The Fiorucci Seven

Trick or Treat 2011

2011-10-26T10:17:00.001-04:00

It has been almost a year since I have posted. Hard to believe. It feels like yesterday. So much has happened in a blink of an eye. I may catch everyone up in a separate post. But for now I will just share with you Round 1 of 2011 Trick or Treating for Joey and Sofia.

Trick or treating is on the Tuesday before Halloween around here and since we usually trick or treat on Halloween at my sister in-laws house I have been skipping trick or treating around here. Sofia and Joey’s costumes were not quite finished when 2 hours before trick or treating I decided we would go to my good friend Christina’s house to trick or treat in her neighborhood. So over the next few days their costumes may evolve and you may see improvements in another post.

Sofia was a butterfly fairy.

Joey was a very sweet black cat. I was very surprised when he picked such a simple costume since Joey is everything but simple.

The other pictures I took of him turned out a bit blurry. So I will make sure I take more of him the next few times he needs to dress up.

They had a blast together. Love when we have the few moments everyone is getting along.

No Time for Tuesdays….

2010-11-17T16:58:00.001-05:00

This past Tuesday was a crazy one. The kids seemed a little out of control, I felt moody, I had a million things to do and felt like I was getting nowhere. But then this adorable guy comes running out with Daddy’s glasses and suddenly my day is better!

Fall Cheerleading Banquet

In the evening Emily had her last Fall Cheerleading Banquet!

Below are the pics of just the Seniors.

Emily with her coach.

I still can’t believe that this is Emily’s Senior year. Where oh where has the time gone and will some one please give me a time machine so I can slow down time!

So Happy to see…

2010-11-17T16:44:00.001-05:00

I was so happy to finally be able to see my Uncle Mike and Aunt Rebecca after 13 long years. I hope that it won’t be 13 more til I see them again. I was not thinking and did not take very many pictures and did not get one of Aunt Rebecca. But here is Uncle Mike with my Mom and Aunt Kathy. I caught my Mom in the middle of her saying something. Gosh I thought that was only a problem with taking pictures of children.

Uncle Mike and Joey were raking leaves.

The leaves did not stay in one pile very long.

I Love New York

2010-11-17T16:33:00.001-05:00

Well last weekend we went to NYC for Alex’s 14th Birthday Present and we had a wonderful time. We unfortunately did not get to go to the Statue of Liberty because of the insane line that had already formed. But did get to see a lot of the city. Here is a snapshot of what we did.
As soon as we got off the bus we headed south to South Ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty. As I already said we did not get to go over but the sites around were beautiful.

World Trade Center/ Ground Zero

We then hopped back on the subway and went to the WTC site.

They have made a lot of progress since I was there a year ago! We asked around and it the plan for the buildings to be done is 2016. But next year on 9/11/11 the memorial and museum will be open.

You can track the progress and see the models of what the site will look like by visiting here…

www.wtcprogress.com/

Firefighter Memorial Wall

So many brave men and women’s lives were lost. May we all remember them and honor them always.

To lighten our mood we walked to Canal Street in Chinatown for some bargain shopping. I didn’t end up with any great bargains.

We headed to The Empire States Building.

Early Dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

I had to embarrass Alex a little for his birthday. They were trying to get Alex and an 8 year old do a booty dance for their sundae but Alex wouldn’t play along. He was too mortified!

Happy 14th Birthday Alex!

We had such an amazing time and great weather. There was sooo much more we saw and did but this blog post would be way too long!

November Birthdays!

2010-11-11T19:03:00.001-05:00

This past week we celebrated two very important birthdays! My wonderful Mom’s Birthday was November 4th. She celebrated her 29th birthday once again. If it wasn’t for her I would not be here today and for everything she is and does I am so very grateful and feel so blessed to have her as my Mom.

On November 6th she was surprised with a Tea Party at the Gypsy Tea House in Westminster by my Great Aunt Ebby. We had a great time!

Happy Birthday Mom!

The second Birthday we celebrated was Alex’s 14th Birthday!

I can’t believe it has been 14 years since I gave birth to my first son. Feeling so confused with what to do with a boy since I had no brothers. Alex has taught me so much about myself and I have learned so much from him. He is kind hearted and helpful and never judging.

He is growing into a wonderful young man. His goals are to do good in high school so he can get into the Naval Academy and also wants to train to be a pilot.

Our present to Alex this year is a trip to NYC for the day this Saturday. We will post lots of pictures of our travels and fun soon!

Happy Birthday Alex! We love you!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T11:03:00.001-04:00

Joey and Sofia had Halloween Parties at Preschool and Trick or Treated to each of the other classes.

We carved our pumpkins.

And we Trick or Treated!

It was a fun Halloween Night!

Sofia and her Cousin Parker.

Joey was too excited to go get his candy and didn’t want to take a picture with me.

