Dance Little Girl

Good morning everyone. It was a pretty busy week so let's get right to it. Monday, I dressed up for work for Halloween. I was 80's hair metal drummer Metal Mike. It's the one holiday we can dress up (sorta) at work so I donned a black/blonde wig with aviators and had drum sticks in my back pocket.
I got all kinds of compliments and guesses who I was supposed to be. Bob Marley, Howard Stern and Ted Nugent were just a few of them.  Wednesday after school Mia and I hung out with her friend Noelle, and Noelle's sister Cora and neighbor Caitlyn. The kids had fun playing in the driveway despite the drab weather till Mia looks at me and says "Dad, I'm pretty hungry, but I REALLY want to play still". We went home. Jill and I stayed up and watched the World Series (which I can honestly say, I've never watched ever) in its entirety. She was so excited the Cubs won (despite being a White Sox fan) Jill believes in city solidarity. If a Chicago team can win a championship, she's stoked. Blackhawks, White Sox, Bears etc.

Mia had dance class Saturday. Apparently, it went really well because when we went to pick her up the woman who runs it pulled us aside and said "Okay, Mia's doing REALLY well and we want to see if she'd like to move up. She's got all of the technical skills down and I think she'd benefit from a more challenging dance group". Awesome. We had no idea what to expect when signing her up for dance or if she'd even like it. Turns out she likes it enough to be the best in class. To be fair, her group consists of 3-5 year olds but since it was her first formal dance class, we didn't know what to expect nor want to give her something she didn't feel confident doing. Starting tomorrow, she's in a new group at a different time. The reason why she's in Tuesday's dance class is because Wednesday, she's leaving for Florida with Jill and her family so it's a "make up day" for her. Hopefully it goes well and she likes it.

After dance class. we worked on the yard and raked leaves (despite the fact that on Sunday you could barely tell we even tried) Later, we drove to my parents house and Jill/Mia/my Mom went to a craft fair at HAWS while my Dad and I watched Chelsea thrash Everton 5-0. What a game. Hazard putting away two goals, Alonso gets his first and Costa adding to his already impressive list with Pedro grabbing the last one. It was a great performance showcasing confidence and pure raw talent that they so badly lacked last season. Conte is bringing the best out of these players and it makes watching every match more enjoyable when you see the players entering the pitch with their heads up high confident they'll bring home another victory.

Later, we drove to Milwaukee's First Stage Theater to watch the Goosebumps-Phantom of the Auditorium play. Mia loved it. Anything with ghosts and creepy singing, she enjoys. Afterwards, we're walking out and she says "I'm going to write and direct my own play called Shopkin: The Musical and have all of my friends star in it". Love this kid's creativity. Before the night ended, she completed a few sheets of homework before calling it a night. Sunday, we cleaned some of the garage before I went to work. Jill went to her parent's house and made her first batch of macaroons. She wasn't too happy with the final result so she'll have some tweaking to do with the recipe.

This week is a busy one. Tomorrow, Mia's got her last day of school and first day of her new dance class before she leaves for Florida early Wednesday morning. They'll return to Wisconsin Saturday evening. My plan is to do a lot of art, organize Mia's play area and make the most of the time. Saturday my friend is having a housewarming party so I'll probably stop over. Going to miss my girls. This is the first time she's ever flown without me.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Mahalo Ono Kine!

Good evening everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the weekend. Early in the week, we noticed that Marie the cat was limping around in the morning. Turns out, she had an infection and a fever. Lucky the antibiotics helped the kitty to a quick recovery. She was feeling better the day she had went to the vet. Wednesday, Mia and I went on an exciting field trip with her class to the First State Theatre in Milwaukee to see Just a Little Critter. Mia was paired with her friend Kaylee as "bus buddy". She didn't get her recess BFF Irianna, (AKA-The Runner) because her mom attended. In fact the 4 parents that came each got kids to watch. Olivia's Dad got three crazy ones including his girl. Olivia wasn't that bad, but Alexa and Isabella were bouncing off the walls in the bus. It was cute, and they were fun. Kaylee and Mia were great on the bus ride there.

The play was fun and the kids had a lot of fun. Mia liked all the songs and fun acting. Before it started, Kaylee had to pee and Mia was FREAKING  out because she was so worried she'd miss the start of the play. It was both funny and nerve-wrecking. We had to go into the girls bathroom because I had NO clue where the guys one was. Whatever. I've always enjoyed going on field trips with Mia (this is my third since she started at  Smarty Pants in 3K) and it's just really enjoyable to see the kids in a more relaxed environment. On the ride home the kids were dead exhausted. Olivia passed out with Alexa sleeping on her. Mia was tired and Kaylee tried the same thing. She doesn't like to be annoyed when she's tired so it was a bit of a rough ride back to school. All in all, fun time.

Throughout the week, I've been working on different game announcement images for the Torrent, each one pushing my creativity to new heights. Friday morning, Mia and I had a boardgame-a-thon and played a few new ones she got for Valentines Day. While playing, it reminded me how old my 4 1/2 year old is getting. She gets concepts of games without me explaining anything to her, and can patiently wait her turn to spin or pop the bubble thing on Minion Trouble. Jill and I both agree that 4 has been our favorite age so far. She has her moments, but is sweet and kind a lot of the times.

