Turkey Day 2018

Evening everyone. Busy week leading up to Thanksgiving, which isn't anything new. Mia had school just Monday and Tuesday which is nice for her. Wednesday I was off like normal so I was asked to watch her friend Olivia and her bro Gavin for a few hours. Mia was super stoked to see her longtime BFF from pre school. They played Monopoly Jr and in her room throughout the day while Gavin and I played PS4. We had a good time. Later, we had some dinner while Mia completed the project she started at Olivia's. Thursday was Thanksgiving at my parents house. The kids ate in the screened in porch while we ate at the table. Totally new thing for Mia, but for the most part, she enjoyed the experience. I think Auntie Ashley stayed out there with them. Anyways, I couldn't stay long and had to work 2-10. Not an exciting shift, but busier at times during those peak "early Black Friday" shopping moments.

Friday I was off, so we did some much-needed yard work before going to Thanksgiving round #2 at Jill's parents house. The weather was perfect and we got a lot of leaf-raking accomplished. Mia took a cute little reading break in the hammock from time to time while helping. Later, we went to Jill's parent's house. I'm sure glad (as I imagine Mia is too) that we don't have to make the trek down to Illinois anymore. So much more convenient only having to drive 15-20 minutes to their house in Waukesha. Anyways, we had fun, filled up on turkey and overall enjoyed the day with everyone.

Saturday, I met up with my brother and we went to The Highbury to watch the Chelsea vs Liverpool match with his friend Brett. Tight game, but it ended like I predicted with a draw 1 to 1. Great atmosphere celebrating the equalizer with all of 25+ Chelsea fans in the pub. Totally outnumbered the Liverpool fans. Later, I met up with Jill, Mia and Leanne when they got back home. We watched a movie after some dinner before hitting the bed.

Sunday, we spur the moment decided to go to the Oconomowoc German Christmas Market. Lots of cool hand-made items and tasty food. Had to go back to work today so didn't get to enjoy it too long. Mia wasn't digging the long line to meet Santa so we didn't stick around more than an hour and half.

This week, I have much to accomplish. Lots of design work, work on Mia's book and finish Jill's Dad's picture. We've got Cecilia staying over this Saturday as well so it should be a fun weekend.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Party All Weekend

Good evening everyone. Busy busy weekend keeping up with Mia's social life, but we'll get back to that soon. Wed after school, Mia was so excited to tell me that she finally got to play an instrument at music class. She played the xylophone for the first time. As a special little surprise, I told her that I'd take her to Guitar Center to play on the electronic kits. She loved doing that when she was little. We were pretty much the only ones there so it was nice having the drum room to ourselves. She experimented on all kinds of kits and had a blast. We moved over to the acoustic guitar room and she checked out the guitars and ukuleles. Later had dinner before bed time. Love my days off with her. We had a great time.

Friday we had the first snow. Not a much of it, but she loved walking to school in it. She was super excited for her Saturday full of parties. I caught a bit of the Chelsea vs West Brom match (4-0) before we had to go to the party. 1st off was Charlie's. She's got an amazing friendship with her (Charlie gave her a BFF choker necklace Friday) so Mia was excited...except she's totally afraid of Chuck E Cheese. She was keeping an eye on him when he'd pop out every once in a while. I held hers and friend Ryan's tickets in my pockets while the kids racked up tickets. They all had a blast. Cecilia did the horse race game to distract herself from the scary Chuck E as well. Charlie loved the gift and Mia was glad she got to have fun with her and her school friends. Later, I took Mia and Cecilia both home before the 2nd party. Ellahrose.

We picked up Cecilia (her Mom was busy with company) and took them to the party. They had a big bounce house and everything was Descendents theme. Picked them a few hours later and brought back to Cici's house. Her Mom invited us in to hang a bit while her friends made this traditional Venezuelan dish. Mia continued playing with Cecilia while Jill helped the ladies. I drank with the fellas before we left about 7:30pm. Cecilia's Mom Andrea has some of the nicest friends and has always been very hospitable. We had a lot of fun. Mia and Cecilia are planning an epic sleepover on Dec 2nd so the next two weeks, the kids will once again, plan this event. Later, we made tacos for dinner before watching Elf.

Sunday, Jill and Mia worked on one of Jill's biggest talents: creatively baking macarons. It was fun to watch the two work together on some delicious treats. Later before I had to go to work, Mia and I relaxed together and did some art. My favorite part was watching her sing to Less Than Jake, Tegan and Sara and others. She's got the most beautiful voice that I rarely hear sing so it was a little treat for me.

This week is a short week for the diva. School Monday and Tuesday. Wed she's off and she's hanging with long-time friend Olivia and her brother for a few hours. Thanksgiving is Thursday so I'm working 2-10. Off Friday to spend time with Jill's family. Should be a busy but enjoyable week, along with working on her Christmas book. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Moon Out of Phase

Good evening everyone. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Seems that November really is flying. Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away which of course means the holidays are creeping in. I'm promising myself to be more joyful. In all honesty, it wasn't that exciting of a week over here and the weekend didn't bring much excitement either. I found out I'll be working 2-10 on Thanksgiving which hasn't happened since Mia's been real real little. I've always had time with my family and Jill's family.