Maddie at her mom’s Halloween night!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Our Busy Month of October

2010-10-27T19:50:00.001-04:00

First the month started off with

Emily’s Last Homecoming!

10/2/10

10/9/10

Then my parents had their annual fall party.

The kids dunked for apples.

Millie, Cullen and Joey had fun rolling hay bales.

We made scarecrows.

I love this one with all of the kids Loving Aunt Ebbie!

Millie and Sofia’s Birthday’s are 8 days apart so we sang Happy Birthday to them both!

Then there was Sofia’s Birthday

10-14-05

to now

10-14-10

This one is at her school with her friend Kristy when she celebrated with her class.

10/15/10

We went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for Sofia’s Birthday!

We had some bad quality photos because the lighting was bad and I was ill prepared.

10/16/10

The next day we celebrated Sofia’s birthday with the Aunts and Grandparents.

The coolest kid around

Sofia’s Cat Cake.

Sofia and Grammy

Ok I have to admit this one was posed because I missed the actual shot the first time! LOVE LOVE her expression!

Do you think we have had enough?? Of course not!

10/21/10

The following week we visited a college for Emily in Lancaster, PA.

10/22/10

Watched a High School Football game. It also happened to be band night and Alex performed in his middle school marching band. Here are some highlights of the performance and following is a video. You can click on the picture to enlarge them.

10/23/10

We had pictures taken of the kids by my friend Erin. The individuals of Emily are for her Senior casual pictures. Sofia’s 5 year old pics are posted here too. You may see these again on a Christmas card. Haven’t figured out which one yet!

10/26/10

It was trick or treat night in Hanover but since we were not participating this year (we are trick or treating on Halloween with little cousin Parker) I let the kids dress up in their costumes and then took a few shots of Alex.

Joey was going to be the Mad Hatter but I had trouble getting a costume together for him. So he is a Dragon. He LOVES his costume.

Such a Sweet Alice in Wonderland.

Ahhhh. Are you exhausted. I know I am!

I will up date with trick or treating photos soon.

Love ya all!

Summer Highlights

2010-09-09T11:22:00.002-04:00

For our summer vacation we went to Chincoteague Island, Va with my parents. We had a really good time there! Emily turned 18 while we were there which was mentioned in a previous post. Here are some pictures from our vacation and right after our vacation!

The house was off of a canal with Kayaks and a Canoe to use. Alex is trying out the Kayak here.

Mark and Alex take Joey and Sofia for a ride on the canoe. They all had a blast.

Of course a turtle found us :)

I just love this picture. They were watching a boat go out to the bay.

Emily took her best friend Michaela. Here they both are when we went to OC, MD for Emily’s 18th Birthday dinner.

Here is Joey and Sofia outside of the restaurant after filling their bellies with crab legs.

Since we were in OC of course we had to stop at the boardwalk for some rides.

Mark and Joey watching Sofia climb through the

obstacle course.

Happy 18th Birthday Emily!

9/28/10

Emily and Michaela took out a beach car to tour the island.

Beautiful Sisters!

The lighthouse on Chincoteague Island.

Emily thought is was funny to feed the seagulls. Then this one made himself part of the family!

Joey and Sofia first time at the beach

Joey is such a ham and loved loved the ocean!

Bathing Beauty Sofia.

Sofia wrote their names too.

Ahhhh I want to be here again!

Emily, Michaela, Sofia, Joey and I went to play Mini Golf.

Joey and Sofia pushed the ball around till they got it in. Except for a few lucky shots for Sofia where she got a hole one 2-3 times. And Joey got the only hole in one in the 19th hole and got a free game card. He was so excited… “I won, I won!”

Sofia looking pretty with her club.

When we got back from vacation we celebrated Emily’s 18th with the rest of the family and Maddie’s 11th Birthdays.

Sisters looking silly while we all sing. (off key of course)

Happy 11th Birthday Maddie!

8/2/10

Joey and Sofia after their first day of school – a Lunch date at McDonald’s 9/8

2010-09-09T10:58:00.002-04:00

They survived and were happy. The first thing out of Joey’s mouth was “Where is Daddy?”

ugh breaks my heart….

Excuse Sofia’s dress that keeps falling off her shoulder. I didn’t notice it til now.

School is back in session.

2010-09-08T13:11:00.001-04:00

Emily and Alex went back to school last week 8/31 (Alex) and 9/1 (Emily since she is a senior she gets an extra day) I have not been very delinquent with posting this summer. And hope to get some highlights from our vacation up too this week. (but don’t hold your breath .. wink wink)

Emily first day as a Senior and Alex 2nd day as an 8th grader.

Sofia and Joey started school today and both were super excited to go.

