Friends In Fun Places

Good morning all. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. Last week was pretty busy. Mia's been learning a lot in school and especially has been playing with a boy from 3K, Nate. Last year, she wanted nothing to do with him. He would give her a kiss while her friends would give her hugs good bye and she was totally grossed out. This year, they've become close friends. She would ask him to open her Lunchable during lunch time because "Daddy, boys are stronger and can open things I can't". They play at recess too. Just about every day. He was out last week with a fever and she was pretty bummed out. She learned that she had to open her Lunchable by herself and at recess, was just hanging with Irianna. The 3K boys at recess were playing "guns" and were annoying Mia and her girl posse. So she would simply just hang out on the bench and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Wednesday after school, Mia and I watched the UCL match between Chelsea and Dynamo. Luckily, CFC got a great win with a fantastic free kick from Willian. I'll get back to this weekend's disaster a little later. Mia and I had all kinds of fun watching them win. Her favorite thing to do when Chelsea scores, is me tossing her into the air. It's amazing.  I was supposed to go rock climbing with my pal Andy, but when I arrived there was absolutely nowhere to park, which can't be a good sign. When he got in, we walked in and saw first hand, that they were hella busy. We rescheduled for the next week during the day. Hopefully we'll be able to do it and have some fun.

Friday evening when I came home from work, Mia was working on math! That's right. She's actually pretty good at it, which is awesome because I always hated it. With that, I'm trying to encourage her to keep working on it since it's actually something she enjoys. Saturday, Mia and I watched the Chelsea vs Stoke game (most of it) before taking her to her pal Alexa's 5th birthday party. Kids in Motion was absolute madness. At least 7 birthday parties going on at once with at least  100 kids running around the indoor play place. Mia's entire 4K class attended and she had so much fun. She played quite a bit with her friend Audrey in the market, the kitchen, submarine and the jungle gym. Alexa loved her present and Mia's hoping she will make her a friendship bracelet in the near future. I love watching her play with her friends. They're so fun to watch running around and being imaginative.

During the party, I found out that Chelsea once again, blew the game losing 0-1. They are in dire crisis. JM was absent for the game with a stadium ban, and they just couldn't win. Defense was a mess, with Azp making a rare mistake leaving the attacker open for an acrobatic shot at Begovic. They're in an international break for the week, and I hope they can pull a win next week against Norwich. JM doesn't deserve the sacking that is surely coming. Patience is key, and the Blues need to strengthen every bit of their squad to stay out of the relegation zone.

Saturday evening, we watched Inside Out. Such a solid and intriguing movie. One of Pixar's best in my opinion. Sunday, I worked 2-10 so nothing too exciting to discuss. This week, I'm going to try to rock climb again and I have a Flood meeting for the Torrent Saturday afternoon. Should be fun. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Calling All Soccer Hooligans

Good Morning everyone :) Well, I missed the final Chelsea game of the season Sunday morning, but they did pull off a win so at least we ended the long season on a somewhat good note. Counting down the days to the World Cup now. With the Penguins out of the playoffs, I'm left to root for the Montreal Canadians. So glad Boston's out. Mother's Day weekend was great. Jill loved the photo with paper flowers Mia and I put together for her. The weather wasn't too bad either, but currently, it's rainy (again) and cold. Brrr..Took Mia to Kids in Motion this week to play with her friends and the other we went to the park with them. A tad cold and dreary, but she had fun. She also mastered a new thing at the play ground too. Inside this "tree house" there's a ladder where the steps are made of leaves. It's not like a ladder that is straight up and down, it sort of staggers a little in a spiral-like motion. Anyways, she saw her friends scaling it so of course SHE wanted to try it. A little scared at first, but when she got to the top (with my help) she was so proud. When Jill came home later that night, she of course had to tell her about her new concur with a "Mommy, are you proud of me?" Adorable.

This weekend we're shooting pictures of our friends Cori and Dan with their little boy Hunter. Hopefully the weather is better. Sunday my Dad and I will be driving to Bridgeview Illinois to watch the Chicago Fire take on Sporting KC. Should be a great time.  Once again, hoping for really nice weather since we'll be outside. I was notified there will be a SoccerFest coming in June, with a massive amount of people to be expected. Different age groups have teams, all competing for the "World Cup". From my understanding, it's one of the biggest soccer events in the country. My brother BJ and I are intrigued so I made a post in search of 4 more players. If we can get a team, it'll only end up being about 14 dollars a person. Sounds like a blast, but I'm not holding my breath. Who knows if I'll be able to get this team filled. 

