It has all the colors in it. The green swatch is a possible wall color.

For color- I saw these canisters on ebay. I love the colors.

Holiday Photos

It's not to earlier to think about holiday photos. I figured some time within the next two months I should be able to get a decent photo to put in our Christmas card. Yeah right- I still haven't gotten one from their 2nd birthday. So here are some of the photos I've taken of my very uncooperative subjects.

Yeah they all pretty much look like this.

The week of Oct. 8th

Just a few of the things we have been up to.

I bought some large nuts and bolts for the kids. These things are great. They have different colors, sizes and shapes for them to match. They still won't replace daddy's real small shiny ones.

I just love this picture- Look at that face! Such concentration!
Letter magnets- Here they are matching letters. I usually just call out letters and they search until they find them. Here they decided that they wanted to match them up. Cole insisted that Faith have her own tray of letters. She thought they were quite yummy!
Shh.... pay no attention to the cabinets behind the couch! The kids painted the pumpkins we got on Monday. I had put them out to dry and it rained and washed all the paint off of them. Yeah we get to do it all over again.
Just a little exercise/fun on a rainy day. Faith didn't like the tunnels. Everytime Cole or Moe popped out of them she would go running down the hallway. This is Baby Faith. She will only be with us for a few weeks.

Apple and Pumpkin Picking

IMG_8624, originally uploaded by patteykoch.

Monday we went apple and pumpkin picking with Grandma, Aunt Kathy, Kelly and Klaire. They had a ball. Moe ate so many apples- thats all he had for lunch.

Walnford Day

IMG_8603B, originally uploaded by patteykoch.

Here is link to a few pictures I liked from today. I took the kids to Walnford Park. We didn't stay long. It had gotten really hot and buggy. We did get to go on a wagon ride. I have to admit it was the only reason we went. We had to wait on a fairly long line for the ride. Cole was very dramatic and broke out in tears every time the wagon left without us.

Child labor

Kate- I'll send Cole your way after she finishes working on her kitchen.

I think we will have to get her own tools. Maybe a pink tool belt too?? She just loves the sound of the drill.

Kitchen demolition

Friday Saturday
Sunday
We took out 8 layers of floor in our kitchen yesterday. All that sawing and hammering and the kids slept through it.

They woke up in time to dance around on plywood. I can't believe how much bigger it feels, just removing the stairway to the basement. Of course I have to go out the front and around back through a hole in the basement to do laundry. Oh, yeah- it's going to sit for a while!!
Today I'm working on the wall between the kitchen and the living room. I've removed the sheet rock already today. I guess I'll have to wait for Ed to get home. The wires are live in that wall still.

Autumns sensory bin

We filled our sensory bin with pine cones and acorns we collected from our trips to the park (and Aunt Rachel's). Moe was pretending to be a squirrel and was hiding his acorns in our bed. For three days we kept finding them in our pillow cases. The UPS man brought us a box of animals on Friday. I love to watch them and see what they do with their toys.

Moe used to just play quietly with his toys and this past week he has started narrating and telling a story while he is playing.

OK- so this was my idea of playing perfectly and using their sensory bin. Scroll down to see their idea of great play....

This was their idea of great play.