Up and At Them

Evening everyone. It's been an alright week with some added stress, so let's get right to it. Starting this week, Jill's able to work from home on my day off, which is nice. We're able to get some things done when possible all the while getting our own work done. For me, I'm looking at jobs, working on Mia's Christmas book and trying to get this indoor soccer team up and running. We picked up some little liquor bottles for Jill to experiment with some macarons for my parents birthday presents. She made Friday evening some Chocolate Kahlua macarons for my Dad as well as some Cherry Amaretto ones for my Mom.

The New Berlin Dragons Have all the players and now I'm in the process of getting all the money and funds for the team. We're going with a Rave Green jersey color with black socks and shorts. It'll look nice and hopefully I'll get everything in order so we can get the jerseys ordered. I'm just thrilled everyone ones to play but it's a bit stressful gathering everything.

Saturday, my brother Andy and I made plans to meet with his BFF at the Highbury Pub in Bayview to watch the Chelsea vs City match. We had to suffer through the Liverpool vs Palace match first. The pub was super packed with Gunners fans watching them struggle against the Saints, and surprisingly there were Palace fans watching the Liverpool match. They almost had them but Liverpool had a pair of ugly goals that got them the win. BOO! Chelsea was next. Great crowd of Blues fans and a handful of City fans as we watched a tight match. Sadly, they couldn't get the win but it was a great time. I don't make the Highbury that often with the fellow Chelsea fans, but we had some good fun cheering. Andy even got himself a free MKE Blues scarf. We wanted the pins, but they had nothing. Boo. It was my first time literally losing my voice at a football pub, but to cheer on our team was worth it.

While I was at the pub with Andy, Jill and Mia saw Frozen 2 and had a day at the mall. Later, the two did some reading while I worked on her book. I'm trying to knock out a page a day so we're not struggling at the end of the month. So much on my plate, so little time. We had dinner with my family at Red Robin for my parent's birthday celebration. Mia wanted me to tell the staff it was my Dad's birthday so they'd sing to him but I let it go. We had some annoying teens behind me slamming into my chair and making annoying noises so I wasn't exactly in the best mood.

Today, we did some grocery shopping and I had hoped to mulch some leafs but sadly the rider's battery was dead. Jill told me later her Dad tried to mulch with the rider but it didn't really make a difference. Ugh.

This week, Mia's got a short week of school with just Monday and Tuesday. Thanksgiving is Thursday so we'll have dinner with family at my parents. Jill will make her famous mashed potatoes and her new recipe for stuffing that's pretty awesome. Will we go get some Black Friday deals? Not sure, we'll have to see what's available.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Soccer Week

Greetings! Man, what a busy week. Mostly for Mia. This week started Mia's very first soccer camp with the Milwaukee Torrent Community Foundation. The owner/coach of the Torrent, Andy Davi hosts an incredible week-long soccer camp that brings in youth coaches from Germany (more specifically, the Bayer Leverkusen club) to teach and instruct kids about the Beautiful Game. Mia had been looking forward to this moment for MONTHS. She was so insanely excited for her first day, she was in her gear hours before we left. Talk about excitement.

Upon arriving, there were certainly a lot of kids from different soccer clubs. Sadly, that sort of made Mia feel like an outsider. Most of the kids signed up for the camp with friends so Mia would have to attempt to make a friend, which didn't work out. She told me throughout the week that "this camp isn't about making friends, it's about me getting really good at football" (yes, she calls soccer football instead) She took this serious. Despite being pretty shy, she really liked the coaches and worked hard to complete the different challenges and Bundasliga tests that Coach Davi had set up. She really liked Coach Anne, the one woman on staff. She was super friendly with the kids, so Mia took an immediate shine to her. I really enjoyed watching for the short while that I could before work because it gave me some really good ideas for drills when Fall soccer starts. Mia enjoyed having me watch as well. 

