Stay Super

Man, this past week has been super surreal with everything. We've been balancing Mia's distant learning thing with the whole Spidey in a Civic thing pretty well and things are still staying pretty busy. Last week, I did an interview with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via phone call and later that day, they published it on their website. It got a lot of praise and circled around everywhere. The next day, I did one or the Waukesha Freeman via e-mail, which was great because I could thoroughly think of my answers in a more thoughtful way. I jokingly said "if this makes the front page, we're taking a picture of me dressed as Spidey reading about Spiderman" and sure enough a few days later, I made the front page. It was pretty exciting and I'm glad so many people enjoyed the article and this whole experience. We've met so many kids and families and it's been absolutely amazing. I love being a part of something positive that brings happiness to kids. Hopefully, it inspires others to do something positive in their own way.

Friday on my last day before I was going on vacation, I had to work at store #184 to learn how to fry chicken. Luckily, the girls I was training under were very nice and patient and I was able to get the training I needed and could leave early. The store is super slow so I was out by 7:05pm. Saturday, we were up and ready to film with Pari Cruz and CBS-58 for the Spiderman story. They met us at Mia's friend Noelle's house so all of the kiddos were outside excited to be on TV. We got some great shots throughout the day with all the families. These kids were dressed up, holding signs, made chalk drawings and we even saw kids dressed as villans. One had a great DIY Doc Oc costume his Dad made. With every group we stopped at, the crowds of kids grew bigger and bigger. One of the standouts from the Spidey tour was a young boy we missed the previous weekend. Him and his sis were napping the previous weekend so there was no way we were going to miss him the 2nd time around. Him and his sister were SO stoked to see me when we rolled up. He was jumping for joy, and could barely keep contained. When the reporter was talking to his Mom, he kept staring at me smiling. I found out later he called his Grandma describing my suit in detail and everything about the visit. He slept with his stuffed Spiderman as well. These stories melt my heart and I love hearing about it.

 Later after our last house (Mia's BFF Cecilia) they did an interview and some fun shots of me on top of the car, crouching on a rock and others. Overall, we had a ton of fun with them and can't wait to see the final product. Mia enjoyed watching all the behind-the-scenes stuff they have to do to make it all happen. We did a Zoom video Easter chat with Jill's family later which was a lot of fun. Mia and I picked out a new addition to our family that we're not going to go into a lot of detail right now, but let's just say that she's completely in love with the little fuzzball and couldn't be more happy. I watched Spiderman 3 and worked on some art while Jill and Mia watched a movie in the living room. Yesterday, Mia did her Easter egg hunt and harvested her blow pops that came up over night from the magic beans. We did another visit, drove around and went home for the day. Sadly, my zipper busted on my mask but on our drive today, we did alright. Visited a few kids for birthdays. This sweet group of kids were so excited that I was there and talked to me like I was Santa. "So how's your super hero friends? Did you have a good Easter and go Easter egg hunting?" It was very cute and I felt like a character at Disney or Universal Studios. The smiles are always the most memorable, but from time to time, we'll get tears. This comes with the territory. You never know what kind of reaction you're going to get. Parents know their kid(s) would be excited to meet Spidey, but when the day comes, you just don't know what kind of mood they're going to be. It is what it is, and we move on. We're just here to remind kids to STAY SUPER.

This week, Mia's on Spring Break and I'm also on a week of vacation. We've got a lot of houses to visit this week and as always, I look forward to all the smiles and wonderful families. 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!

Hoppy Birthday

Greetings everyone! Busy week to end April with much to discuss. Tuesday was Mia's 7th birthday! Can't believe she's already SEVEN. The things this kid can do and has done within a year is amazing. Her love for reading has soared, she's gained so many friends and has completed fantastic sleepovers. Her curiosity and creativity have continued to flourish and despite becoming more and more stubborn, she's still our Mia and our love for her fills our hearts. Yeah, I'm sappy. Anyways, so my Mom and I joined Mia for lunch. Earlier in the day, I had picked up a ham/cheese sub and when I arrived at the school, I had totally forgotten it so I sprinted back, grabbed it and ran back. We had lunch while Mia's friends talked my ear off. "You seem like a cool guy, we should hang out at recess" said Laiani (sp). Thanks kid. I had drawn Mia her very own My Little Pony character; Moonlight Mia for her special birthday note. She loved it so much that she plans to turn it into a book series.

