Original Me

Greetings everyone on a very warm evening. Busy week as Spidey. Mia got through her school stuff all week and by Thursday, banged out the little she had so she could hang with friends. Another awesome bike ride with Scarlett and Angie. Their Mom and older sister worked on homework while we rode around their neighborhood. Great weather for it. Not too bad. Afterwards, we played in their court. A little soccer, some skateboarding and sidewalk art. Mia didn't want the day to end. She was having a blast playing with her BFF and Scarlett said "can Mia stay for like, 7 hours?" Her sisters are always super sweet and overall, we had a blast.

Later, we had a Spidey visit for a parade. There were plenty of people in the car line that wanted to meet me. It was super cute. The birthday girl enjoyed the balloons and that was our visit for the night. We had dinner, watched a movie per the usual and called it a night. Over the weekend, we did some much needed yard work. Later, we had three Spidey visits in Summit, Hartland and finished in New Berlin. Perfect weather for spreading joy to the little kids. The first stop had a little car parade that I was invited to meet all the little (what looked to be) pre-schoolers. They were adorable and thrilled to meet Spider-Man. All in all, not a bad day.

Later, I traded in the Corolla for a 2018 Rogue SV. Very sweet ride and happy to get rid of the always reliable Corolla. It's seen better days. I've had it the longest of all 3 of my cars that I've owned but it was time for a change. We had dinner later, watched Lilo and Stitch and called it an evening.

Sunday we didn't do much before I went to work. Today, we had a Spidey visit and Jill took some fun photos of myself on our trampoline doing some super hero poses in midair. I want to try it again. She got great photos of me, but I think I can do better. Work was crazy busy all night and all I could think about was "I can't wait to get home".

This week, more art, Mia's got a short school week, Spider-Man visits and plenty of work. Really need to continue the commission sketch and drop some color in it. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Balance

Hola. Going to try and bang this one out quick because I'm pretty exhausted. This week, we managed to get Mia through her school work. She sort of dragged her feet on a fun story project but completed this weekend. One of my favorite parts of the week, was our bike adventures for her gym time. We decided to venture across the street and explore the neighborhoods. Typically, we ride around our side of the street, but I convinced Mia to ride with me by her school. We rode through the beautiful neighborhoods and Mia enjoyed checking out all the cool houses and just having a nice father-daughter conversation. There's one house in particular she loves that's for sale. but there's no way we're in the market for a $469.000 home. Beautiful place too. Anyways, we definitely enjoyed the bike rides and hope the weather improves. We had one Spidey visit for a classmate of Mia's. He was a bit shy but Mia said he always is. 

I picked up a 2nd Spider-Man suit. My original one was falling apart, the mask was busted and overall, it just wasn't working for me anymore. My 2nd one at a distance, may not look the same, but it's different. More contour for the muscles, I ordered a tighter size and everything just looks cleaner. 

Thursday, I did an interview with Kramp from Fox 6 to follow up the Share Lemonade piece a friend submitted. Not an easy thing to do on Zoom, but we did it. We set up a meet for a photojournalist for my visits for the weekend. I was stoked because I'd have my new suit for my weekend of visits. We started with a car parade in Waukesha for a friend of ours. Fox 6 mic'd me up at the meet location and we were off to the car parade. The birthday girl was super cute and loved our balloons we brought. Fox 6 did a little spot after and that was it. After the parade, we jetted over to Mukwonago to visit a little boy and his family. He was sorta shy, but his sister certainly didn't mind seeing Spidey. On our way there, we saw some kids outside so we decided to cruise the area with some spontaneous visits and photo opts. The families would yell "GRAB THE KID! SPIDER-MAN IS ON TOP OF A CAR DRIVING AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD! SERIOUSLY!! GO GET THEM!" Too much fun. These are the kind of visits I personally like. The ones where kids aren't expecting something extraordinary in their town on their street. We headed home, grabbed some lunch, built a trampoline for Mia and went back out to a car parade nearby. The size of the car parade was pretty great. A lot of kids in the parade were waving to me as I climbed on top of the Civic. As we rolled up to the birthday boy's house, he seemed to be in shock. We gave him Jill's impressive balloon display she beautifully built and that was it. They were handing out Jello and cup cake pops as we moved to our last stop of the day in Bayside. 

Our last visit was a couple kids in Bayside. One girl had gone through a major surgery and both her and her bro were big super hero fans. I arrived on top of the car like always, and they were just so excited to meet me. I got some super hero questions and they loved watching me leave on top of the car. "HOW DO YOU STAY ON?" Kids love it. That completed the Spidey stops for the weekend. We hung out, had some Qdoba and watched Scoob! Mia loves the movie, but I give it a strong "it was okay". 

Today we woke up to a rainy soggy damp Sunday. Not an exciting way to end the weekend, but it happens. This week, more school, more art and I believe Fox 6 will air our little Spidey story on Wednesday. Keep your eyes out for it. Just trying to balance everything while keeping sane. That's all for now, stay super and thanks for reading! 

Ride

Greeting everyone. Hope all the Moms that read my blog enjoyed their Mother's Day. Wasn't a bad week for distant learning. Mia had a few projects this week including doing a report on the woman who invented the chocolate chip cookie. She did a great job. Thursday, we picked up some hanging baskets for my Mom, Jill and her Mom. Mia enjoyed looking at all the flowers and picked each person that best suited their personality (according to her) . She was ALSO motivated to bang out her school work, spelling test and math so she could have a social distance bike ride with her friend Scarlett and her family.