Wednesday, Mia had soccer camp AND she went to her BFF Cecilia's birthday party. Talk about a busy day following soccer and bass lessons on Tuesday. Thursday I was off, so I attempted to fly my drone to get some sick aerial shots of the camp. It wouldn't fly due to a firmware update. Ugh. Friday was Mia's last day. World Cup day. She was so excited to play a full day of matches. She said she almost got a goal in one of the games. The kids also got to play with Torrent players from the Men's and Women's team. Cool! She even has two new favorite players. Sadly, one is leaving for a Spain team, and the other guy, I don't know who he is yet. She liked his skills and said he was pretty friendly. I finally got my drone up in the air that morning before we went to camp. Even let Mia fly it and she did really well. At the camp, the camera was a bit blown out and on top of that, was having satellite interference issues. Ugh. Such a disappointment. 

My parents picked her up and watched the little end-of-camp ceremony. Mia got her German diploma for completing the tests, a Leverkusen pennant, pin and sticker as well as another Torrent season ticket and a camp ball. We'll be using this to bring in friends and family this season to the Men's matches. Mia had the best time at the camp and I recommend it to any kid wanting to grow their skills. The coaching staff totally enjoy their time with the kids and I know Mia will remember this one for a long time. She kept bringing up this week that she is totally excited she has a t-shirt and soccer ball with logos on it that I created. "THAT MEANS YOU'RE A FASHION DESIGNER DADDY!!" Friday night after I got home from work, Mia was dribbling around the ball showing me some of the useful skills she learned. She even told me that during scrimmages, she'd use her weight and arms to get in front of the opposing players to get the advantage and when she'd dribble, turn her body so they couldn't get it from her. Awesome!! Thanks again everyone involved for making this camp happen and giving Mia the confidence to grow on the field. 

Saturday, Jill worked on some macarons most of the day while I worked on some logo revisions. Later, we had Noodles and went to the NB West production of Mary Poppins. Our friend's son was one of the characters and one of my student's worked backstage. It's always awesome seeing performances like this. The cast and crew work very hard to make these things happen. Jill and I liked it. Mia said it was alright. 3 hours is a long time for a kid to sit through a play. She liked parts of it, and kept getting sleepy through parts of it. When she got home, she polished her soccer ball till looked brand new and once again, dribbling all over the house. When I say my kid loves soccer, she really does. The Torrent Men's team had their first pre-season friendly and won 14-1. Holy crap. Hoping for more of the same this season. 

Today,  Jill worked on more macarons and later we made a quick little trip to the zoo specially to see the river otters. So cute. This week, nothing major planned. Oh, accept my Dad and I are DRIVING TO CHICAGO TO SEE FIORENTINA!! Viola take on Chivas at Seatgeek Field and we've got the closest seats possible and will be sitting with the Fiorentina supporters. Can't. WAIT. This may be my Dad's only opportunity to see two international teams. Maybe art lessons this week? We'll see. Chelsea's on a pre-season tour and after two friendlies in Ireland, they're off to Japan. 

That's all for now thanks for reading! 

Motivation and Inspiration

Greetings everyone! Such a busy week as well as the weekend, but first the week. Jill and I tried this new tropical smoothie place for lunch this week. The food wasn't too bad and the smoothies were tasty. Customer service was meh. Not for sure we'll be back anytime soon, but overall, not a bad place to try. Mia's cat Marie turned 3 so she gave her some special treats and card (I think?) Friday I took off so Mia and I could go to the 2019 Milwaukee Women's Kick-Off party/kit reveal in Milwaukee. I knew traffic would be horrendous due to the Bucks playoff game but somehow we found parking at the venue. What luck! We got our season tickets, and Mia met some of the fans and coach before we called it a night. She helped me do some video interviews as well. She's really getting into video editing so it pains me a bit that I had to do it after we got home when she was asleep. I just wanted to knock it out and have it online before Saturday. It was a lot of fun reuniting with the supporters and staff before the girls had their first match of the season on Saturday.

