The Pokemon Party

Good morning. Every week keeps getting busier and busier. School ending real soon, but first: the week/weekend. Wednesday, Mia and I watched the Champions League game after school by Grandpa Grumpy. It was fantastic because Chelsea successfully beat Porto and we move on to the next group. Later, we went to Jill's parent's house for a birthday dinner for her Dad. Uncle Tommy was helping Mia learn some piano. I think as she gets older if she choses to, he'll be able to teach her.  Friday, Mia got to hang out at Helium Trampoline Park with her BFF Olivia before her birthday. It was technically the LAST day that she'd be eligible to take advantage of "TOT TIME" because the age group goes from walking-5 years old. So, we just about had the whole place to ourselves. Maybe 6 kids total there (including the divas). They had an absolute blast running around and playing. Meeting new kids. It was fun.

 Saturday was Olivia's birthday party. Mia was very exciting and was super curious to see which classmates were gonna be there. Majority of them were invited. Mia went down all of the slides, and ate pizza. It was a Pokemon-themed party so we got her friend a Pikachu stuffed animal, and Friday after she got back from Helium, she had her a friendship bracelet. Today at school, Mia was wearing the Pokemon black-rubber bracelet she got in a gift bag. Jill and I both attended this party and this was Jill's first time at Monkey Joe's. She got to see for the first time Mia getting to interact and play with her friends from school. It really is enjoyable. They're beyond silly and everyone got along. Mia's highlight of the day was her classmate Isabella playing with her on one of the obstacle things. In this particular one, the kids are sort of closed off so you can only see them coming out or going in. Mia was in for a while playing with friends Alexa, Nate and Isabella. For the longest time, Mia was convinced Izzy didn't like her. No idea why. I kept trying to explain "well, maybe she's just shy". Before we left, Mia came out down the inflated ramp "GUESS WHAT?? ISABELLE LIKES ME NOW! AND I'M SO GLAD!!"

Later, we make Christmas cookies. Lots of them. Mia had a blast decorating and taste-testing her culinary skills. Sunday, I worked and Jill and Mia hung out with her other grandparents. I came home and both were fast asleep.

Today, she's on a field trip to Apple Holler for a play. Tomorrow is the big Christmas concert. Wednesday holiday crafts and she gets to go to school on THURSDAY because it's a Christmas party and book exchange where the kids get to give books to each other. Sounds like fun. Chelsea plays Leicester today. God, I hope they pull this one off.  

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Everything is Awesome!!!

Good morning everyone. Hope the weekend was enjoyable. Everyone here is pretty much back to normal and not sick and miserable as we all were in the previous week. Mia went back to school Friday and when we arrived, she had discovered she got a bag of Valentines from her classmates that she would have got if she went last week. She was pretty stoked by all of them. When I went to pick her up, her teacher told me how she had such a great day with her friend Olivia playing in the kid's Post Office for quite a while writing and making letters for each other. That kid is so sweet to Mia. As she gave a hug goodbye to her when we were leaving, a brave little boy ran up and hugged her too. I think his name is Finn. After he ran back to the rug for "Calendar Time" she whispers to me "Daddy, I did NOT want him to hug me". Kid, it's no biggie, he just wanted to say goodbye. Ugh. What was real nice Friday, is that I had the day off. I rarely take off on Fridays but since Jill was in Madison till about 7ish for a conference/seminar for work, I spent the rest of Mia's day after school with her.

We grabbed some lunch after I picked her up and went to Monkey Joe's. Haven't been there in a while, but she had a good time. I can never talk her into going down some of the bigger slides, but we still had a lot of fun. They were pretty busy, and later I found out it was because a lot of the area schools had the day off. Afterwards, we visited a few stores, and on the way home, she was fast asleep. When Jill came home, we made dinner and watched The Lego Movie. Mia wanted nothing to do with this, but as soon as I turned it on, she instantly got into the film. It was pretty cute and very funny. It was really nice to enjoy the evening with Jill and Mia.

Saturday morning, I got up, did the usual routine and made my way to the computer to watch the Chelsea vs Burnley game. This should have been easy. Real easy. It still drives me insane that we couldn't secure 3 points at the Bridge, but something wasn't right. Ivanovic set the tone in the first half with a great goal from a very creative pass from Hazard. We had two different instances in the box and the referee didn't even pull a card or stop the play. One guy, easy hands in the box. Everyone saw it. Nope. Ref didn't stop the play. Costa, got shoved in the box. Once again, no card. He was pretty furious about that one. Then the cherry on top. Matic had the ball, and Barnes from Burnley stuck his boot straight into his leg and clearly missed the ball. NO CALL ON THIS. When I saw Matic get up and sprint to go shove Barnes, my jaw dropped. Now, we're out a key CDM for three games including the Capital One Cup final all because the incompetent ref didn't catch that blatant and dirty tackle. Ashley Barnes was fouling our boys all game. It was crazy. I don't know how Mourinho didn't go crazy in the post-interviews, but the game ended in a draw 1-1.

Tuesday, we played PSG. Sadly, I missed the Champions League match, but we also finished 1-1. Hopefully we can beat them in the 2nd leg.

After that frustrating game Saturday morning, we spent the rest of the day doing laundry and later Jill and I went on a rare date and had grandma babysit the kiddo. We haven't had a date night since I believe May. I thought August at first, but I just figured out that the last movie we saw in theaters was A Million Ways to Die In The West. Yeah, it's a raunchy comedy that we felt dumber after it was over, but it was still funny. I'm not going to go into great detail what we went to see, but It was nice evening. For the first time, we did the Dine-In thing where you order food there, and watch the movie. It's like cutting out the "going out before the movie" and just eating there. The food was pretty good. Mia wasn't too stoked we went out, but she had a great night with Grandma.

Sunday I worked. Nothing too exciting. When I came home, Mia was asleep. Jill said she fell asleep sitting up watching Cinderella at 8:30pm. WOW. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!