Joey started 3yr old preschool and Sofia is in the 5yr Pre-K class since she missed the Kindergarten cut off this year. They both go MWF in the morning. (Although today Sofia said she wants to go everyday…. mmmm I don’t know if I am ready! )
Joey forgot we were even there when we got there. He went right in and was off to do his thing.

Yay for me I get 7 1/2 hours a week to myself.

The 18 years of Emily – video.

2010-07-29T22:42:00.001-04:00

I had some trouble with making this video, not just the tears I shed or the pain staking ordering pictures with no dates, but the software I was using kept crashing. This is the completed video that is not as perfect as I the one I had intended. Maybe I will go back and make the changes that were supposed to be there someday. This video is about 10 minutes long. There were so many pictures I could not leave out… and so many that I did to make this manageable. Enjoy.

Happy 18th Birthday Emily!

2010-07-28T15:41:00.001-04:00

Today is Emily’s 18th Birthday. It is so hard to believe how much time has passed since I first held my sweet baby girl in my arms.

Reflecting on the day she was born:

Labor had to be induced because she was 12 days late. She arrived after just 5 easy hours of labor completely natural. A perfectly healthy 7 pound 5 ounce baby girl at 2:10 pm. She was (barely) 19 inches long. With a beautiful perfect round head. ( all of my nurses in post partum kept telling me she looked like a c-section baby). I had never been happier in my life since I had her.

Thank you Emily for inspiring my life and being the perfect daughter any mother could ever ask for.

HAPPY

18th

BIRTHDAY

EMILY!

Since we are on vacation I will be posting pictures later.

Keyboard Kitteh!

2010-07-23T09:57:00.001-04:00

Nadia has found a new hiding spot :)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2010-07-12T15:36:00.001-04:00

We spent part of this weekend celebrating Mark’s Father’s 65th Birthday!

Here grandpa is with Sofia and Maddie and Parker.

Of course the boys never cooperate. Alex and Joey refused to cooperate to be in the picture and poor nap deprived Parker was done for the day! Emily is excused because she was working.

The little ones are getting some Skills.

Sofia in the background…. is really becoming quite the swimmer.

Joey getting ready to show off some of his own skills.

Happier Moments of Parker with his Daddy.

Happy Summer!

Our July 4th Weekend

2010-07-06T16:44:00.001-04:00

Happy Independence Day Everyone! This is how we spent our weekend.

On Saturday we went to Mark’s Uncle’s for a party in Abingdon.

Mark and Maddie with her Firecracker crown we made.

Maddie holding cousin Parker.

I just love this little face even though he is SUPER ROTTEN!

Amy and I at Uncle Mark’s.

Mark holding Joey and Parker.

Joey and Sofia. Sofia always has to have a silly face when taking her picture. Hmm I wonder where she gets that from?!

On July 4th we spent the day at my parents then went to the Carroll County Farm Museum for Fireworks! I didn’t take a ton of pictures that day but here are a few good ones I did take.

My beautiful Mother who will never look at the camera.

( I know I am going to get yelled at for putting this picture up! Say a prayer for me :) )

Beautiful Sofia. This was taken at the fireworks. She has the most gorgeous eyes!

Jenny and Aunt Ebby waiting for the fireworks to begin!

As usual I have no pictures of Emily or Alex because they won’t let me photograph them. UGH. Emily only likes pictures she takes of herself. Teenagers! That is all I will say :)

River Valley Ranch

2010-07-01T14:39:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we spent our Saturday at River Valley Ranch in Manchester, MD. (www.Rivervalleyranch.com) for Summer Saturdays at the Ranch. The last Saturday in June is the kickoff weekend with the best fireworks display around. This year both Joey and Sofia enjoyed the fireworks and were not scared at all.

Below are a few pictures from the Rodeo they have at 4pm. The Rodeo are all of the teenagers that spent the week at the Ranch for camp.

On Sunday Mark and the kids and I went to Mark’s parents to swim and visit. Here are a few pics from our visit.

Cousin: PARKER

9 1/2 months

Water logged Joey

Sofia’s First Dance Recital

2010-06-21T11:44:00.001-04:00

Sofia had her first Dance Recital on Saturday. It was held at the Prestigious Eichelberger Performing Arts Center. She was certainly a hit and surprised us all by knowing all of her moves and “hamming it up”. We were so proud of our little dancing princess! She was in three numbers. The costume in the photo was her first jazz number “Itsy Bitsy” for the June 1960 hit “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” by Brian Hyland. The second number was a tap performance to the Teddy Bear Picnic Parade, and her third number was a Hip Hop Dance to a modified song of Pop Goes the Weasel. Sadly we could not video or take pictures during the performance. When I get the video we ordered I may try to put up a small clip to share.

Way to go Sofia!

Sofia and I after the recital. Here she is in her Hip-Hop costume.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-06-18T10:03:00.001-04:00

Mark and I are celebrating our 5th Wedding Anniversary today!