Mia had a dance class open house on Saturday morning. Jill's parents as well as both Jill and I went to the event. I haven't been to an open house since she was in Kindergarten, so I was excited. They performed for a small crowd their routines for the upcoming recital. Mia did really well, despite not showing a lot of excitement. Later, we went to my nephew's 5th birthday party. A bit of rain, but it was still a blast. A little backyard soccer per the usual and some good food. His Mario cake looked pretty awesome (despite it being chocolate). Jill made some super tasty passion fruit Fruity Pebble macarons for the party as well. Mia mentioned she wants to join the girls running club next year, which was totally random. Over the Summer, she said she'd like to do some running with me to get her endurance up.

After we got home, Mia goes "So...are we going to the Torrent game still?" Really? Alright cool. Jill stayed home while Mia and I ran last-minute to Hart Park to watch the girls take on FC Pride. Mia decided Friday night she'd join me in sporting a mask at matches to chant and drum with The Flood (Torrent supporters). She put on a fox mask and striped tail and refers to herself as Moon Fox. Super cute. Plenty of people gave her props on her completely made-up-on-her-own costume. Despite it being a 0-0 draw, Mia told me she had a great time. She anxiously wanted to grab her very own Torrent shirt at half-time. When I got home tonight from work and did my nightly kiss on her head, I noticed she was wearing the new shirt for school tomorrow. Sweet.

After the match, She put her mask away, grabbed her soccer ball from my trunk and ran back to the pitch to play a bit. Her footwork is improving quickly and she can't wait till the season starts. I've got the feeling after every game, she's going to want to play a bit of soccer. Totally fine with me. I really can't thank the Milwaukee Torrent enough for having this women's team for young girls like Mia to look up to for inspiration and motivation. For Mia to watch these girls and say "Wait, someday this could be me?" Is pretty awesome.

 We relaxed the rest of the night with Jill having tacos and watching Rio. I found out later that the Earthquakes beat the Fire 4-1 and that Chris Wondolowski scored a good handful of goals, beating the all-time leading record holder Landon Donavon. So stoked for the 36 year-old to now hold that prestigious record. He's a top-notch player that hasn't had many goals this season so for him to really outdo himself and become the new leading goalscorer of the entire MLS is pretty amazing.

Today, we ran to the store and were hit by a gnarly thunder storm. The power was out before I had to shove off to work. Not the best night at work, but I was relieved when I heard the power came back on. On the side of her school, a tree went down. I'm not sure if it was due to the high winds or the lightning but it looked pretty rough.

This week I'll continue my epic quest for a new job, I'll be reuniting with artistic sisters Micah and Gianna for some awesome art lessons and Friday is Hot Dog Day at Mia's school, which is basically a large picnic on the playground for families.

Birthday Diva Turns 8

Good evening everyone! We closed out March with quite the busy week. Here we go. Jill and I took off Wednesday for Mia's 8th birthday. Hard to believe she turned 8. She's grown so much and made such an amazing amount of friends. I could go on and on, but yeah we took the day off to do a little celebration at night. Mia opened up her Uncle Bryan's gift he sent her before school which was an awesome #10 soccer necklace and she immediately put it on for school. Totally loves it! Anyways, she had made prior to her birthday some tasty birthday macarons for her entire class. She's bringing a couple tomorrow for her teacher who was ill on her actual birthday as a little surprise. They were super good and  Christina Tosi on Twitter liked how they turned out!

 I did my traditional "join Mia for lunch on her birthday" thing I've done since Kindergarten. She was pretty stoked as well as her friends. They obnoxiously fought to sit next to us. Why? WHY?? It was pretty funny but eventually everyone sit and we ate. The girls liked Mia's red velvet cake sketch and they discussed what they planned for recess. It always comes down to "we'll do whatever Mia and her Dad do" . Okay..
The kids played a bit, talked and eventually did some chalk drawing. I joined them drawing which strangely getting a lot of attention from other kids. The girls drew little "Happy Birthday Mia" messages on the blacktop. All in all, really fun time that I always love doing for her on her birthday.

