Pumpkin Patch with the Pykes

I am trying to break into the photography business, so everywhere I am going I am constantly practicing!! I want to become a "traveling photographer". When the Pykes went to the Pumpkin Patch I asked if I could tag along and take some pictures! Here are a couple that I took. I tried to mess with the Aperture and Shutter Speed with each picture and I am still learning!

Thank you Pykes for being my FIRST family!!!

Minneapolis

Here is some pictures and some stories about my trip to Minneapolis to visit some amazing friends!!!

On the way to the airport I was on a shuttle with the Houston Dynamo team.....I was so excited to tell all my students that I met them!!!!

 On the plane ride instead of doing school work, or reading some of my Spanish books like I intended....I played Angry Birds for the 2 hours!!!

 Teresa and Reenie picked me up from the airport!!! We stopped by Mall of America for supper before picking Carolyn up from the airport!!!!! Great start to the AMAZING weekend!!!  :o)

 Saturday morning it took us a while to get ready!!! We had a sleepover and talked late late late into the night! Saturday morning was a gorgeous morning!!! We went for a wonderful walk on a "fall" morning. There were Oktoberfest celebrations everywhere, people in costumes, bands playing. The picture shown here is what is left of the Pillsbury factory after it exploded in the 1800's.

 The German band that was playing inside the old factory.

 Food Truck!!!! We got Indian spiced donuts....I am NOT a donut fan....but these were amazing!!!!!

 We ran into a farmers market and we decided that we would buy things to make breakfast in the morning. So we bought some rosemary bread, spinich, green peppers, tomatoes and onions.

 Beautiful view of the city!!!

 All 4 of us!!! Carolyn, Teresa, Reenie and I!

 THE BEST BURGER EVER!!! If I could have one last meal, it would include a burger, fries and a Diet Coke, and possibly some tiramisu for dessert....but that besides the point. We ate at the Blue Door and they have stuffed burgers. Mine was stuffed with jalapenos!!!

 Reenie....I forgot which presidents footprint this is?? do you remember???

Drinking Apple Cider from my new tea pot that I found in an antique shop!!!!

I LOVE apple cider!!!

 Sunday morning!!!!! Here is our wonderful breakfast with eggs!! ALL that we bought from the farmers market!!!

We also bought Champagne and Orange Juice and made Mimosas!!!!! BEST breakfast ever!!!!! In the 3rd picture you can see the bread in the background....we finished the whole loaf for breakfast!!!

You can also see the beautiful vegetables that we bought!!! :o)

To all my Houtonian friends......I felt right at home when I saw this sign!!! They serve POP!!! I was in a country where I could say "pop" and they knew what I meant and they did not give me confused face!

 Kettle Corn!! My favorite thing about going to Apple Orchards!!!!

 We went wine tasting....yes it was a vineyard and an apple orchard!!! We got dark chocolate with some of the wine choices!

 Our picnic! We bought fancy cheeses, nice crackers, apples, we bought a bottle of wine from the tasting. It was an AMAZING afternoon!!!!! I would love to go back!!!

 and of course we had to have chocolate!!!!!

We visited a small town before going back to Minneapolis!!! It was really cute and I LOVED their downtown area!! Cute buildings!!!

It was a wonderful weekend! and great timing to get out of Houston!!! It is also so nice to see friends!!! My flight was Monday morning at 6am... I got back to Houston around 10 and then went back to school to teach at noon! 

Other things going on in my life..... I bought my plane ticket home for Thanksgiving!!! I chose not to drive this time, it just takes too much time, and it is wearing on my car, and safety because of the winter weather..I wouldn't want to get caught in Oklahoma or Kansas because of ice or snow..and I also am going to a friends wedding on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I didn't want to be rushed to do the whole drive on Sunday...so to take the hassle out of travel I will by flying home Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!

Another thing going on this week that I am SO PUMPED about is the Spanish concert that I am going to on Wednesday!!! I am seeing Pitbull, Enrique Iglesias, and Aventura!!!!!

I went to the Greek Festival last night....will post pictures soon!!!!! Reminded me of Greece but not as good as being there!!!! Oh what I would give to be back in Santorini....Nina and I already have a plan to move there and work!!! It will happen someday!! :o)

adios for now!

-sunshine

Fall in room 315!

Hello! How was your week? Can you believe that it is OCTOBER??? October is probably my FAVORITE month of the year! I love the smells the sights and everything about it!!!

 When I explored Rice Village a couple of weekends ago I stumbled upon a store "Social Butterfly" and it had a lot of unique treasures! I found this skirt 50% off!!!

 Last week we did a recipe project (we were working on decimals) so we gave all the students Olive Garden menus--first mistake-- will go into detail later....and we asked the students to take 3 other guests with them on this supper date!

 Darian said "Ms. Koch, I want to take the Guinness world record holder for STARING...." He was really cute when he said it! Darian is above.
We also had alot of other unique guests, spiderman, transformers, Niki Manaj, Lil Wayne, Jesus
I wanted to invite Ellen Degeneres to dinner!

 Jesus and Noah working hard!

 So, remember when I said it was a big mistake to get an Olive Garden menu....I had to give a lesson in Italian before we started the project...I didn't even know what a Zeppoli, or Cappilari was....so our whole front board was full of Italian words and pictures....next time I will do an Applebees, Chedders, or Panera menu!!

 See the computer game? It is called Helicopter Pigs! My favorite game that the students play on the computers!!!

We ended the week on a good note! I mentioned earlier that my favorite season is fall and we wanted to bring October in with a bang. So all the students wrote fraction and decimal problems on the leaves and had partners solve the problems. 

And here is the bulletin Board that is outside our room!

Signing off for tonight!

Let me know how you are!
Would LOVE to hear!
kkoch1110@gmail.com
mucho amor
-sunshine :o)