Quality Creative Time

Good evening everyone. Hope you all enjoyed the week including a little snow tease. Mia enjoyed her first week in full bright purple hair. She got plenty of compliments which is always nice. I watched the Bate vs Chelsea match Thursday. The good guys got the win thankfully so we'll be moving on in the Europa. Later after school, Mia and I met up with Jill and attended her conference with her teacher. It was the very first time we've gone to a conference together since Mia's been in school. Her teacher had only the best things to tell us so that was nice to hear.  Mia sat and drew while her teacher told us she's doing amazing with reading and comprehension. Later, we went to Stonefire Pizza for dinner and games. Mia earned over 3,000 points over a few visits there so she picked out a big surfing penguin. Awesome!

Friday, Jill chaperoned Mia's class to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum. Originally, Mia had wrote in that I was going to do it, but I have to watch how many days I take off, so I had to cross that off but apparently Mia put Jill on the list. Jill got a group of 6 kids and they all had a blast. Saturday we had a low-key kind of a day. We weren't able to do any yard work due to the new bit of snow that came. Jill went to acupuncture while I watched Mia play in the snow. Later, we grabbed lunch at a new exciting place called FreshFin Poke. Super tasty. I had a coconut shrimp curry and Jill had spicy tuna. Mia had a little cup of fish eggs as well. In Hawaii, Jill fell in love with their poke so we were very curious on this new place. It turns out, it was better than what Jill had and of course Mia enjoyed her fav little fishy eggs.

Later, we spent some quality time together making art. Mia and Jill creating some ceramic masterpieces while I just doodled. Doesn't seem like much, but when you rarely get to spend time with your family, it's truly special. Most likely, the highlight of our weekend. We put on Zootopia later and had some pasta for dinner before crashing for the evening. Today, I woke up and watched Chelsea struggle to beat Everton. The match ended 0-0. Bugger. Plenty of chances but Everton was outplaying us. Lots of yellow cards and some dirty garbage the refs were missing on the Toffees. Still unbeaten, so there's that. I was hoping City would lose today, but they stomped on Man U. Damn. Need to step it up and grab some much needed wins. This week, maybe some art lessons, Mia's got a birthday party coming up and I've got to continue working on the Christmas book. Hard to believe Thanksgiving is already next week. That's all for now, thanks for reading!!

Keepin' it Surreal

Good evening everyone. Hope the readers had a great week. Wednesday, we went over to the studio and had some photos taken of Mia in her beautiful Fawn costume. It took some clever trickery to make her smile, but we got some good shots. Mia had her Halloween party on Thursday. Wednesday, she's normally in school but because she's off on Thursdays, they did sort of a switch for the kids who don't go to school Thursdays. Anyways, she had an absolute blast. They played games and had teams of kids wrapping up two friends as mummies. Mia was one of them. They did ring toss around the witches hat and tried all kinds of food. We made Frankenstein treats for the kids. Cups with green grapes, two marshmallows for eyes and I drew Frankie faces on all of them. She was in her Fawn costume and I guess her teacher thought she looked like a "pumpkin fairy". I don't even know what that is. She's been really enjoying getting homework from school lately, which is great. I honestly think it's the challenges that she likes.

Friday, Mia had a conference. Overall, she's doing great. Knows a lot of numbers and letters and how they're written. She's shy as far as when she's called on to answer a question, but is totally fine in one-on-one situations. She's a total perfectionist which makes sense. I am and Jill can be. Her teacher told me that she tends to erase and re-write her name so it looks totally perfect when it doesn't necessarily have to. She gets along with all of the kids and has definitely improved on doing things outside. Earlier in the year, she would just sit out there by herself, and as of lately, been playing with her friend Nate.  I'm proud of the kid. She's got a lot to learn before Kindergarten apparently, and things seem to be moving well.

Saturday, I had to work the early shift. I stuck a bandanna on my noggin and myself and one of my coworkers were dressed as pirates, or at least we made our best attempt. It was good for morale and kept the costumers happy. I missed the disastrous Chelsea vs Liverpool match. 3-1. WHY???? I can't think about it anymore. They better win their UCL game Wednesday. After my grueling work shift, I got changed at home (into my Dali costume) and we went Trick or Treating with my brother and his boys/wife, as well as my in laws. This was their first Halloween with Mia. The weather was absolutely crappy and cold, but they had fun. My sister, still as a statue, scared trick or treaters at our house. She had fun and Mia shared with her some candy for helping. My parents came over later for dinner and we had a good time. I tried to replicate a Dali picture with his cat. It mostly turned out alright.

Sunday, work work work. Nothing too exciting. Lots going on this week. Off tomorrow (STOKED). Mia and I need to find a birthday gift for her pal Alexa. She's going to her birthday party Saturday. Wednesday, I'm rock climbing at this indoor place with my pal Andy. Should be fun since I've never done it before. Jill's got some stuff going on this weekend as well. I'm just too tired to remember.

Thanks for reading everyone.