Later, we met up with both sets of grandparents and went to StoneFire Pizza. Not the best day for a birthday dinner there. It was PACKED and very difficult to move about the place. Mia had fun and picked out some oh-so-90s gel pens that she totally has been enjoying. Thursday I was off as well, but nothing major to report. We did some cleaning in preparation for the epic party. Mia and Jill made some amazing cakes for her party.

Saturday came, and in the morning, we did some last minute cleaning and getting everything ready for Mia's 9 crazy friends to arrive. I picked up the pizza and wasn't long after I returned home, they started arriving. Kaitlyn, Tenley, Charlie, Cecilia, Vida, Scarlett, Ryan, Hayden and Noelle all joined in celebrating Mia's birthday with a unique Red Panda themed birthday party. My incredibly helpful in laws helped a ton with the event. My Mother in law did a bow-making station with a group of girls, my Father in law kept Remi out of trouble, Jill did a a Red Panda quiz/gummy necklace station and myself had girls throwing "rice balls" into a cardboard red panda box with holes as well as a guessing game. The kids had a great time. They later had some cake, popcorn, Mia opened gifts and ended the day with a custom piñata made by Mia Mother in law. All in all, great time and Mia loves all her amazing gifts. She truly has some really great friends and had the best time with all of them.

We watched Big Hero 6 and had some left over pizza to close out the evening. Today I got up early to watch Chelsea take on Cardiff. Once again, ugly match but somehow, Chelsea pulled off a 2-1 win. Cardiff honestly got robbed of at least a draw but in the end, we needed the points. The season is pretty close to over and if we even think the Blues will finish top 4. Liverpool unfortunately got a win today and are currently in 1st. Ugh. Chelsea are back in action Wed but I'm stuck working.

 Later I went to work. When I came home, I discovered a series of little pranks for April Fools Day from my dear Mia. She definitely has the Justman prank bone in her. there was an angry face on the milk carton with a note exclaiming 'I think the milk went bad" as well as "something is wrong with the eggs" with faces drawn on them. When I went upstairs to change, there was a cut out spider on my pillow and on our mac, was a silly face drawn in Photoshop. Good grief kid. This week is Mia's teacher's last week at OL for the year. She's going on Maternity leave so I'll be continuing my tradition of a one-day drawing with her class on Tuesday. I've drawn with her class every year for the last 3 years so it's totally going to be fun this year since Mia's in her class. Totally excited. Saturday is Mia's family birthday party so it should be pretty fun.

Pencils and Kiddos

Good evening everyone! Busy week per the usual with plenty to get through so let's get through it. This week was a fun one. Wednesday, I was a guest artist teaching drawing techniques in a 3rd grade class. It was a part of the basket event that a mother won for her son and his lucky class. The focus was on Emoji drawing so I explained and demonstrated proper techniques to show dimension, shading and color blending. Instead of the above camera with the Smart Board, I had an easel and quite literally sat in front of the class and we all drew together. They were all great and created their own Emoji's or used one of my examples. We took a "brain break" and all of the kids got to look at my large book of drawings I've done for Mia. They went back to drawing while I joined Mia for lunch. After lunch, I rejoined my 3rd graders and they all excitedly showed me more Emoji's they drew while I was gone. Very proud of these kids. They were great and after their teacher gave me a hug goodbye (no, really...) I said so long and thanks for having me before joining Mia and her crew for recess. The 3rd graders where on their way to lunch. Some of them spotted me at recess and just had to say hi again..

At parent pick-up, a handful of kids spotted me and once again...had to say hi. "HEY YOU TAUGHT OUR CLASS! THAT WAS AWESOME!" The art teacher and I where chatting when the kids came up and she immediately said "well great, now you're the most poplar artist here"...Sorry! I really really love working with kids and may end up doing two more classes before the end of the school year.

Mia and I enjoyed the gorgeous weather when we got home. She tried on her cleats from last season and booted the ball around the back yard. She's getting better with her shooting so I hope the next time she wants to play, we go to the field. We also went to the park with her friends and later had subs with Jill. When it's that nice, you really do need to be outside and enjoy it. Friday, Mia stayed home from school. Wasn't feeling the best. Later, she felt better but stomach still hurt a bit. She spent her time off drawing and relaxing with me before I had to go to work.