Luckily, my family is accommodating and we'll have a lunch at my parents house. I think I'll still be able to be get off for Friday. Hopefully. Friday, we saw our first snowfall. Just a little bit, but it was enough to get the kids at the school excited. This week, Mia was planning a sleepover with her good friend Cecilia. Her Mom wasn't totally certain it would happen, but Mia remained optimistic it would. Turns out, it didn't. We found out after 6:00pm that they just were too busy. Mia was devastated. "My heart is broken Dadda" I felt bad for her, but I know that they'll get to have a sleepover sometime soon. She's become really close friends with Cici and she was the first person's house she slept over at and immediately told me when she got home she'd want her to be the first friend to sleep over at our house. We tried to keep her busy and keep her mind off it. Jill and Mia made candles for her boss's Christmas gift.
 Sunday, we didn't do much. Slept in, which is totally weird since we're usually ones to get up and "seize the day". Didn't happen. Oh well. We're starting to scoreboard Mia's book this week. Jill wrote it the other day and it looks great. Hopefully we can get this book done before the Christmas. Mia's already looking forward to another book for the collection. She loved our book last year, and over the weekend, re-read it and STILL loves it. Always makes me happy to hear that. She loved the illustrations because I did my very best to make the drawings of her look as close to her as possible.

This week, I need to get some yard work done, art, more art and Mia's got a couple of birthday parties. Jill and I will probably go out a bit when we drop off Mia at the 2nd party. We've got a couple of hours, so why not.

That's it for now, thanks for reading!

And the Son of the Year award goes to...

Good evening. Hope everyone enjoyed the week. This week, we had to have two massive trees cut down. They were infected with the emerald ash bore so it was was unfortunate that we had to have them cut down. Mia was the most upset since every one of her 1st and last day of school photos were taken in front of it. It took almost all day, but the trees came down one chunk at a time. The house would shake when the big chunks would fall down. In fact, so did our neighbors!

Wednesday, Jill wasn't feeling good so I was taking her to and from work. She didn't stay at work long and crashed on the couch the rest of the day till Mia got home from school. Luckily, she felt better towards the end of the evening.
 At the end of the week, Mia begged me to go to lunch with her. She'd say "I would look for you at the end of the hallway, and when I didn't see you, I almost cried" tactic. SERIOUSLY kid!?? So Friday, I packed a small lunch and joined the diva and her crazy friends for lunch. A boy Brayden told her "MEET ME IN OUR SECRET HIDING PLACE AT RECESS OKAY???" Sure enough, she did. She took off forgetting I was with her. Noelle and myself went on a search to find the kids and we did. Noelle showed me her magic before Mia and her friends started a game of street soccer. Didn't last too long like most games the girlies play. They all wanted to take a selfie with me so we had to do that as well. Mia said her goodbyes before I headed home. She's such a special part of my life so when she wants me to come to lunch because she misses me, I try to join.

Saturday Mia and I took the soccer equipment back to the NBAA office. What a great season we had. Look forward to another one next year. Later, we went over the studio and I helped Jill as she photographed our friend Cori's family with her new twins. Mia's still not a fan of babies so she quietly played in the office.

We did lunch at StoneFire Pizza and had a great time. We had a movie night before going to bed.
Sunday, we went to our friend Heather's baptism of her little girl Lily. Mia wasn't that excited during it, but I was glad she was able to behave. Later, I met up with my Dad and Jill's Dad Tom to drive to the Pop Con Milwaukee event. Pete Rose was making a Wisconsin appearance and my Dad has been a massive fan of his as long as I have been alive. I'm pretty sure I made Son of the Year bringing his star-struck butt down there. They had a TON of collectables, toys and special guests including Burt Ward and one of the Catwomen from the original TV show Batman as well as the General Lee with one of the Duke brothers. My Dad was far more interested in Pete Rose. He went up to him twice to say hi. 2nd time was way more interesting to watch. He reminisced about the old days of his playing career as I discreetly snapped a few photos of him talking with the old man. To see him talk like he's known him all his life was pretty fun. He purchased a few nice prints of him but refused to pay a lot to have them autographed. A few pictures of him talking to his long-time hero sufficed and he left happy. I hope he never forgets this day. Tom picked up a really nice Bella Lugosi print. All in all, we had a great time. I even met one of the ewoks from Return of the Jedi. She was super nice and insisted I took a photo of her and I to show Mia. I didn't get to watch much of the Chelsea vs Man U game, but I'm sure as hell glad they beat United 1-0!!!

Later afte I took him home, I joined Jill and the gang for dinner. Great to be off today. Spent way too long working on a picture for Mia tomorrow but I'm glad it's finally complete. This week, nothing major going on. We're finally booking places to stay for our big trip so I'm pretty excited. Mia may have a sleep over this weekend so we'll see if that happens at our house. That's all for now, thanks for reading!