GIMMIE FIVE!!

Good evening folks. Normally, I write Sunday nights or Monday morning but our stupid Internet went down for some weird reason. Luckily I fixed it today, but didn't have the slightest bit of time to write. It was a super busy week before Mia's spring break so let's get to it. Monday, I had the shortest shift ever due to some extra vacation time I had to use, so I got to enjoy a very rare taco night with Jill and Mia. It was quite fun, and we watched Hotel Transylvania 2. Mia had her assessment test on Wednesday for kindergarten. While driving there, she slowly started to fall asleep. I'm like "PLEASE DON'T YOU GOTTA FOCUS ON THIS!" and luckily, she perked up when we arrived. We waited out in the hall for the early child development instructor to call her in. She got real nervous and did NOT wanna go in. Thankfully, she wasn't the only kid from Smarty Pants there. Irianna was roaming around and gasped when she saw Mia "MIAAA!!!! HAPPY EASTER! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" They gave each other a huge hug. Mia tossed me her jacket and hat and went to go play with Irianna a bit before the screening. I went back out in the hall and saw her Mom. I thanked her for letting Irianna chill a bit with Mia so she'd get more comfortable. She soon came out and told me "MIA IN THERE NOW!! OKAY BYEE!!!" Such a sweetheart.

Mia came out about 40 minutes later, grasping a dino she cut out. She did real well and in 3-4 weeks, we'll get a letter explaining where she falls in the spectrum with the other kids testing. Such pressure, I tell you! Thursday, she had the spaghetti's dinner at her school. Jill went to that while I worked. She got to see some of the art that Mia's been doing, and they had some noodles. Friday, Mia attended an egg hunt at the park with some of her classmates. Friday night, Jill's long time pal Leanne came in and crashed for the weekend. Saturday, they baked Mia's cake and cupcakes,  dyed eggs went to the mall, and we did Mia's traditional balloon photo we've been doing since she's been real little. 

Sunday was the big day. She couldn't contain her excitement for her 5th birthday AND Easter. A rare double holiday only a kid could enjoy! She woke up early and did a little scavenger hunt for eggs and her basket in the house. Later, her cousins, uncles, aunt and grandparents came to help celebrate the big day. She got royally spoiled with gifts and did an egg hunt outside in the rain with the boys. They had a lot of fun. Her cake turned out amazing. She wanted a Marie-themed cake that would resemble her soft little kitten. Jill and Leanne did an amazing job. It was really nice being off on a Sunday (first Easter off in 12+ years). Sunday night, we tried to do a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt. Mia LOVED it. We spread the eggs all over the lower level of the house with glow sticks in them. Mia's got lots of new clothes and toys to play with. When I came home tonight from work. she had her new microscope out looking at different samples of things. The microscope came with a telescope as well. Looking forward to busting it out in the warm summer nights. 

She's currently on Spring Break, and I hope to host this Friends Day event for her and her pals on Wednesday at the nearby park. No presents required. Just a day during their break where they can relax and play with each other. Hopefully the weather holds off. Other then that, I've got lots to try to accomplish. I'm designing the Milwaukee Blues Chelsea chapter banner/flag, I need to start painting the Torrent Tom and try to keep a very crazy 5 year old happy and busy during her break. She already did her homework last week so that's good :) It's crazy she's 5 years old already. Didn't seem that long ago she was up all night not wanting to sleep. That's all for now. Thanks for reading! 

Water Parks Minus Sharks

Good evening everyone. Another busy week has passed with an even busier week ahead of me. Had kind of a nice week work-wise with two days off in the middle of the week, but we'll get to that later. Wednesday after school, Mia and BFF Olivia decided during class that they should go to Monkey Joe's. We had nothing planned and both her Dad and myself took the pint size pals to the inflated insane asylum. The girls had a lot of fun, per the usual sliding on just about everything. I love watching the kids play. They're so fun. I swear at one point, Olivia said to Mia "you and I have cute butts!"

Thursday, I took a rare day off so that after Jill got out of work, we could go to the Country Springs Water Park at their hotel. I have never been there before, and for $10 for three hours, you can't go wrong. Mia, who had woken up early that day to see what the Leprechaun left her, was able to keep a few moments of energy in her and enjoyed most of the water park. She didn't want to go on the bigger water slides, but really liked the lazy river. She tried a smaller water slide, but didn't care for the water that hit her right in the face. Later before we left, she hit up the arcade. She "beat" me at air hockey and won herself some things out of those claw machines. All in all, it was a really nice day together. She fell asleep on the way home and didn't get up till Friday morning. We didn't do anything special before I worked Friday. Just tried to clean before her birthday party coming up in a week.

Saturday I watched about 15 minutes of the Chelsea vs West Ham game. Jill, Mia and my Mom went to the Just Between Friends resale event in Waukesha while my Dad and I watched some of the game. We missed the majority of it, but I found out later they had a draw of 2-2. I had to take him to his acupuncture appt so we missed it. Glad they got a point out of it, but we should be doing better and at least try to win some games. Jeez. Later we went to Stefans for the old man to poke around and see what he could afford, which of course was not much. I saw the few Torrent jerseys left and one of the guys said that they sold out of all the adult sizes and only have small to kid size. That's amazing! They have to order more from the online store to be sold at store front. Incredible.  Later Saturday, Jill and I wrapped Mia's birthday presents, get the eggs ready for her birthday party/egg hunt and made homemade pizzas. Trader Joe's dough is so amazing. We finished the night off with some Man vs Food. Even Mia likes the show now.

