Getting Closer...

It's getting so much more real. My babies are going to preschool in the fall. Both of their teachers called me today. We will be going to meet them the last week in August, so the kids can see their classrooms, and get acquainted with the teacher and the school. I am really happy because Jacob's teacher came with good recommendations, I requested this specific teacher and we got her. Not only is she a good teacher, Jacob will have one of his friends, who's also a neighbor in his class. His mom is who recommended this teacher, Thanks again Christine. Jenna will also have one of her friends in her class and well as far as the teacher goes we will see. There's only one two year old class on the days she's going. The kids are getting more excited. They both have their back packs now, Jenna, Dora of course and Jacob decided on Transformers. In just a little over a month they will start preschool. Oh boy!

We are getting ready to leave now to go to D.C. for our Kickoff Party/Baseball game. I think the Nats are playing the Phillies. Keep your fingers crossed for us for no rain. The last baseball game we attempted got rained out. This will be Jenna's first baseball game and Jacob's 2nd. Hope every one's having a great Thursday. Yeah tomorrow's Friday! The Weekend!

What We DON'T Miss!

When I came home tonight Joe informed that there was an earthquake in Southern California, today. Just over the mountain from my parents. It actually happened this morning but I was unaware of it as I did not watch the news today. Joe called my parents and they are okay, but definitely felt the quake. In this article from the LA Times it talks about how this was the largest in the area since the magnitude 5.9 Whittier Narrows quake in 1987 in Rosemead. And how this one is a reminder of how there is still the possibility of "a big one." This scares me. This is what we (Joe and I) don't miss. We don't miss being woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of the earth shaking and the ground underneath you moving. It's not a very fun thing to experience. It has been a very long time since I have felt a earthquake, probably since 1999 or 1998 when we moved to Virginia.

This map shows you just how close the epicenter was to my parents house. The epicenter was in Chino Hills, where the blue balloon is. My parents live to the South East of there, in Lake Elsinore. Their town is almost at the very bottom right of the map.

Now while you're looking at the map look almost directly to the left of Chino Hills for a city called Whitter. That is the city where the 1987 Whitter Narrows (duh, Jamie) earthquake was centered. As I mentioned it above. I am only mentioning it again because of all the earthquakes that I felt in the 22 years that I lived in Cali, that is the one that I remember most.


View Larger Map

As I said earlier it took place in 1987, I was only 10 years old. But I remember this day so distinctly. I did have to look up the exact date which was October 1st. I was in the fifth grade and I was at school at it was early in the morning. I don't think we had been at school for very long yet that morning. I remember feeling the ground moving, the screams of everyone in the classroom, and hiding under my desk. We spent most of the day outside of our classroom. We had just moved a few months earlier from Whitter to Lake Elsinore. I think it was a God send that we moved when we did because where we did live was hit pretty hard. Our old house was right in the middle of the epicenter. In Lake Elsinore we were about 50 minutes from the epicenter. Had we still been in Whitter, things would have been much different for my family. My school had a ton of damaged sections that were unrecognizable. Our little downtown was completely destroyed. Our old house even had some pretty good damage done to it. Again Thank God, we moved when we did. October 1st, 1987 is a day I will never forget. If you haven't ever felt an earthquake you're lucky. Just another reason on our list of reasons why it was okay to leave California. Earthquakes are something we don't miss at all. But I (we) sure do miss you, Mom and Dad, and of course the rest of our family and friends that are still there. I hope that the USGS is wrong this time about another "big one" coming. We are glad that every one is okay.

Self Portraits

All taken by Mr. Jacob Fiocca himself. In the last one he is growling. Always have to add that bad guy in there somewhere.

It seems that he's growing up so quickly especially lately. Where does time go?

Friday Night at The Family Drive-In-----------------------------------------------------------

Daddy and Jenna dancing before the movie starts----Mommy & Jenna just hanging out

Daddy and Jacob having a serious conversation----Hey where did Daddy and Jacob go?

Here's Daddy and Jacob coming back from the playground.

Doesn't he look like such a BIG boy?

Saturday-July 26th Grand Opening of our new Lowe's and Target-----------------------------

Jenna getting a feel for a real firetruck as opposed to the toddler bed shaped like a firetruck we have.

Now Jacob's turn, He loves it!