Saturday, the ladies went to a craft fair while my Dad and I watched some of the FA Cup games. Reading beating West Brom was entertaining. Wish Everton would have lost to Bournemouth. Later for a late lunch, we went to this small Hawai'ian takeout and grocery store in Tosa'. Ono Kine Grindz. I tell you, it brought back some fond memories of our trip to Hawaii. Everything sold there was from the island including the tasty POG juice. We bought a few of those. MMM! I had gotten this cornish game hen in teryiaki sauce and a sticky rice that was super tasty. We'll have to go there again. It was cool to see my buddy Andy's photography all over their walls. Such an eye for beauty, but when you're in Hawaii, you see the beauty everywhere. Saturday night, we hung out, movie night per the usual.

Sunday I got up and watched Chelsea destroy Man City in the FA Cup on Youtube in Arabic. You could say "yeah they played the youth team because Man City wanted to rest some of the senior players for their UCL match this week" but who cares? If we win the cup, who's going to look at the game and say "well they only won 5-1 because they played the U-21 group". No. The team played creatively the 2nd half and smashed goal after goal. Hazard's free kick was solid, and Traore was able to get yet, another FA Cup goal. Everton is next and they'll be a bit more difficult. I worked my usual 2-10 that night.

This week, nothing major planned. Just graphic design work on some projects, for the Torrent and that's about it. Thanks for reading!

Torrential Tryouts

Good morning everyone. October is nearly over, but we've been incredibly busy (seems like almost every day/weekend) Last Wednesday, Mia had yet again, another field trip with her class. THIS time, to the First Milwaukee Theater to see a play about a square-shaped pumpkin. Jill finally got to go on a field trip with her. She loves plays and this was the perfect one to chaperone. When we dropped off Mia for school, we had an hour before Jill had to go meet for the bus to pick up the kids and drive to MKE. So, we took Remi to the park and went for a nice walk. The weather was gorgeous and absolutely perfect. Just like the good ol' days when we'd take him for walks, just the two of us. Nothing wrong with taking him with Mia or anything, but it brought back some fond memories.

After the walk, Jill soon went to Mia's school for the field trip. I had a little piece and quiet. Worked on some art and did some much-needed drumming. Mia and Jill had a great time. The play was fun, and the kids behaved nicely for Jill. Lucky. After the field trip, Mia and I had planned to go to the park with BFF Olivia. As we were leaving, Remi checked her down the stairs. She cried and cried and didn't want to go anymore to the park. When Olivia brought up that they were going to go to Chuckie Cheese, Mia jumped at the opportunity to go. So we went, and the ladies had a blast. They were the only kids there, and played all kinds of games. Mia wasn't too excited when Chuckie came out but when he went back into hiding, she was fine. It was great to see them having so much fun. We still have a boatload of tokens left for our next visit. Friday, I took the day off to photograph the Milwaukee Torrent's tryouts. Before that, Mia and I spent the day together. She was dressed up in her full tracksuit ready for gymnastics. Turns out, they don't have open gym and we had to decide whether to do a last-minute run to the trampoline park, or Monkey Joe's. We went with Monkey Joe's.

Once again, we had a blast. She went down EVERY slide including the largest slide: the halfpipe. It was a great time. She even played with a boy she met. I believe his name was Parker. Anyway, he followed us around for a while. Cute kid. Later, I packed up my bag and went over to Uihlein Field in the pouring rain. It would stop and start on my drive to the stadium, and I kept thinking "please please stop raining". It really didn't. I walked down to the field. Already getting soaked and met with head coach and owner Andi Davi. Amazingly nice guy with such a passion for this team and everything involved. He was absolutely frustrated with the heavy rain. He brought his flags and banners to be photographed, and clearly it wasn't going to happen. I was doing my best to photograph under the small inclosure and got about 20 photographs before the entire stadium's power went out.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? And was way more angry than anyone. He only was allowed about an hour and a half of time on the fields for tryouts. 34 players (which I believed included 4 keepers) showed up for this and after waiting and waiting and waiting, the tryouts were rescheduled for Tuesday. Quite a few people drove a good distance for the tryout including Minnesota and Hawaii (obviously didn't drive). They were all good sports about it, and the majority are coming back for the rescheduled date. I helped tear down everything and load up his car. It was great meeting him, his assistant coach and some of the players. I have to say, it was really surreal being introduced to his staff as "this is our graphic artist, he's the guy who designed and came up with the jerseys".  After we all said the goodbyes, I drove back home in the rain.

Saturday, I watched Chelsea crumble to West Ham. Another disappointing game. JM even got ejected from the game. I can't figure out what's going wrong. Defense wasn't there. Again. The near-goal was just SO close. They have a Capital One Cup game on Tuesday. Hoping for a win. I'm going to miss the Liverpool game Saturday due to having to work the 7am-3pm shift.

Later after the game, we got in our costumes and went to a Halloween party at a friends house. Mia had a great time playing with all of the kids, AND she even tried Alligator meat. She said it was pretty good. Jill loved it. Afterwards, we jetted over to the Delafield business Trick or Treating. We got to every business and had a lot of fun. When we got back home, we carved a couple of pumpkins. This was the first year we let Mia carve a pumpkin. With Jill's help, she did a great job carving a kitty. No stencils. Just a drawn on cat. I on the other hand, did my very best to carve a 3D pumpkin. Let me tell you, it was SUPER difficult. I really didn't take a lot of ceramic classes in HS and college. It didn't turn out that great, but I did my best. I may try painting a pumpkin next year. Do something a little different.

This week, Mia has a Halloween party and conferences. Saturday, Trick or Treating with family. Should be a lot of fun. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!!