Happy Anniversary honey :)

Pig Party 2010

2010-06-18T09:41:00.001-04:00

My Parents Annual Pig Party was last weekend. Here are the highlights from another fun year!

Dad carving the pig.

Dad with Aunt Ebby

The kids had a race with water bomb fish.

Ok I don’t know what Emily is doing here. I think she is checking herself out while she runs….. “Do I still look good while I am running?” HAHAHA.

The little boys had a lot of fun with this game. Here Cullen (Shannan’s youngest) is carefully walking with his fish.

The object of the game what to run from one pond (water filled bucket with water bomb “soaking” fish in it) to the other pond you need to fill up with your fish with a ladle. While you are racing against another team. This was Shannan’s idea for a game and a big hit. I am going to have to do this one again!

And wild boy Joey running back to pass off his ladle for his team.

I just had to post this picture of Cullen with his dimples. He is so cute I could eat him up.

The kids also had a water bomb fight from one kiddie pool to the other. Here they are just hanging out in the water. The boys kept going back and forth but the girls just wanted to have a “Girl Pool”.

We had a great time despite the humidity and heat. It finally cooled down in the evening after a small storm went through that never really hit us. ( Thank goodness!)

This blog post wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t post a picture of some of the “oldies” sitting around chatting.

HA HA. I still love you guys :)

Family Festival

2010-06-10T12:12:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday we attended a Family Festival at Harrisburg Community College sponsored by Central Penn Parent Publication. We had a blast despite the humidity and heat. We plan to attend again next year. Here are a few highlights.

Sofia checking out the baby ducks.

Sofia and Maddie after getting their face painted.

Joey’s first time having his face painted!

He got a Batman logo and a snake.

Mark held a Parrot.

Joey was fascinated by the reptiles. He really loved the snake.

He tried to kiss him.

The kids painted a car!

I hope they remember that we can only do that there!

Mommy and Joey taking a break in the shade after lunch.

Sofia got to dress up like a real ballerina.

(don’t mind her blue lips after just eating an Italian ice)

Happy Preschool Graduation Sofia

2010-06-10T11:31:00.002-04:00

On June 3, 2010 Sofia celebrated her 4 year old preschool Graduation. We are so proud of Sofia and all of her accomplishments this year. She is truly a very bright and special little girl and we are so lucky that she is a part of our lives!

The kids watching Mrs. Cooper try to get the butterflies fly away. Sofia was especially excited here.

Sofia with Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Houston in the background.

The whole graduating class.

Sofia and Mommy.

Sofia and Daddy

Sofia and Daddy planting our family flower(s) in the garden.

Sofia with her friend Araceli.

During the ceremony they let off 5 butterflies they hatched as a class. After the ceremony each child and their family planted a family flower in the preschool flower garden.

Sofia will be going on to the 5 year old preschool class since her birthday is after the school cut off for Kindergarten.

New Additions to our Family

2010-06-10T10:59:00.001-04:00

Although we are still the Fiorucci7 we should really be the Fiorucci13. Yes 13. If we include all of our pets, our family total is 13.

This includes Mom and Dad, Emily, Alex, Sofia, Maddie, Joey, 1 bunny (Duncan) and 3 Betta fish (Bob the Builder, Diamond, and Blue)

Our newest additions to our “pet" family is two 8 week old kittens that we rescued from BARCS in Baltimore City. They are from separate litters and are 6 days apart. Nadia is Emily’s cat and Max is Sofia’s cat. They are both very cute and friendly and full of personality.

Max is on the left and Nadia is on the right.

Sofia with her new kitty Max. Nadia on alert for Joey.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY 2010!

2010-06-01T07:59:00.000-04:00

Joey was picking his own cherries this year and was quite proud of himself.

Alex will never look at me for pictures anymore.


Joey and Sofia after picking cherries. I couldn't decide which picture was my favorite so I added three. :)

Maybe this one is my favorite :)


As usual they always have to have a tractor ride. Here Joey is helping Alex drive and Sofia is enjoying the cart all by herself. Happy Memorial Day Everyone! I hope everyone had fun kicking off the summer this weekend!

We found another turtle!

2010-05-31T09:41:00.001-04:00

Can you believe we found another turtle! This time it was a female Eastern Box Turtle. We found her in the middle of our yard while we were out doing yard work.

Joey was so excited and really wanted to pick this one up. Obviously this one is much less intimidating than the Huge Snapping Turtle from Friday.Once Joey picked her up he quickly let her go once her feet started moving and he flipped her over on her back. Mark quickly rescued her and took her to a protected part in our woods for her to continue on her way!

An article regarding the children flown out yesterday.

2010-05-27T09:48:00.001-04:00

http://bit.ly/b7Qkkw