Lots of bouncing to be done--------He loved this fighting ring, but no one for him to joust with.

It was hilarious watching him with that big thing--------Now for the slide, He decided to jump from the top this was his landing.

Now inside the new Lowe's--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now it's building time. Jacob built a tether ball thing---Mommy helped Jenna build a Dune Buggy car.

Now back into our race car cart. They looked so cute in their little aprons.

Back home for a little fun in the water-----------------------------------------------------------

We've had a pretty busy but fun two days. I am sad that tomorrow is Sunday and I have to start my work week yet again. At the last minute on Friday we were driving to Target and Joe said I wonder what playing at the Drive-In. We called and to our surprise they said Wall-E was starting it's run there. Jacob really wanted to see this movie so we decided why not. Were glad we did because we all thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was a really cute movie. Was definitely different than what I was expecting. Anyone that was thinking of seeing it should go see it.

This morning Joe suggested that we go check out our new Lowe's as it so much more convenient than the other Lowe's, plus he needed to get a couple of things. When we got there we were surprised to find that Target was open and there was a little festivities going on. They flyer we got in the mail said Target was opening on Sunday July 27th. Jacob had a ball playing around outside just for a little bit cause it was so hot outside. Joe and I spun the wheel at the booth for the new smoothie place that's opening in the center and we both won a free smoothie. We then went inside Lowe's where the kids participated in their little workshop. Jacob really enjoyed that. They have a different one every other Saturday for kids. I think Joe might have to Jacob back to that.

We have a somewhat busy week ahead of us. Nana might be coming home at the end of this week. On Thursday we're going to The Light the Night Kickoff party in D.C. Saturday we have a wedding and that afternoon we have a birthday party, for one of the kids' friend's. That's about it for now. Hope every one had a great weekend so far and enjoy your Sunday. Think of me while I am at work. Yuck! (He,he!)

More Cupcakes!

Yesterday, Joe decided he would stop by Hello Cupcakes on the way home for me as on Thursdays they have a few flavors I was interested in. When he arrived there we (I was on the phone) discovered that Hello Cupcakes is apparently not open yet. It says on their website opening Summer 2008, and I know that somewhere on the web I read it was open. Anyway it's not. So Joe decided to venture over to Baked and Wired as we were both now in the mood for some good cupcakes. Now let me first say that Baked and Wired does not just sell cupcakes, they sell a variety of baked goods. They are more expensive than Georgetown Cupcakes, but the cupcakes are also much larger than GT. They are also a much better cupcake. Not only are they bigger but the cake was definitely more moist. The frosting was not cream cheese at least on the cupcakes I tried. When Joe got there he said that the woman behind the counter said they usually have more flavors but had sold out of a lot of them for that day. He got two of their strawberry cupcakes, a carrot cake cupcake and three chocolate cupcakes. I tried a bite of both the carrot cake cupcake and the strawberry cupcake. The carrot cake one was pretty good. I'm not really a carrot cake person but Joe enjoyed it. The strawberry one was pretty good. I enjoyed the cake it was white with strawberries in it. The frosting was a strawberry butter creme. It was a little sweet, so I could only eat so much of it. The chocolate cupcake was also really good and the frosting was a vanilla butter creme. Jenna really enjoyed this frosting and she even ate a little bit of cake, too. I have one more chocolate cupcake to eat and I think I'll have it after lunch today. Have a great Friday and enjoy the weekend.

Is it just us?

Okay so I've always has a small obsession with cupcakes. I really do love them. But on my daily blog rounds lately I have been checking out a lot of Melis B's links to cupcake blogs. This has really had me in the mood for some good cupcakes. Now don't get me wrong I think I am pretty good at making cupcakes, but I am just not in the mood to bake. I would rather have someone else do the baking. In my travels at The Cupcake takes the Cake blog they have a rather extensive list of Cupcakeries around the U.S. I have been checking out several in the D.C area, just cause well maybe they're convenient enough for Joe to stop at on his way home. And so he did just that for me on Tuesday. He stopped at Georgetown Cupcake, he brought home 6 cupcakes. We had a Chocolate & Vanilla, Vanilla2, Lava Fudge, Coconut, and 2 of the Red Velvets as this is their signature cupcake. Today on CTC blog they have a snippet of this article, this food critic liked these GT cupcakes? Joe and I did not. The cake was dry and well if you like cream cheese frosting you might like them. All of the cupcakes had cream cheese frosting. Don't get me wrong they looked really yummy but looks aren't everything right? I tried a bite of all of them with the exception of the coconut one. I don't really care for coconut so I opted not to try it. Of all of the cupcakes the vanilla2 was the best. Joe and I agreed that it was the best out of all of them. And well saying it was the best isn't really saying much. I did not eat any of that frosting because at that point I couldn't take any more of the frosting.