So we did a large Duck Duck Goose game, followed by a jump rope competition followed by 22+ kids chasing me around the grounds. It got intense. Like that one scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where Jack is running from the islanders. I was mentally begging for the bell to ring so the chaos would end. They'd trap me with the hoola hoop. My guest sticker was long gone in the insanity. Mia gave me a hug goodbye before I split. A few of her other friends gave me hugs as well such as Ryan and Hayden. Sweet kids.

Later, we took Mia out to see Sherlock Gnomes followed by dinner at Noodles. I kept nodding off during the movie. From what I remember, it wasn't bad. It was a nice way to celebrate Mia's actual birthday, and she was stoked to open some gifts sent in. She got a Hermione wig/robe and some Play Dough sets from us as well. Wednesday, I was up early to photograph in Franksville, WI at Raymond Elementary. Longest drive to photograph at a school, but it was fun. It was a bit irritating not to have a map of the grades with classrooms but most of the teachers were pretty nice as well as the students to photograph.

Friday was Mia's first day of Spring Break so we hung out at the park for an hour with long time friend Olivia and her brother. The kids played tag and chased each other around. Wish it was a bit warmer, but what can ya do?

Saturday, I watched Chelsea fall apart to the dreaded Spurs at home. First defeat in 28 years. Such a terrible run they have had this season. Later, we cleaned the house and dyed eggs at Jill's parent's house. Sunday, was Mia's family birthday party as well as Easter. She hunted for eggs, baskets and enjoyed all of the little April Fools Day jokes before the rest of our family came over for more egg hunting and dinner. All in all, good weekend. Back to the grind this week. Mia's BFF Cecilia returned so Mia's hanging out with her this week. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Eggs, Art and Friends

Good evening everyone. A bit behind on writing/blogging but it's been a pretty busy week (and weekend) Let's get to it. Wednesday was a really busy day. Tuesday night when I got home from work, Mia was asleep on the couch, but suddenly woke up and asked half-asleep "can you come to lunch tomorrow Daddy?" Yeah sure that's fine. So Wednesday, I met up with her for lunch. Her friends were surprised I was there, but like the last time, talked my ears off. I couldn't stay for recess (which of course lead Mia and Charlie to do puppy dog eyes) but returned later to teach the 2nd grader class Drawing Characters 101-Featuring BB-8.

I was honestly nervous. I have never taught a group of 23 kids before, I'm not that great at public speaking and frankly not even sure they'd enjoy the experience. Luckily, all of them did. They were super polite, friendly and asked many questions. Some wanted me to be their permanent art teacher and one kid asked for my drawing I did (with the kids) I told him if it was okay with his teacher it was fine with me. So I gave it to him. He wanted it signed and I found out the next day, he had it framed to put on his wall. I felt like I was a bit rushing myself because of the sincere lack of time to teach them. We had to move as slow as possible so all of the kids were on the same page (literally) After we were done, I showed them my binder of 130+ drawings I've done for Mia. They really enjoyed that. I was asked to return again before school lets out. Now that I know their skill level, I may teach them something like Emoji's or something simple, yet a bit challenging if you look at it correctly. Wednesday, I taught them shading and making an object "move". If I do Emoji's I can teach them color value and gradients with yellow. These are tricky concepts but I think they can get it. The class ended up being a lot of fun for me and I look forward to the next time I meet these guys again.

After the class was over, they all were giving me high fives as I attempted to find Mia. Mia met the very friendly 2nd grade teacher and we were on our way. Friday was Mia's first full day of Spring Break so what did we do? We hung out at Noelle's house with friends. It was nice enough out for the kids to play outside for a few hours.

Saturday, we took her to dance which we found out later was cancelled. Blah. Later, we played tennis with Jill's buddy Leanne who visited for the weekend. Mia was having a hard time with it, but wants to try it again. Later, we went to my parents house for some Easter egg hunting with cousins and dinner. After that, Jill, Leanne and myself met up with my friend for some tasty alcoholic ice cream drinks.

Sunday, I watched some of the crappy Chelsea vs Man U game in between our Easter Brunch with Jill's family. The game was garbage. The Blues couldn't make a shot off and just couldn't break down their defense. The gap is much smaller for the lead and we meet up with Spurs for the FA Cup semi this weekend. Later, I went to work.

Today, Mia met up with friends Hayden and Cecilia at the park. They had a great time, and tomorrow, Mia's meeting up with some of her old preschool friends she hasn't seen since October.

