A Day in the Life...

So I'm sitting here, trying to wade through the confusion that is registering Aiden for Kindergarten next school year, and I'm listening to the boys in the dining room. They are telling "jokes" to each other. Which is basically saying a bunch of words then laughing. Here's a sample:

Aiden: What did the apple juice say to the apple juice drink?
Jeremy: What?
Aiden: Oink, Oink! (both laugh hysterically)

Aiden: Okay, it's my turn now cuz I'm funny.
Jeremy: Okay.
Aiden: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!
Jeremy: HAHA!
Aiden: Your turn.
Jeremy: Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10! hahahaha

Oh...they've moved on to an "eyes open eyes closed game". Guess the joke session is over.
Bye for now! –Maria

Merry [fake] Christmas!

Well, tonight is the last night Mom and Dad Pascoal are going to be here in CA. We are so sad that they are leaving, but so glad they were able to be here for so long. We celebrated Christmas with them today, since we won't be able to all be together when Christmas comes this December. We've had a lot of fun building it up. The boys have been anticipating it. Jeremy's been telling people (even strangers) that "it's almost fake Christmas". Of course, they don't know that he's actually talking about something we've really been planning!

We all met up at Gina & Dan's this afternoon for the big celebration. Since they have an artificial Christmas tree (actually, they have 2!), they put up all their Christmas decorations early. So the atmosphere was great! Everyone brought one gift with them - and it could only cost $1. Then we did a gift exchange where we chose presents based on age. It worked out great for the kids - except poor Alyssa, whose 2 presents were both swapped - one by Aiden and one by Jeremy. She was very nice about it.

We did our traditional Christmas activity: playing games! We played the Christmas game, which is of course a staple. And there were tons of other games going on. There was the Bean Game (a must-play), Ticket to Ride (3 times!), Scrabble, Rummikub, Christmas Trivia, Democrazy, Encore, Taboo...possibly some others that are being forgotten here. And then the other Christmas Day staple - football - was on. So it really did feel like an actual holiday! Too bad we all have to go back to work tomorrow...

One of the highlights was Vito's famous cheesecake. He came through at fake Thanksgiving with pumpkin cheesecake. And for fake Christmas he didn't disappoint...*drum roll, please*... Peppermint Cheesecake! As Rachel Ray would say: yum-O! [made with Andes mints]

We almost stayed late enough to celebrate fake New Year...but left before the stroke of midnight. Oh well - guess we did enough fake celebrating for one year!

Us with Aiden during the gift exchange

An AWESOME $1 gift: Twinkie the Kid

Aiden with "Santie Auntie" Gina

Jeremy and Jocelyn



Jeremy choosing his gift

Vito and Dionne at the gift exchange


Playing the Christmas Game

The boys with the Christmas tree



Bean Game!


Heath and Angie

Bible Nursery School Performance

Today Jeremy's Bible Nursery School performed for the Women's Bible Study group. It was only the cutest thing EVER! Check it out...

Fake Thanksgiving/Chicago

The Pascoal Family has been hopping this past week with activity! We hosted our Fake Thanksgiving feast here at the house on Wednesday. There was quite a turn-out! We had the whole Thanksgiving spread - Turkey, Potatoes, Stuffing, Sweet Potatoes, Veggies, Pies...the whole nine yards! The only thing missing was the Portuguese touch of Shay. But we figured we already had that covered with our Fake Thanksgiving in Arkansas. So we let it slide. But we more than made up for it in pie! Banana Cream, Double Cream Blueberry, Razzleberry, Chocolate, and best of all - Vito's Pumpkin Cheesecake! Yum!



The house was full with friends and family alike. Maria's family was there in spirit - we got to talk to them over the phone. It was Maria's mom's birthday that day. Happy Birthday, Mom! We also celebrated Angela's birthday on the 4th. So happy birthday to you too, Angela. :-)

Happy Fake Thanksgiving!

Cousin Playtime

Maria left on Friday for a conference in Chicago for Recovery International (RI). RI is a self-help mental health organization that offers cognative techiques for managing anxiety, temper and fears. Maria has been practicing the RI method for close to 3 years now. She began attending group meetings after experiencing panic attacks and anxiety a few years back. She is now an assistant leader at her meeting and on the Area Leadership Team, helping others to spread the tools and techniques and offering support.

The conference was very rewarding. It was held in a hotel near Chicago O'Hare. She was gone for two nights. But since the conference ended early on Sunday, she had time to take in a couple of Chicago sights before departing.

After the conference closed, Maria took the "L" Train to downtown Chicago, where she had authentic Deep Dish Pizza at Giordano's, then saw Wicked the Musical.

