Our Pumpkins....

These are the pumpkins that we picked last weekend. Aren't they great! Stay tuned for what they become....if we have time :)

The Pumpkin Patch

We finally jumped on that band wagon and took Miles to Linvilla Orchard. We are so glad that we went last Friday and didn't wait, since it has been raining since.

Miles of course loved the giant pumpkins. These ones were my favorite. There were called Fantasy pumpkins. Aren't they so cool. I wanted to buy a ton of them and fill up my planter out front, but sadly I am not insanely rich. :)

Miles was not into the camera, he was so annoyed that we kept having him stop to take pictures...can you tell?

James and Miles enjoying the hay bales. We were letting Miles climb all over the place and have a blast, but as we were leaving I heard someone that worked there telling all the other kids to get off....Ooops!

And here is the last shot since my camera died within 5 minutes of us getting there! Lame, I know. We also got to see chickens, ducks, pigs, and horses. Miles LOVED the ducks, and was trying so hard to get into the pond with them, but when we took him over to the pig he started crying almost instantly. Ducks-yes, pigs-no. He wanted to give the horse a kiss...man I wish my camera didn't die!

High Fructose Corn Syrup...

So I am hating this commercials that they have right now for high fructose corn syrup. Some idiot person is eating something totally sugary with HFCS and some other idiot comes up and says that he shouldn't eat that stuff. The first idiot says "Why, HFCS is made from corn and tastes just like sugar" And the second idiot is lik..."Great! Lets all just eat a ton of it then!"
First of all...sugar is not the greatest thing for you in the first place, especially for developing children. And secondly HFCS doesn't get broken down in your body like sugar does. It stays in its bonds, therefore not releasing insulin into the blood stream. That insulin is what tells your brain that you are full. Soooo....if you are eating and eating all this yummy cereal or whatever and it has HFCS in it, you won't feel full, will eat more, and then it will get stored directly as fat!
I am hating these commercials! Definitely try and stay away from the stuff, especially if its in the top 5 of the ingredient list.
OK, I said my piece, I feel better.

Baby Shower!

Clar, Jen and I threw a baby shower over the weekend for Danica and Genevieve. It was so much fun to get together with people that i don't get to see very often. The pregnant women looked fabulous, and we all enjoyed delicious food, and a lot of laughs (courtesy of their husbands)
I got to make the cake, and since I was holding a precious six month old during the present opening, I didn't bust out my camera until the end. Everyone was so stuffed that we couldn't even think of eating cake, but I made the girls slice into it. It ended up looking like a wedding photo which is hysterical!

Here's the cake. I actually did it all at home...a first for me. It was stressful not having my bakery to fall back on, and interesting trying to fit it into Miles' nap time, but overall it turned out fine.

My favorite part was making the diaper bags. I obsess about cakes, and have seen people do things like this before, but never have had someone order it, so this was a great opportunity to try something new.

Each bag had all the essentials....a blanket, bottle, diapers, pacifier, and stuffed animal.

5 Things...

I was tagged by Amanda....so here goes!

5 Shows I watch
1. Heroes
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Biggest Loser
4. Project Runway
5. Mad Men

5 Restaurants
1. Chipotle
2. Mika (Sushi)
3. Chad's
4. Ray's
5. Training Table....gotta love cheese fries.

5 Thing that happened yesterday
1. I completed my Pay it Forward
2. I found out Clar and Chris are having a boy!!!
3. I made a lasagna from scratch...noodles and all, Yummy!
4. I found out my family is foregoing gifts this year in order to adopt a refugee family.
5. I took Miles to the dollar store to replace a truck that got destroyed the first time we took it to the park. I guess I can't expect much more from a truck that cost $1.

5 Things to look forward to
1. Leaving Philly...not my friends here, just Philadelphia.
2. Nov 1. Family pictures with Danica!!!
3. Christmas. I can't wait to see my family.
4. Every morning with Miles.
5. Every evening with James.

5 Things I love about fall
1. The colors
2. Sweaters
3. Thanksgiving
4. Pumpkin cheesecake
5. The primary program

5 Thing on my wish list
1. To be stationed in a nice place next year.
2. James to get into the Ortho program
3. For my family and friends to be healthy and happy.
4. To be willing and aware when I can serve others.
5. To always be grateful for the life I have.

5 Things important to me
1. James and Miles
2. My Family
3. Friends
4. Being productive
5. Food

5 People I tag
Anyone who needs a new post :)

Aren't we all a little jealous.

Miles has a red valour track suit....

And he rocks it!

And the Winners are....

Kelsey, Preethi, and Riliegh.
Congratulations ladies! You are the three that commented first and therefore are my winners for Pay it Forward. I love that my winners are spread throughout the country. Kelsey from SLC, Preethi for Philly, and Riliegh in Santa Barbara.
Please leave me your addresses and I will get you your gifts!

Fall

We are loving our last warm days. Fall is so beautiful around here. I love the trees and smells, the tiny nip in the air that makes it perfect for wearing sweaters and eating soup with hot cheese on bread (you fellow Checchio's know what I am talking about) I took the Fall scenery as a good excuse to bring my camera to the park today.