Before going to that bakery we had discussed going to a different one, Hello Cupcakes! We decided to try GT first since it was closer to Joe's work and he read lots of good reviews about it. Now in reading the comments after the article I linked above it seems a lot of people feel the same way about GT that Joe and I do. With that being said I am now really ready to try Hello Cupcakes. They look like they have lots of yummy flavors and a few people did say they we're good. This shop did just open not that long ago, so we will see. I am also looking forward to trying Baked and Wired they too got lots of good reviews. In the comments of the above article lots of people said that they were much better than GT cupcakes. So we will see just where I can get my hubby to go to next for me for my cupcake craziness. I will then let you know what I think of those cupcakes. Because you know that you all want to know : ) he,he! About a month or so ago we did try some cupcakes from a bakery in Maryland that a friend brought to us as she lives near it. Those were some pretty good cupcakes but unfortunately I can't remember the name of the bakery right now. I am sorry if I am making anyone hungry because I know every time I am reading about cupcakes it makes me hungry. Like now just writing about them and it's midnight, I am getting hungry.

Here's a picture of the cupcakes sorry about the lighting. Unlike myself Jenna did enjoy the frosting. And my Jacob of course wanted nothing to do with them : ) Hopefully our next venture to a new place will turn out to be better with better cupcakes.

Not Much to Report

Not a whole lot going on at The Fiocca household. On Friday we had a play date, which we hadn't had on in a while. It was fun the kids all got along for the most part. Sometimes I think I look more forward to the play dates than the kids do. It's really great getting to spend that time with friends. Having adult conversations about whatever we feel like talking about at that time. And well the kids, at this last play date it seemed like they were having a perfectly good time playing good guy, bad guy if they weren't jumping on the moon bounce thingy.

Saturday was a little different for us. We went to a friend's house for their daughter Kaiani's third birthday. What was so different? Girls! Everywhere was girls. Most of you know when we go to play date Jenna is the only girl. At this party there was all girls and just Jacob and one other boy. It was so different. Screaming like you can't believe. What am I in for? The oldest girl was 5 and 1/2 with the youngest being 16 months old. In total 7 girls, all I can say is WOW! It really was a lot of fun though. It took Jenna a little while to adjust to having girls around. Jacob however managed to adjust, just fine. He played with girls for a little while. That is until he started talking to Kaiani's Uncle Ben. Jacob had a ball with Ben just doing boy things. I think that Ben actually enjoyed himself too. As he only has two nieces at this point, so having a boy around was different for him too. All in all every one had a great day. The kids and I came home and Daddy went to another friends to play poker.

Also on Friday we finally got Jenna's two year pictures taken. I had a great coupon for the Picture People and it was about to expire. One free 8x10 or 11x13 and 25% off all other portraits. She took a lot of good pics and it really is hard to decide. We also managed to get one good one of the two of them together. As it's been a while since we've had a picture taken of the two of them. I am going to share a few of those pics but you'll have to excuse the Zazzle watermark on the pics. We don't have a scanner so I can't really share that way. This is directly from the PP website so you know why they have the watermark. I will share pics from the rest of our week at a later time as I'd like to share just these for now. Hope every one had a great weekend. Enjoy!

Light the Night Walk 2008

Most of you are quite aware that I have been raising money and participating in The Light the Night Walk since 2001. I am on a small team. It consists of my very dear friend Nancy, her daughter Jackie, Another friend Cheryl, Myself (Jacob and Jenna have also been walking since they came into this world), sometimes our spouses, Mia and last but most certainly not least Gavin the reason why we started walking. I won't go to much into detail about our history as I don't won't to repeat myself too much as I explain our history on my LTN website.