This week, we're just making the most of Mia's Spring Break and enjoying the weather while it lasts. Saturday I was supposed to see the Descendents but I have a feeling it's going to fall through.
That's all for now, thanks for reading!

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!

Hoppy Easter

Good morning everyone. It was yet, another busy week over here. I didn't get my usual Wednesday off and worked part of the day, which meant that I worked Sunday through Friday last week. It was exhausting, to say the least, but I made it through. Since Mia didn't have school on Good Friday, she could basically, attend any day this week she'd like (since it IS paid for) so since she had a doctor appt on Wednesday morning (she's now 39 lbs and over 3 feet tall) she went to school on Thursday morning. Dropped her off like I normally do, and when I went to pick her up I noticed that the Thursday class is pretty big. Her teacher could tell that I was surprised and goes "yeah this is my bigger class of the week" but all of the kids were playing so nicely during free-time. Mia was playing in the flower shop in the right side of the building. It was a pity I had to take her home. She had class with a few of her Friday friends including Brooklyn and Brayden and her BFF Hannah also goes to the Thursday 3k so they hung out quite a bit. They were talking about Mia's birthday party and the bananas she had brought on the previous week. Sounded like Mia had a good day and apparently enjoys a bigger class. She immediately told me "I wasn't even SHY DAD!!!" Great kiddo!

Friday, after Jill got out of work, they left for Illinois to spend some time with her family. I got to do some art here and there and Saturday, I watched the Chelsea vs Stoke game. My brother and I were supposed to go to a pub in downtown Milwaukee to watch it, but Friday he texted me he couldn't which ended the night and the long week in not the best way. I had a beer and watched the game with the dog instead. It was a gripping game at times. After Hazard got the PK, one of their players made a crazy goal from half-pitch, or about 65 yards. Courtois was a bit too far off his line and couldn't get back in time to get it over the bar. 1-1. Luckily, Remy got the game-winning-goal off of some goofy roll-out to a Stoke player. Hazard calmly got around their defense to set up Remy with the pass. It was a bitter-sweet victory. We got our 3 points, but Costa may be out injured for a few weeks. He was holding his hamstring after a short time on the pitch in the 2nd half and limped off and was replaced by Drogba. Hope his season isn't done.

Sunday, I did the early shift and when I got home, I set up a scavenger hunt for Mia. She REALLY loves these kinds of things. She loves figuring out clues and puzzles to find surprises and treats. It was fun coming up with the clues at work (since it was incredibly slow for 4 hours straight before picking up) Watched the Quakes vs Real Salt Lake game before they came home. Mia and Jill came with Mia, super tired but when she saw the Easter Bunny left a note, she perked up and did her hunt. It was a lot of fun. We quickly went to my parent's house for Easter Dinner with my bro, his wife and kids and my sister. The kids got to go egg hunting and they had a blast. This is why Mia says Easter is her favorite. Dinner and dessert was great and Mia had a lot of fun "helping with those troublemaker boys". "Ashley, you want help with him?" So cute.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Eggcellent

Good morning. I sincerely hope everyone got to enjoy the holiday weekend. Saturday, Jill was busy most of the morning till she got home around 2pm. Mia and I watched Frozen (for like, the 12th time) before the Chelsea vs Sunderland game. The game started out great with Eto'o getting an early goal,  but in the end, they somehow beat us. We weren't capitalizing on a lot of chances, Eden Hazard is still injured and Cech was out sick so we had to rely on Schwartzer (who we will be relying on the rest of the season due to Cech dislocating his shoulder Tuesday. The worst moment, was Altidore for Sunderland falling in the box (do to an alleged challenge from Azpi) which of course resulted in a PK that sealed the deal for the opposition. It was ridiculous. Jill could hear me in the other room flipping out. Tuesday's game against Atletico Madrid resulted in a 0-0, but with Terry and Petr getting hurt, we're gonna be in rough shape against AM next week.

Sunday, I worked 6am-2pm followed by Easter at my parent's house. When I came home and saw Mia upstairs getting her hair braided in her little Easter dress, it totally made my day. She looked heavenly.  It was definitely one of the warmest Easters we've had in a long time. Of course myself and my brothers had to kick the soccer ball around, which on again-off again we had the little kids on the game. It was a blast.

This week, My brother Andy and I took our kids to the Zoo. It wasn't as warm as I hoped, but the sun kept it at least at 50. The kids had a great time and I look forward to going again. Mia really liked the large fish and bird aviary. After, we hit the park for a short while.

