Here's a few pictures of us during the summer. My mom came for a visit the end of July, and the kids loved bonding with their Nana. BIRTHDAY PICS OF THE KIDS
Most of you have seen these on Facebook, but I know there are some Chiodo Chuckles fans who don't do Facebook. To answer some commonly asked questions... 1. We used Hope Kitchen in Bridgeport for the cabinets & countertops. We chose natural maple cabinets. No stains, no glazes...had NO IDEA the amount of decisions (and money!) involved in choosing cabinets. What a headache. But when it came down to what we wanted to spend...our selection was small. So the natural maple was the best for our buck. And we got UbaTuba granite. It's a black/dark green/dark blue granite. I love it. And the appliances are good ol' Lowe's Frigidaire Gallery...it was a stainless steel suite of appliances on sale. Jason picked them out all by himself. He did great! 2. We did all the demo work in the house...took out all the old cabinets, flooring in the kitchen, knocked down some walls. We just had hardwood floor put in the kitchen which when the whole house (all hardwoods) was sanded and polyurethaned...it blended right in. Other than the floor, Hope Kitchen installed the cabinets & the countertop. Everything else was us. 3. Paint colors: In kitchen/dining area: Benjamin Moore Tuscan Red. I think this is my new favorite color of paint. It's like a rusty red, and it goes great with the cabinets and granite. In the living room: BM Concord Ivory (my next favorite color). In kids rooms, I used Behr colors-yellow for Abby, blue for Ben. And painted the playroom an apple green color from Behr. Bought a green...way too bright. Took it back and they added in 8 oz. of white paint to lighten it. So it's really a no name paint. Kinda matches Behr's Asparagus color. Anywhoo....Jason doesn't like it so I'm sure it will get repainted at some point. Anyone who comes over says that they love it. We'll see.
At the end of July, we celebrated Abby's 4th birthday and Ben's 1st Birthday with a combined party at Boothe Memorial Park in Stratford. Invited lots of friends and family and had a wonderful time. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs; served lots of sides including fresh, hot corn on the cob. And topped it all off with some fun games: water balloon toss, watermelon roll (relay race with rolling watermelons...kids loved it), and 3-legged race. It rained the day before the party and the day after the party...but we had a gorgeous sunny day on our day. Yeah!