Chicago is a HUGE city. Riding the train from the hotel to downtown took an hour. And that was only taking HALF the distance of ONE of the subway lines. It's really amazing just how big it is there. It snowed a little bit too, so that also added a little excitement. It was really quite pleasant because there wasn't much walking involved, and Maria was all bundled up. Plus since it was Sunday, downtown wasn't terribly crowded. Also, a large portion of the population seemed to be too busy watching the Bears game to crowd up the streets. :-)

Wicked was so great. It was quite different than the novel, but still equally enjoyable. Glinda was a crack-up, and the show was much more family-friendly than the book. You'll never watch Wizard of Oz the same again.

Maria @ Wicked

Maria eating authentic Chicago Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza:

a local said that people come from other states to buy these pizzas, freeze them and take them home with them!

Unexpected Turn of Events

Hey everyone! Who knew so much could happen in just one week? We've been through a roller coaster over here. But thankfully the ride has come to an end and we're currently enjoying the rest of the amusement park that is life.

On Wednesday, Aiden's school had their Harvest Festival. The boys wore their pirate costumes and scored lots of booty playing games, ate about 4 cupcakes each (ack - bad mommy!), and overall just really enjoyed themselves running around with at least 100 other kids. It was craziness, but so much fun for them.

This was one of their favorite activities. The school recycled their shredded paper and buried candy in it, and the kids would hunt for the candy in the shreds. By the end of the festival, kids were just all out throwing the shreds on each other in heaps. (Too many cupcakes!)

Aiden taking a snack break with his friend Noah.

Aiden playing the bean bag toss game (he won lots of prizes)!

The day of the festival, Jeremy was getting a runny nose. He seemed fine for the most part, just a runny nose. By the evening he had quite a little cough...which brings us to the unexpected turn of events...Jeremy's illness. By the next morning, we were certain that Jeremy needed to be seen by his pediatrician. He had a fever, was coughing all through the night, and laboring to breathe. The pediatrician was quite concerned when he saw Jeremy, who by that time was really having trouble breathing. His little ribs were sticking out with every breath, and he was forcing in a little dent in his throat with each inhalation, as he was trying to breathe in air. He was treated in the office with a nebulizer, a device used to administer medication in the form of a mist inhaled into the lungs. The doctor suspected pneumonia, and sent him to diagnostic imaging for a chest x-ray. When we got back to the Dr's office, he had the x-ray already available for viewing through their new computer system. The x-ray was abnormal with suspected pneumonia, and the doctor prescribed a course of treatment, saying he'd need to see Jeremy back the next day so we could decide if he would need to be admitted to the hospital (depending on his progress or lack thereof in the next 24 hours - and the official radiology report). This of course was quite alarming to us, but the doctor gave him a double dose of the medication right there on the spot and sent us home with an inhaler and some other meds to work on improving his condition. Thankfully by the grace of God, Jeremy responded very well to the treatment and it only got better from that point. The medication began working within 12 hours. He was bit by bit breathing easier, and we were so thankful. He was seen the next day (Halloween day), and the official radiology report came back, giving him the all clear. The boys were in a great mood. Jeremy was feeling better so he was in an especially good mood. Maria would have been in a good mood, had she not in the meantime fallen victim to the same illness. She was at the doctor herself, getting a breathing treatment and a similar course of medication. The consolation prize for our Halloween visits to the doctors were halloween decorated donuts for Maria and trick or treat bags for the kiddos. Oh well!

So, that brings us to Halloween Night. Of course we couldn't do the whole she-bang we would normally do on halloween since we were sick. But Drew didn't want the kids to miss out altogether. So they put on their pirate garb, and just did a mini trick-or-treat only at our immediate neighbors on our block. But that proved to be plenty! They went out for less than half an hour, and they came back with pounds and pounds of candy! There were a lot of generous neighbors and not that many trick-or-treaters, so the kids got handfuls of candy at every stop. They were thrilled with their loot. Auntie Dionne came over in the evening to check out their "booty" - they were excited to show it off and dive in.










The next day (Nov 1) was Jeremy's Birthday. We had cancelled the party 2 days prior, as Jeremy was in such bad shape. But he ended up having a really nice day, as he still had a few visitors drop by and we celebrated together as a family. Thankfully, he was nearly fully recovered by this time.

Jeremy with a birthday present from Mommy and Daddy - a "real" light saber (it was taller than him)!

Jeremy with his birthday present from the Summits (he loves it and is wearing it today, Nov 2). He even wore it to bed that night.

More happy present time (Auntie Dionne stopped by to wish him happy birthday and bring him some gifts)!

Vavu and Aiden playing Memory. Aiden thought it was really funny when Vavu forgot where some of the tiles were.

Maria helping Jeremy open his present from Laura and Jake - a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mega Blocks set.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Jeremy! We love you!

Happy Cake Face