Soccer and Snowstorms

Evening! Quite a busy week over here to let's get to it. I spent a good majority of the week working hard on an intense baby Yoda (or better known as The Child) from the Mandalorian series. I honestly didn't think it would turn out as great, nor even get the attention and praise it got, but I'm flattered and humbled. I made 3 valiant attempts at doing it in color pencil on toned paper but it wasn't blending well and almost made me put my pencils directly into my eyes. The graphite sketch worked and I just kept at it blending and getting as much detail in as possible. The real hero was a 2H pencil that helped me achieve the darker darks to build the details up. All in all proud. Could have done better in areas, but I'm content.

Saturday, I watched the Chelsea vs Burnley match. Great 3-0 win. The highlight was Mia jumping on my lap to watch her fav Hudson-Odoi get his first goal. Awesome job for the youngster. Mia made her very first over easy egg for breakfast. Awesome job kiddo. We had a severe snow advisory for Southeaster Wisconsin that tapered off throughout the day but picked up closer to match time. All by two girls made the trek to Brookfield Indoor in the snow. Honestly, the drive wasn't great but we made it safely. As the kids started arriving and we got them warmed up and stretching, I noticed the Genesee Kickers weren't there. The ref gave them some time and sure enough, it was a forfeit. We won 5-0 and picked up 3 needed points. The best part was that we had an hour of field time to practice. The ref put 50 minutes on the clock and BOOM, we had a free practice till the next game. The kids were confused that we didn't have a team to play against but we certainly made the most of our time for practice. Coach Kevin ran a drill on one side and I did one on the other. He was doing some pass and finishing and I was doing 3 v 1 so the kids could learn to play into space and work on getting around the defender. I honestly wish I could have prepared for a last-minute practice more, but it is what it is. We took the last 30 minutes to scrimmage which was a big favorite. The girls started to show improvement with their passing as well as punting from the goalies. Mia's got some work to do on her endurance but all in all, the kids had fun. It was good to see all of them smiling. I can't thank the parents enough for making the drive including Jill's Dad Tom. He made the trek in the snow and luckily had fun watching us practice.

After wards, we had Cecilia over for a sleepover so we picked up some sushi at Wasabi and made it home. Not the best or worst sushi but the kids had fun. The girls played some Mario Kart, and watched a movie with popcorn before crashing. It's funny that they ended up hitting the bed early because they ran their butts off at soccer. It was Cecilia's first time playing as well as Elia and both did well. Anyways, the last time Mia had Cecilia over, they talked all night. This morning, they slept in a little bit and played before Cecilia's Dad picked her up. All in all, great weekend. This week, I'm going to start working on marker drawings with all my new markers and illustration paper and we've got our early match Sat.  We're supposed to get more snow this week so hopefully Mia and I can do some snowboarding again. That's about it for now, thanks for reading!

On a quick sad note, I was pretty bummed Friday when I found out the passing of drummer God Neil Peart. He was a huge influence on every drummer on the planet and will surely be missed.