Cousins Weekend

Greetings. Dead exhausted as I type this, but I'll try to get through it before passing out. The week was a fun one. Spent a lot of time with Mia outside hanging and she did a little art while relaxing in her hammock. Wednesday, Mia proudly showed me some new bass things she's learned at lessons. She's slowly starting to show progression and a bit more confidence which is fantastic. Thursday, Mia picked up a pair of Nike Neymar Hypervenom boots off the Facebook Marketplace. After a few weeks of convincing her cleats were getting too small on her, she finally agreed and we got these for a steal. $10. Not bad for a used pair of pristine boots. Too bad they're Neymar signature but it's all good. Mia digs them and is looking forward to Fall soccer. We drove over to Guitar Center for fun and she played a pricy Fender bass, did some drumming on the E-kit. She somehow has double bass drum techniques down. I've never even explained it to her other than "both feet usually go pretty fast if you want to do blast beats" and she quickly got the hand of it. Later, we went to the studio for some lemonade photos as well as a few fashion pictures for the kid. We even got Remi in on the ad. Never easy getting him to cooperate, but eventually we got the shot. All in all, awesome day with the kid. A little lunch, new cleats, some great photos and later, we put together the ad and published it for the public to advertise Mia's big charity sale.

Friday was mine and my twin sister's birthday. I decided to not take off and work like any other day. Work was pretty busy but the day wasn't too bad. Mia made me a lunch before taking her over to her Grandma and Grandpa Ridenour's house. There, she made me a cute little square piece via sewing machine with a "C" on it for Chelsea. Soo sweet. When I got home from work, she also gave me a cool tropical t-shirt and a soccer ball cake. Awesome.

Saturday, we went to Dave and Busters for lunch. Never been there before but it was a great time. Food was alright, but the games were fantastic. The highlight was the incredibly fun Star Wars pod game. Raced on a speeder bike on Endor shooting at scout troops. Total blast. Cheryl really enjoyed it too. Mia did a fun but difficult plane game, a ring toss one and a few other different games. All in all, great time.

Later, the boys Easton and Camden came over for the weekend. Jill planned a lot of fun activities like  bingo, crafts, Nerf Gun battle, silly string, etc etc etc. The kids woke up today at 5:30am and I think I got about 2 hours of sleep. We went to the park for a few hours and rode around our driveway as well. Later, they were picked up by their Grandma and said their goodbyes. Tonight after work, I discovered my house completely dark with Jill and Mia fast asleep. Clearly, worn out from the weekend. On that note, I think I'm going to crash myself. This week, maybe some art lessons, I've got art to create for our upcoming sale and Mia is heading to Ohio Saturday. I'm going to go to the Torrent match Saturday.

In a few weeks, I'll be getting my tattoo done of a very cool drawing Mia made for me. Can't wait.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Early Bird

Good evening everyone! Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms reading the post. The week went pretty well leading up to the special holiday. One of the major highlights was Chelsea beating Frankfurt in PKs. It was an absolute nerve-wrecking match and what made the win extra special, was that Mia watched her favorite player Eden Hazard make that final shot. He's been heavily rumored to leave the beloved club so this win to send the Blues to the Europa league final was surreal and poetic. I literally watched the PK's a handful of times. Such a great performance by Kepa as well.

Unfortunately, Liverpool and Spurs will face each other for the UCL title. Two Godawful rivals of Chelsea FC and I wish Madrid would open up and swallow both teams to prevent either team from getting the trophy, but what can ya do. City pulled through today keeping Liverpool from winning the Premier League title, so that works. Not that I'm a fan of City, but if it prevents a rival from getting it, I'm happy. Now the goal is to keep Hazard at any cost.

The ladies made some macarons that were absolutely amazing. Saturday, Jill had to work so Mia and I worked on a very special Mother's Day poem. Usually, we'd work on an art project, but Mia made a really special string art piece. We picked up some orchids for the Grandmas and the rest of the afternoon, Mia did some bike riding at Orchard Lane till Jill came home. We rented Lego Movie 2 and had pizzas. I had forgotten that the movie is sorta all over the place. Jill wasn't a huge fan of it. They made some homemade donuts and a breakfast casserole till we went to bed.

Early in the morning, I felt some tapping on my arm and it was Mia on the other side of my bed wanting to make Jill a little breakfast. I looked at my phone and it was 6:30AM! Mia hasn't gotten up this early in quit a while. There was no way Jill wanted to get up that early so Mia attempted to sleep a little more. Couldn't do it, so a bit before 7:00am, we put together her breakfast and gifts. Jill loved it and soon, both of them fell back to sleep while I tried to find the Chelsea vs Leicester match. Around 10:30, my in-laws and family came in and we had a really nice Mother's Day brunch. Lots of great food and craziness with the cousins. Mia directed and put on a puppet show as well. Saturday, she wrote it and built the puppets for the special one-time performance. Both Jill and I had lines for the play as well. It was a pretty cute performance and since Mia had so much fun with it, she'll probably write more.

This week should go quick. I took off Friday so I could attend the Kick off Party for the Milwaukee Torrent. Mia wants to come with me as well so it should be a great time. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Easter 2019

Good morning everyone. Starting out the week with some absolute gorgeous weather. Took a while to get there with the snow we had this week, but it was most certainly a fun and busy week. Art-wise, I took this week before Mia starts Spring Break to work on on Villains as a focus for her art drawings. She absolutely loved it and really liked the de la Cruz on toned paper I did for Thursday. Wednesday I took off because she had a 1st/2nd grade concert performance at NBW where she'll go when she graduates Orchard Lane and moves on to Middle School. The kids were super cute and did wonderful. Mia was so stoked to get to play the tambourine in front of the stage with some friends. After we snapped a few photos of Mia and her friends, we went home for the evening.