Back in 2001 Gavin was 2 and 1/2 years old and was diagnosed with Leukemia-Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). Gavin is Nancy's grandson and Jackie's son. When researching The Society we came across The Light the Night Walk. At that point we decided that this was a cause that we needed to help. Every year since 2001 we have been walking and raising money for this cause. The money that we raise goes directly to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, National Capital Area. It goes towards research and it also goes to patients and their families.

Every year we try our hardest to raise more money than the previous year. Most of what we raise comes from different Wal-Mart's as most of our team is Wal-Mart associates and we also do other fundraisers like Barbeque's and bake sales. Thus far we have been very successful at beating our previous years fundraising efforts. This year our goal is $20,000. So far we have raised about $11,000. My individual goal is to raise $1000 on my own. For the last few years they have offered a free website to each walker. This is the first year I am trying it out, as I am a little more experienced with the whole website thing. On my website you can donate money to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Light the Night walk and by doing so through my website my team will get credit for each of those dollars raised. Please do not feel like you have to donate just because you're reading this post. And if you do feel like donating, don't think you have to donate a wad of money every little bit helps even $1.00 makes a difference.

*I forgot to add this. For those of you who would like to donate but do not feel safe donating via the web. You can always mail me a check made out to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In the memo line put Team G-Force. That way our team still gets the credit. If you'd like just send me an email and I'll give you my address.

Before I go on and I know you're probably wondering. Gavin is now in full remission and is a thriving 9 year old. Thank God for that. You all may or may not know someone that has been effected by Leukemia or Lymphoma. Gavin is most certainly not the only little guy I know that was affected by this disease but he is the reason why Team G-Force was started.

And for My Light the Night website, I am really excited about this. I have posted some pictures from past walks on the website. Please at least take a look and let me know what you think. I also would like to take this moment to Thank Everyone for continuing to support me.

One last thing the walk info- Our team walks at the Reston Walk. There are many walks sites in our area. The Reston walk takes place on Saturday October 4th at begins at The Reston Town Center. The start time is still to be announced. Thanks Again for taking the time to listen and read about Our Team and our cause.

Don't Go....

Mommy/Mama. That's what I have been hearing for the past few weeks. Every night when I am getting ready to go to work or just the mention of me going to work. Just about every evening when I head upstairs to change for work Jenna follows me. As I get in my work clothes she says "Mommy no go work." Tonight however it was just a little different and quite cute actually. She said "Mama no go work, go tomorrow." It was to cute. I guess maybe the kids are going through a little phase where they just don't want me to leave. It really makes me sad but at the same time it makes me happy. Only because it lets me know that they do actually notice that I am gone in the evenings. They are always having so much fun with Daddy when I am about to walk out the door, I sometimes wonder if they even notice I am gone besides the whole goodbye hug and kiss. Jacob on the other hand is a little more dramatic shall I say. I am pretty sure he's the one that started this phase, if it is a phase and Jenna has decided to follow. Some nights I find him holding onto my legs begging "Don't go!" And in the morning when we wake up he tells me "Momma go to work and me miss her." Today though he read me the cutest letter. We have these little plastic letters from on of our Fisher Price toys. Quite often I am given mail for me to read. When Jacob usually reads me my letter's they say:
To Momma,
I love Momma
Love,
Jacob
However today it was just a little more detailed.
To Momma,
When Momma go to work I miss her. I don't like it when Momma go to work. Me sad when Momma go to work. I love Momma.
Love,
Jacob

He's such my little cutie. He amazes me everyday. Especially with his talking. He loves to tell you stories now. Last year we were lucky if he put three words together. When he's in one of his story telling moods Joe and I just look at each other in amazement at the amount of words that come out of his mouth. Thank goodness for Mrs. Clay, that's his speech therapist, we love her. Jacob really loves her too and my gosh she loves him too. Also a lot of practicing and his homework. He just loves his homework. Hopefully he will continue to love his homework throughout school. Okay, I know off on a tangent again.

It's the things like them telling them that they miss me and don't want me to leave that make me feel like a special Mommy. How do your kids make you feel special?