That's it for now. 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!

Beautiful Things

Good morning folks, readers, and friends. I'm writing here on yet another snowy morning. Yesterday, temps were up in the mid-high 40's. Today, still warm, but with freezing rain mixed with snow. Awesome. So last Friday was Valentines Day. We haven't celebrated the "holiday" in a while, so this year I made some coconut truffles for Jill. That's right. MADE her. It was my very first time creating and putting together a dessert, so I wanted this to go perfectly. She was still ill from the week, but told me they were awesome. Friday morning, Mia had her play group. Her friends and her exchanged valentines day treats. It was pretty cute. She got some cookies from Grace and Hannah. Saturday, we didn't do much. I watched the Chelsea vs Man City game for the FA Cup with Mia. Sadly, we lost. We just couldn't get a lot of shots off.

Sunday, worked 7-3pm, then later took Mia to Kids in Motion. NEVER going there on a weekend again. MEGA busy, it's full price and there are just kids running everywhere. We saw a kid take a shopping cart full of groceries up the foam ladder into the play ground. No clue where his parents were.  Mia had fun though. Tuesday, we got a text from her friend about going to Kids in Motion again. We were gonna go to tot time at the trampoline park, but decided to do the kids place again. Mia had a LOT of fun with her friend Hannah. They chased each other around, shared fruit snacks and played quite well. This other dude from play group, Zack, must have the biggest crush on Mia. Always wanting to give her a hug, but for some reason, she's not a fan of him. At one point, I almost burst out laughing when he ran passed her, snuck a hug in, and ran off smirking. It was funny, and she had no idea what just happened. There's something about watching Mia and Hannah play, that really makes me happy. These kids get along so well. When we pulled into the parking lot, they had arrived then too and were waiting for us to get out. Mia couldn't contain her excitement and they both gave big hugs behind my car. Later inside, Mia had said "Daddy, I wanna share my fruit snacks with Hannah, so she'll give me a hug and kiss". adorable, right? We look forward to seeing Hannah and Zack at play group Friday with Grace and Omina.

Wednesday, didn't do much. Mia and I began our construction of the snow-minion. Tried rolling some balls in the front yard, but it was really glossy and icy, and everything would just crumble into powder. The back yard by our back step, however worked. Rolled two very large snow balls (50 pounds on one, 80 on the other). It was difficult getting one on top of the other to complete the 6 ft body that I originally planned to build. Mia later said "let's go inside". We didn't make a lot of progress, but we still had fun. Last night, Mia wanted gelato at the mall, so after dinner we hung around there. Saturday, Jill's brother and Mom are coming in. I'll be getting up nice and early for the Chelsea vs Everton game. Sunday, 7-3 then my brother and his fam are coming in for a visit.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading :)

Take Lots With Alcohol

Hello friends. The day off went pretty quickly. My friend Nicole and I hung out with our kiddos at Kids in Motion for a few hours this morning. Crappy weather required some much needed fun time indoors :) Mia had fun. Lots and lots of kids running amok in the facility. Mia enjoyed playing with the dinosaurs, hitting up the slides and the train room. She played her first game of air hockey against this kid before he flipped upside down and smacked the hell out of his head on the wall. Didn't know where his parents where, so I immediately checked to make sure he wasn't bleeding. Had to go to a meeting shortly after our fun, (which of course, was NOT fun) Mia was super talkative up until we walked in the door and everyone was coming up to her. I gave her a small bag of pretzels and a cup of water. After she finished both she said out loud "DADDY, THIS MEETING IS BORING!" I agree love. Before she got out of hand, we booked it. I got the info I needed for an HSA account and we left.

Other then that, Mia napped later when we got home, and after she woke up, we watched the end of that Toy Story Terror made-for-TV Halloween movie..thing. She enjoyed it. If Mia gets up at a semi-normal time tomorrow, we'll do story time and Friday, of course play group. Saturday, we've got a wedding near Madison in Sun Prairie. First time we've photographed a wedding in quite a few years. Should be fun.

Art wise, just sort of working on this portrait. Really need to get on some other projects. I want to make a new Thrill Factory logo as well as work on the Paper+Plastic commission stuff. It's going to be quite technical, but I think I can knock it out Saturday evening after the wedding. I hope. Alright, time to finish this Guinness and head off to bed. Thanks for reading! :)