I was off Thursday as well so before picking up Mia, I watched the Chelsea vs Prague game. They did insanely well in the 1st half and started to fall apart a bit in the 2nd. With some of the top 5 teams dropping points over the weekend, I hope they can secure 3 points and move into 3rd place. Season is  almost complete. As far as the Stanley Cup playoffs, Penguins got knocked out way too early so at this point, I don't care who wins. Jill's calling it that the Bruins will win. We'll see.

Saturday we went to my in-laws for Easter. Great food, beautiful weather and Mia enjoyed doing an egg and Easter basket hunt with them. Uncle Tommy made the trek over from Madison to spend time with his only niece. Aw.

Sunday, Mia was up early and was prepared to basket/egg hunt around the house. She was happy her blow pop garden grew and she had some candy to harvest. She got a handful of shirts from the Easter Bunny as well as a bathing suit she's obsessed with.

Later, Jill and Mia made some desserts and other goodies for my parents Easter at their house with the boys and Ash/Andy. Cheryl also made an appearance. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. The kids were outside the majority of the day in the bounce house, or playing soccer, and of course egg hunting. Super fun. Mia crashed at about 11 and that was that. we noticed sadly that Remi busted another nail again so we'll have to monitor the healing process and hope he'll get better.  She's on Spring Break the rest of the week so hopefully we'll get to enjoy some time together before I'm at work at 2. Going to go wake her up soon actually so she has some time before going to her grandparent's house later. This weekend, she's got her cooking class with BFF Charlie on Sunday which she can't wait for. She made her very own shirt for the event that reads "If life throws flour at you, bake a cake". Cute. Other than that, nothing major going on. Just a bit of daily drawing rest for me as I continue to apply for jobs.

That's all for now thanks for reading!

Christmas 2016

A day late on my usual blogging but here we go. It's been a busy week, with Mia finishing up school before Christmas break, and my brother/SIL/Nephew flying in for the holidays. Wednesday, Mia and I did her traditional gift where she picks something out for Jill at Charming Charlies for Christmas.  Jill helped with Mia's Holiday party on Thursday. The kids had a lot of fun and did all kinds of fun crafts and games. Friday was Mia's first day off for her break so we met up with Olivia and her brother and the kids went sledding. Myself and Steve (Olivia's Dad) built a kicker for the kids to sled off. Mia had so much fun going off. Olivia on the other hand, was a bit crabby and wasn't having it. After sledding, Mia and I braved the busy stores and got some last-minute items for the feast. Later that day, my bro and his family flew in so we hung out at my parent's house. Mia and Alex were reunited once again, and they didn't skip a beat with their antics involving tackling me, Jill or anyone near them.

Saturday, we had Christmas Eve at my parent's house. Everyone came and it was a lot of fun. The kids ran around like crazy causing all kinds of havoc. The food was delicious. Jill made 4 different types of meatballs (one veggie) and we all ate basically appetizers that my Mom and my SIL Ashley made. The kids all loved their gifts and had an awesome time. We had a big family game of PIT that was a total blast.

Sunday was Christmas morning. Mia got lots of amazing gifts including a beautiful pink violin that we need to fix and adjust so she can play it. The best was saved for last. I somehow was able to complete the book for Mia that Jill and I wrote/illustrated. It came down to the wire, but it was complete and Mia LOVED it. She really liked how I drew the pictures to look like her and even included the detail of Mia wearing her Monster High winter hat. Although I felt rushed doing the book, I'm pretty content with the final product. At one point, Mia said it was her favorite present she received. Later, we had everyone over for breakfast and later dinner. Jill hand-made fettuccine noodles and Alfredo sauce(s) and they tasted AMAZING. Fresh pasta is incredible and we have so much left over, I'll be eating it for days. Jill loved the necklace we got her, and I loved the Sheldon ornament the girls picked out for me. My BIL Tommy got me some much-needed art supplies and I got some money towards my near-future purchase of a Go Pro camera.

Monday, My brothers, myself and I drove down to the Highbury for some Boxing Day soccer. We watched the first half of the Chelsea vs Bournemouth game before jetting to my brother's hotel for the 2nd half. The pub was PACKED with fans watching all of the games on the TV's. We were practically hanging out the door watching and left within a few minutes of the the 1st half. Luckily, my brother had the channel at his hotel and we were able to catch the last few goals. Pedro picked up a pair as well as a PK from Hazard to end the game 3-0. Impressive win from a team that is looking like serious title contenders. Even with out two key players (Costa and Kante) we're looking really good going into our NYE match. Later, we hung out with everyone and swam with the kids. Mia and Alex had a great time chasing and racing each other in the pool. Today, they went back to the usual "tackle Jill and I" again complete with heavy pillow beating and tackling. These cousins are so fun to watch play together. Whether it's Alex showing her apps and games, or the two just being silly together. They said their goodbyes and my brother and his family were on their way.

Later, Mia packed up and Jill's Dad and I drove the girls to Midway International Airport for their trip to Ohio. I miss the girls already but I know they'll have fun visiting Jill's aunt who hasn't seen Mia since LAST December.

My week off from work is almost done. I can't say I'm missing KT. It's been really nice having this time off to spend with family and getting some much needed relaxing in.

This weekend the girls come back. No immediate plans for NYE and we'll probably keep it that way. The girls will be too tired to do anything so we'll probably watch a movie.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!