This weekend, can't say too much. Some of what we're doing is a surprise for someone who might be a reader of the blog. Have a great rest of the week  and thanks for reading.

Hey, Come Back Spring!

Good morning. Wishing the nice weather of LAST week would have stuck around this week, but what can ya do...So over the weekend, nothing too exciting for Saturday, but Sunday, I did the 6am-2pm shift (missed the Chelsea game)  followed by futsal later at 8. My family went to my cousin's daughter's baptism Sunday and it sounded like they had a good time. My brother even posted a photo of Mia eating olives off her fingers like he did for a good portion of his life. Adorable. Anyway, so it had been since January since I played futsal last so I knew I'd be rusty. First hour or so, wasn't getting through the defense or making a lot of shots. Bugger. Shortly, I had a good run with a kid that was on my team and I got the assist on his nicely placed goal. Soon, I had a run going, but got stopped. Crap. Then another moment shortly after, I received a good pass that I was able to turn into a goal :) I was stoked because I had some good chances, my last hour and a half to get some goals, but wasn't able to put the ball in the back of the net. some passes were either not connecting or I was just dropping. A few times a player who just launch the ball to me, but they were going straight over my head. As keeper, I had only let in one goal for the night. I was happy for that. The oldest man on my team (probably late 60s) plays D and is pretty good so I knew when I was keeper, he'd help. Even stopping the Messi-wannabee's he'd shut them down. At 10:30pm, I had had it for the evening and called it a night. Mia's kiss for good luck worked and I was able to add a goal to my small list. In futsal, I should be getting more goals, but since I don't play weekly like these fellas do, I do the best with what I can, and hopefully will continue to improve.

Tuesday, Mia and I went to Kids and Motion with her friends and my buddy Nicole. Because of Spring Break, the place had probably over 100 kids in there. It was intense. She had fun and we'll see her friends Friday at Hannah's birthday party :) She decided that she'd high-five her friend's parents instead of the actual kids. Don't know why. Yesterday was a nice day off. Still too cold and windy, which sucks because it would have been nice to go to the park. Last night Mia insisted on painting my nails.
Mia's been singing word-for-word Frozen's "Let it Go" just about 3-4 times  a day, and it's got to be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. For some reason, kids singing always blows me away, and when Mia sings, it melts my heart. I tried to video record her last night, but the camera was too close to my phone which was playing the track for her. Maybe next time. Saturday, Chelsea game. Sunday, work early then Easter at my parent's house. Not sure if the kids are egg hunting. We'll see how the weather goes. Thanks for reading!

Closer

Greetings. Just finished watching a very awesome performance broadcasted on Youtube of Tegan and Sara live from SXSW. It was supposed to start at 11, but it started 30 minutes later. BOO! Oh well. Totally worth it, plus I got some art time in working on this ridiculous Weezy portrait. I hope I never see his face again after I complete this thing for my friend's daughter. The performance was quite awesome. Wish I could have seen them in Milwaukee last week. Mia and I enjoyed our time off today. I recently switched from hard contact lenses to soft ones. My hard contacts, I've had for a very long time and year after year, they'd get dried out. Well, the eye doc suggested soft lenses, and sure enough they work quite well. Today, Mia and I went in to order some, and headed over to Steffans soccer to mainly poke around, see what I can't buy. So a while back I was paging through a Soccer.com catalog and showed Jill a pair of purple and pink Nike cleats, the Mercurial boots. I said "I bet these will be what Mia will want to wear for soccer cleats when she's older. Today, FIRST shoe she sees on the shelf. The EXACT same pair I showed Jill. "Dadda, put on my foot??" Already into soccer. Hopefully it lasts. I can't wait for Spring soccer to start. It's gonna be so awesome. Later tonight since Modern Family was a repeat (curse you March Madness) we got Mia all dressed up and headed to the Mall for a picture with the Easter Bunny. She was totally not into it, till the photographer bribed her with a frog stuffed animal. Plus, Jill had to sit with Mia and Mr. Bunny. The picture turned out nice, which is what matters. Mia was running through the mall so excited to see the rabbit but when she got too close, she grasped onto my leg.

Took a rad video of Mia drumming a few days ago. She really went to town on my kit and it was quite amazing. She loves music almost as much as I do :) Anything else I can quickly mention before heading off to bed? It was a late night last night. Mia crashed at 2am. Hopefully she sleeps well tonight.  Alright, that'll have to do for tonight. Thanks for reading.