Summer Fun with Friends

Something we always love to do in the Summer is go to the Drive-in. There's not really many around anymore so Joe and I were so excited when we moved to Winchester to find that there's one right down the road in the next city. When Joe and I were dating and still lived Cali we went to the drive-in a lot but then we had to drive 45 minutes to it. Getting back to today sorry! This evening we went to the drive-in and saw Kung Fu Panda, but we didn't just go as a family this time. This time we went with friends who also happen to be our neighbors. We have been talking about going together for the past two Summers and we finally did it. It was really fun, the movie was good and the company was good. The kids had a great time both before and during the movie. Jenna is about the same at the drive-in as she is at the movie theater. Doesn't really sit for too long, constantly up, down, over here, over there and doesn't really know where she wants to be. Still fun though, just have to keep a constant eye on her. A couple of times she ventured in to the front of the van and decided to hop into her seat and buckle herself in. She then of course freaked when she couldn't get out so Mommy had to come to the rescue. Even with my little wanderer, I am still looking forward to doing it again. And now for some pics from our outing this evening.

Jacob sliding-----------Jenna hanging out on the zebra------Jacob, too!

Jenna and Jacob together------Jacob, Jenna, and Jacob waiting in line for the slide-------Now swinging 2gether

The Gang swinging again-------------Waiting for the movie to start

Just a Few Pictures......Oh and a few words, too!

Just have been hanging out the last couple of days, since John and Alyssa left us on Monday. The kids are really missing their cousins. Every morning they ask for them, it's really cute but also sad at the same time.

On Saturday we went to the movies with all the kids and Nana and we had a great time. One of my favorite things about the movies is the popcorn, but popcorn is just not popcorn without M&M's. I have been enjoying my popcorn at the movies like this since I was about 10 years old. My Aunt Stacey who is just 5 years older than me taught me to eat my popcorn with M&M's. It was when I spent almost an entire Summer with her and my grandparents. If you have not tried M&M's and popcorn you just have to. There's nothing like eating hot popcorn and M&M's. Jacob loves to eat his popcorn this way also at the movies, he's just too cute about it. When we went to the movies on Saturday I shared this yummy combination with John and Alyssa and well they loved it too. So now like my aunt shared this with me I have now shared it with my niece and nephew. Wow! I kind of went off on a tangent, sorry. While we were there we saw a preview for Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa that is due to come out in November. It looks really cute, Jacob really enjoyed the first movie.

On Monday we hit the Hagerstown Outlet Mall, just a quick trip cause I had to go to work that evening. Some of the stores were having really great sales. I was actually quite upset that I don't know or couldn't think of a single person that has a baby girl or that is having one shortly. In the Baby Gap they had a ton of stuff on sale. The guy there said they were clearing out the Summer to get ready for the Fall line. They had baby girl bathing suits on sale for $2.99. I really wanted to buy Jenna another bathing suit especially for that price but she already has enough suits. I just needed to really buy a suit for that price but I didn't since I didn't have anyone to buy for. I was a little disappointed, we ran out of time and I didn't get to go over to the Children's Place outlet and they always have good deals over there. So there it is just a little bit of running around on John and Alyssa's last couple of days with us. I really wish they didn't have to leave so soon the week went by so fast, I miss them too. Hopefully it will be sooner than the last time, when we get to see them again.

Hope everyone is having a good week, oh yeah here's some random pics from the rest of the time the kids were here........................................

Jacob & John eating popcorn and M&M's---------Alyssa & Jenna waiting for the movie

Hanging out at the outlet mall

4th of July Pictures

Eating dinner-----------Isn't she cute?---------- Jenna and Colton hanging out

Jenna stuffing her face with cupcake----------Jenna and John



Getting ready to watch the fireworks-------Watching the fireworks, love all those little heads

John, Alyssa, and Jacob A.---------John and Alyssa---------Mommy with her little Angels sleeping

My Jacob---------Me and Alyssa

Just a few pics from the 4th of July. I didn't really get a lot of pics from during our indoor BBQ. It rained on and off for most of the evening. The kids spent most of that time in the basement of our friends house with their cousins and friends. After it finally stopped raining and got dark we headed back up the street for fireworks. This year the guys really did a fantastic job. They always do a good job, but they really out did themselves. Now they'll have to aim for even better next year. All kids really enjoyed the show, Jenna and Jacob fell asleep before it was all the way over. They had such a hard fun day. Hope everyone else had a fun and safe holiday.