Miles is so stinking cute holding his leaf. Notice how his feet are blurry. He likes to sit and swing his feet now. I think its so adorable.

Check him out!

Our Car....again!

I know its blurry, but the reflection was making it really hard to get a good shot.....this is a picture of the hood of my car! Can you believe that people do this kind of thing for fun. I walked up to the car and noticed these large scratches first. Then noticed all the little messages. These girls....yeah, you heard me right. Girls! I don't know why but I just expect vandals to be boys, but these were clearly girls. They had written "Lena was here" "Georgia was here" and then quickly tried to key it out when they realized how stupid it was to write your name on some one's car! I mean, I even get annoyed when someone writes "wash me" in the grime left on my car, let alone this. It perplexes me as to why people decide to do things like this.
O yeah, and yesterday someone broke into it again! Come on!!! At least they never take the carseat, and there isn't ever ANYTHING in it....not even change, But I guess they have figured it out and want to do it whenever they can. Soooo frustrating!!!

Pay it Forward.

I recently participated in a "pay it forward" via my friend Annie's blog. She sent me the cutest little clutch, a great truck for Miles, lip balm, gum, and a great waterbottle. It was all fabulous! James ate the gum, and Miles took over the waterbottle, but I don't think anyone will fight me for the clutch :)
I am excited to say that now its my turn to Pay It Forward. So leave a comment on my blog and I will pick three of you to send a care package to. You just have to promise to pay it forward to three more people.
Now I just have to figure out some great things to pack up!

Free Handbag!

Hey its worth a shot right?
www.handbagplanet.com
Good Luck!

New Couch

As some of you know and most of you don't (thank goodness) we bought a LEMON of a couch when we first furnished our house two and half years ago. Its cream leather...supposedly...and has a matching chair and loveseat. Now the chair and loveseat are great. love them. they're fabulous. But the couch is a disaster. It started tearing on the seat cushions. We tried to patch them with extra leather from underneath, and stitch them together, but nothing worked. We finally resorted to covering it with a beige throw. Unfortunately that solution did not last long since the back cushions decided to go south. It is seriously the strangest thing. You would think a tiger had been our living room and shredded out couch....so weird.

We are moving in eight months when James is done with school, and I figured that we would just grin and bear it. But James had other ideas, and after many discussions and looking on craig's list at many horrendously ugly couches we found one that worked....

Espresso brown leather that matches our ottomans, and low to the ground like our other pieces. But the best and most important part was that the arms detach so we could fit it through our 27 inch front door.....imagine how that limited us.
I figured that now that our "dirty laundry" was on the back patio, it was OK to air it out.

Aunt Christi comes to visit!

James' sister Christi came out for a little under a week to get some dental work done....well a lot of dental work done, poor girl. It was so fun to have company and get to visit with her. Miles loved having her around and all the extra attention he was getting.



We know that more dental work will bring her back to Philly. Hopefully its sooner rather than later. :)

Wedding Cakes....

It is definitely wedding cake season around here, so I have been lucky enough to keep busy with what I love to do (besides hanging out with my men)

Liz and Owen's wedding cake. this was sooooo fun to do because I had no limits at all. My boss was great, and donated all the supplies, and Liz just trusted me to make something fabulous.

Owen's grooms cake. It was a complete suprise to him and a nice little touch to the event.

A 60th birthday cake I did last week....apparently she wanted something "glitsy". Hope she was happy.


A wedding cake that I thought was hideous, but it must be the brides "cup o' tea".

A wedding cake that is commonly done at my bakery. The fondant ribbon at the bottom of each tier was giving me trouble since it was so humid that day, it made things awfully sticky.

Here is a topsy turvy cake that I started, but didn't get to put the finishing touches on. You can see it doesn't have a border yet and isn't quite fabulous enough to head out of the bakery....I have to say I love a non-traditional cake, and one's that look like they may fall over are my favorite!

A really simple design, but I like the mixing of shapes, it adds a little more interest than just round. Hopefully it got some fresh flowers on sight because it looks a little dull.

Oh, the traditional wedding cake.
Hope you all enjoyed the peek. I take all of these pictures and figure I should do something with them. :) If you ever want a cake for anything, just let me know!

Just for laughs..

Miles and I took some pictures while he was playing in my bedroom the other day.

Looking mischevious.

Gonna get me!

And here he is showing me the remains of his cracker...nice right!

Poke-A-Nose

Have I told you all that my parents are the greatest people ever! Well, if I have, you are going to hear it again.....so my parents are the GREATEST people ever!!!!
While James and I were up in the Cape for Liz's wedding my parents flew all the way from SLC to watch Miles. They rented a time share in the Poconos with my Grandma Checchio and stayed for the week.


Here is Miles and my Mom enjoying the grass outside. He had so much fun, and I am sure made my parents take him everywhere. He is always on the move.

My Dad and his siblings suprised my Grandma with a birthday party while she was there. Miles was probably thrilled since this party included one of those mylar balloons that they sell at the grocery store-he is always so obssessed with those.

It also included a rather large tray of Italian antipaste which Miles had my Mom push him around on while he sat in it.


It was so great of them to come do that. James and I were able to have a wonderful weekend with no worries, since we knew that Miles was so well taken care of. Thank you!!! oxox