Saturday, my brother, my Dad and myself went to the driving range for some golf. I think at one point in my life, I used to be a little good at driving the ball. Maybe had 20 that did okay. Most sucked. Oh well. Still a lot of fun. Immediately after wards, we watched the Chelsea vs Man U FA Cup final while Jill and Mia went to Good Harvest. Chelsea pulled the much needed win securing the FA Cup. It was a season full of disappointment results, but at least they pulled a trophy out this season. Who knows what the Summer Transfer will look like but hopefully our key players stay around.

Jill made some macarons that turned out adorable while I did some Torrent edits. Today, Mia and Jill painted while I worked on laundry and watched the Fiorentina vs Milan match. The Torrent took on Kalamazoo on the road today and picked up another 2-2 draw. Went up two goals and got caught twice. Hopefully they'll get their first win this Friday. The women had their first scrimmage this week and had a great turnout and win.

This week's a fun one. While I don't have anything figured out for my day off on Wednesday, Friday Mia's got a play followed by Hot Dog Day at the school. Always a fun event and it's the first time Mia's in a play. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Party All Weekend

Good evening everyone. Busy busy weekend keeping up with Mia's social life, but we'll get back to that soon. Wed after school, Mia was so excited to tell me that she finally got to play an instrument at music class. She played the xylophone for the first time. As a special little surprise, I told her that I'd take her to Guitar Center to play on the electronic kits. She loved doing that when she was little. We were pretty much the only ones there so it was nice having the drum room to ourselves. She experimented on all kinds of kits and had a blast. We moved over to the acoustic guitar room and she checked out the guitars and ukuleles. Later had dinner before bed time. Love my days off with her. We had a great time.

Friday we had the first snow. Not a much of it, but she loved walking to school in it. She was super excited for her Saturday full of parties. I caught a bit of the Chelsea vs West Brom match (4-0) before we had to go to the party. 1st off was Charlie's. She's got an amazing friendship with her (Charlie gave her a BFF choker necklace Friday) so Mia was excited...except she's totally afraid of Chuck E Cheese. She was keeping an eye on him when he'd pop out every once in a while. I held hers and friend Ryan's tickets in my pockets while the kids racked up tickets. They all had a blast. Cecilia did the horse race game to distract herself from the scary Chuck E as well. Charlie loved the gift and Mia was glad she got to have fun with her and her school friends. Later, I took Mia and Cecilia both home before the 2nd party. Ellahrose.

We picked up Cecilia (her Mom was busy with company) and took them to the party. They had a big bounce house and everything was Descendents theme. Picked them a few hours later and brought back to Cici's house. Her Mom invited us in to hang a bit while her friends made this traditional Venezuelan dish. Mia continued playing with Cecilia while Jill helped the ladies. I drank with the fellas before we left about 7:30pm. Cecilia's Mom Andrea has some of the nicest friends and has always been very hospitable. We had a lot of fun. Mia and Cecilia are planning an epic sleepover on Dec 2nd so the next two weeks, the kids will once again, plan this event. Later, we made tacos for dinner before watching Elf.

Sunday, Jill and Mia worked on one of Jill's biggest talents: creatively baking macarons. It was fun to watch the two work together on some delicious treats. Later before I had to go to work, Mia and I relaxed together and did some art. My favorite part was watching her sing to Less Than Jake, Tegan and Sara and others. She's got the most beautiful voice that I rarely hear sing so it was a little treat for me.

This week is a short week for the diva. School Monday and Tuesday. Wed she's off and she's hanging with long-time friend Olivia and her brother for a few hours. Thanksgiving is Thursday so I'm working 2-10. Off Friday to spend time with Jill's family. Should be a busy but enjoyable week, along with working on her Christmas book. That's all for now, thanks for reading!