Today, we did some cleaning and I washed some of Mia's new clothes. The fashionista needed more shorts and leggings. This kid is growing so fast. This week is very busy. Tomorrow, school and I have to drop off the eggs that she'll be putting into the Egg Hunt her friend's mom is hosting at the nearby park Friday afternoon. Wednesday,  She's got to bring her birthday treat to class and has an assessment test for her kindergarten she'll be enrolled in the fall. Thursday is spaghetti night at her school with a display of artwork (I have to miss it :() Friday, egg hunt with some kids from school, plus I believe one of Jill's friend is coming up as well. Saturday, CLEAN! Sunday, her 5th Birthday Party. So much to do, so little time. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Send Spring

Good morning everyone. Normally, I write Sunday nights my thoughts and the events that went down for the week, but when I came home last night, Jill was awake with Mia passed out so we stayed up till 12am, watching Man Vs Food laughing at this ridiculous show we've somehow never seen.  The week started out solid, weather wise with gorgeous back to back 70's. Nice to be able to walk out of the house without even a jacket on. Didn't last of course, and its currently mid 40's. Not unusual for March, but I'd prefer 70's the rest of the month. Wednesday after school, Mia and I watched Chelsea take on a very difficult PSG and the end result wasn't great, with the Blues exiting the UCL. The biggest trophy to win, and we got beat badly. I knew the challenge would have been difficult, but the players were just struggling. Costa put one on the board for us, but that was the best we could do. Defense was again, lousy.

Later that day, Mia tried skateboarding again. Still tough to get the balance, but she gets an A for effort. Found out this week that Stefans soccer store is carrying the Milwaukee Torrent home jersey. I can't tell you how exciting that is to see something I helped design being sold at a store front. I hope they sales go really well. Saturday, while photographing Mia in Jill's beautiful wedding dress, I watched Chelsea fall apart to Everton in the FA Cup. We officially have no more titles and cups left to play for. Summer is going to be quite busy for the Champions. I don't even know why we signed anyone last January. None of our new guys have played yet. Ugh. Changing topics...

Later, Mia planted Jelly beans to see if by Easter, they'll grow into candy. I love her imagination. For dinner we tried this place called MooYa where you can custom build your own burger/veggie burger/turkey burger. Crowded place, short staff but not bad food.

Sunday, daylight savings completely through us off for the morning. All of us had a severe lack of motivation to do...much. Hate daylight savings. We don't need to even observe it :P Over the weekend, we changed phone services from US Cellular to Project Fi. New service, new phones and better bills. :)

This week should be a quick and busy one. I took off Thursday so we can take Mia to the Country Springs water park to go swimming after 5:00pm. She's really excited. As far as the weekend, not completely sure what the plan is. May take her 5th Birthday pictures. Hopefully the weather improves and we can make the most of being outside with the extra daylight.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Old Friends

Good evening everyone. Let's get right to it! The week started a bit rough. Mia had a fever from Sunday night into Monday, which meant that the diva had to skip out of school. She woke up, sorta out of it, not realizing she was supposed to be at school. I checked the temp. Much better, but still high. She took it easy, relaxing and watching Scooby Doo (which is what I watched as a kid when I was home sick ironically) She felt better later that night when I got home from work, and the next day went to school. it was Crazy Hat Day to celebrate all things Dr Seuss. The kids had a lot of fun.

The next day, Jill (who wasn't feeling the best) chaperoned Mia's field trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum. From what they said, it was a lot of fun, but Jill was pretty miserable from her fever she had. Mia didn't care for the dino eating the other dino. Too scary.

Friday, I picked up all the Milwaukee Torrent apparel in Glendale at the owner's gym. I'm incredibly grateful he gave me the track jacket/hoody/toque/1/4 length pants, but it was he, himself that said "no thank YOU for everything you've done for us". It's really humbling to "work" for a guy and team that appreciate my work. I hope this lasts quite some time and the team really picks up steam during the season, and following season.

Saturday, I watched the Chelsea vs Stoke game. Was hoping we'd get the 3 points and win after Traore netted a sick goal, but Stoke equalized when the defense let back in the 2nd half. Terrible. GH should have never put on Remy and probably should have got Pato some minutes on the pitch for once. I know they're resting Costa for the UCL game Wednesday (which I am both nervous and excited for) but we still need to climb the table into a 4th place position. Can't draw or lose games. Later, I took her to her longtime friend Gracie's 6th birthday party. They haven't hung out since the holidays, so it was good to see her and her sister (who's closer to Mia's age). They had a lot of fun as I hung out with the other adults in the kitchen. In fact, I even was offered a Habanero beer. Very spicy in the throat like tequila, but it was pretty tasty. At one point during the party, Mia and Hannah (Gracie's sister) where just sitting at the table slowly eating the Frozen-themed cake, catching up about life and school. It was very cute. Mia told me later that she made friends with a shy girl at the party.

Later that night, we went to see Zootopia. It was Disney's latest animated movie. Let me tell you, it was better than I thought it would be. Almost too parallel with everything that's going on in the world. I won't say too much, just see it when you can. Later we had a very late "dinner" that consisted of peas and potatoes, and as Mia fell asleep, Jill and I finished season one of Fuller House.

Sunday, I did some Torrent work, and some cleaning before heading to work. This week, busy week at school for the diva, Chelsea game Wednesday (PLEASE win!) and Jill and myself will be activating our new Nexus 6P phones and getting out of US Cellular for good. Looking forward to a cheaper bill and a new service that hopefully will be solid. The weather is supposed to improve this week, so cheers to that! Thanks for reading!