I hooked up the bike rack for the first time in forever, we loaded up bikes and headed over for the first time since March by Mia's BFF. The girls were thrilled to see us and we went out for a 45 min bike ride. This was the longest the diva has gone on a ride, but you'd never guess if she was tired. Catching up with Scarlett was pure joy. Her Mom, myself and Scarlett's sisters Angie and Sofia chatted and caught up throughout the ride. Really good time and fantastic weather on top of that. We went to Lee's for ice cream after. I haven't had a milk shake in forever, but Lee's had a great caramel shake. The girls started to get chilly (minus Mia in her t-shirt and shorts because she's NEVER cold) so we went back. The girls ran around a little bit before we said our goodbyes and left. Mia couldn't stop smiling exclaiming "this was SO much fun Daddy!" So thrilled to set this up for her and hope we get another day soon for the girls to ride. We did our best obeying social distancing and had an absolutely awesome time.

Throughout the week, I built a couple SCW kits for fun. Currently working on an FC Wisconsin Nationals in between other projects. Over the weekend, we had some Spidey visits. First stop was a little girl in Waukesha. She was pretty excited so see Spider-Man, but her sister seemed more excited. Her Mom later messaged me "she was in love". Ha! After that, we were off to Washington Heights to meet Elijah. He's a little dude that would do Spidey poses and wave to traffic with a sign "honk if I've made you smile" His Mom left him a note from me that read "meet you on the corner at noon. From S" When I arrived and snuck up and surprised him, his Mom and Grandma. He was super excited, we posed for a few photos, waved to cars a little bit and that was it. Definitely a unique Spider-Man visit and I was honored to meet the little mini me. Later, we drove to Brown Deer for another birthday visit. About 30 people were at this place and the little birthday boy was so thrilled to meet Spider-Man. He was dressed as the Miles Morales Spider-Man which was pretty awesome. His brother was equally excited to meet Spider-Man. Even said "Wow, you're tall Spider-Man!" After we said goodbye, we were done for the day. We stopped at my parents house with a cake Mia made for my Mom including a picture collage and her hanging basket. Later, we picked up some Qdoba, watched Rock Dog with Mia, and she finished her other cakes for Jill and Jill's Mom before calling it a night.

Today was Mother's Day. The weather was absolutely lousy and it was freakin' snowing. Despite the crappy weather, we still had a Spider-Man visit to do. After dropping off Grandma Missy Shell's cake, we stopped at birthday boy Nolan's house. Because of the lousy weather, I decided it would be better to ring the doorbell. The little dude screamed with excitement. I gave him a birthday balloon complete with Golden Rod Spidey book, posted for a few photos and said goodbye. He was just so thrilled and it no matter how many kids I've met, it always warms my heart when I see the excitement on kids faces. After that, I had an odd 1-9 shift.

This week, I have plenty of commission work to accomplish in between Mia's school stuff. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Gutted

Greeting. Busy week with much to discuss so let's get right to it. I had a few Spidey stops this week and video messages for kids in between working with Mia on distant learning. Not been easy, but we're trying to grin and bear the school work. I helped Mia work on a fun project about someone who's important to science. She chose Ocean Ramsey from Oahu, HI. She runs the cage-less swim with the sharks that myself, our friends Leanne and Andy did with me. I hope one day to return and do it again, but this time, with Mia.

Last week, I posted about how we were fortunate to get a delayed Spring season...but it turns out the WYSA (or Wisconsin Youth Soccer Association) declaimed all Spring club soccer was cancelled. Such a massive bummer. It was literally the one thing we were looking forward to. Mia and Cecilia were to play their very last season of soccer together before Middle School, but I doubt they'll adjust it. Such a disappointment. I know it was to be expected, but there was a little glimmer of hope that when they released an e-mail that read "THE SEASON IS NOT CANCELLED" that something positive would emerge from this. I guess we'll just have to do some training over the Summer in the yard since absolutely zero parks have any nets on them. The NBAA apparently is hoping for a Fall season as they just posted that they open registration for Fall soccer.

After mentally processing this, I decided that in some spare time, I'd design some fun concept kits for the area youth teams. I started with Strike FC which a friend of mine and his daughter Echo are a part of. The kit turned out nice so I hope to come up with a fun one for SCW next.

Over the weekend, I had a few more Spidey stopes in some absolutely stunning neighborhoods. We're talking like, million dollar homes. It's crazy. First house on Saturday, the kid was a little crazy but the family was super thrilled to see me. We were supposed to visit a kid that dresses like Spider-Man and waves to people on corners, but his Mom messaged me earlier in the day that he wasn't feeling well. We'll visit the lad in Milwaukee next Saturday. We explored Wirth Park to take some photos of Mia in a handful of outfits she picked out. The park is just massive and I sincerely would like to start the skatepark some day.

Later we had some dinner and Mia and I watched Sonic while Jill virtually chatted with her friends. Not a bad movie. Glad I watched it but probably don't need to see it again. We finished off the night with some Luigi's Mansion 3 before calling it a night. Today, I participated in car parade for an 8 year old in another incredible neighborhood. The people waiting to wave to the birthday boy were taking plenty of picture of ol Spidey. Always fun. Mia spent some quality time with her little furry buddy outside before I went off to work. Glad we could enjoy the gorgeous weather because from what I hear, it certainly won't last. Oh well. This week, I've got plenty of art to accomplish, maybe more Spidey stops this coming weekend. That's all for now, thanks for reading!