Settle For Satin

Evening everyone. It was a slightly busy week, but starting tomorrow, it'll be a LOT busier. We'll get back to that. Monday was President's Day so Mia had the day off. It was also a day with plenty of fresh snow. The temps were actually pretty decent so with all that, Mia and I went snowboarding at Valley View. I was anxious to get my new board in the powder in hopes it'd be better than the other one I had that was too big and heavy. There were a lot of people out tubing and sledding off ramps. Mia did really well and rarely fell. I made one run down and couldn't for the life of me get my bindings to loosen. Ugh. Mia was getting irritated that I couldn't help her with her bindings she was getting stuck with so overall, the day wasn't super great, but we'll have a better time next time. It took me a few days to get to it, but I was able to figure out my bindings and adjust them to better fit my boots. They aren't perfect and probably meant for smaller boots, but I think it'll work. Hopefully we can get some more snowboarding sessions before Spring comes.

Mia and I didn't do too much on my day off except her usual $1.00 smoothie. Friday, kicked off Yearbook Season for Jill's studio so I joined her boss at St Mary's to photograph all the kids. I've got 5 other schools to do over the course of a few weeks. Saturday, Mia and I took her picture for her birthday invites and had them sent out (email-wise) Hopefully the kids will have an awesome time come March. She's been excitingly checking to see who's RSVP'd. She's got a birthday party a few weeks before hers that's a sleepover and she already has a sleeping bag out and ready for it. Oh Mia...

We watched the Penguins vs Flyers game while working on some of the Art Show stuff. Mia surprisingly watched the whole game and gave me updates as I was making delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. Rough ending with the Flyers beating the good guys in the Stadium Series match. Ugh.

Sunday, I watched the league cup final between Chelsea vs City. Last time they met, City destroyed us. Today, they played like champions. Chelsea refused to let them score and it went to PK's. Sadly, a couple misses from us and some unfortunate mistakes from keeper Kept, lead to City getting the hardware. Rough ending for the Blues as now they just have the Europa title to play for. This also could be the manager's last week with them. Who knows. It was nice to see the Blues playing like they cared.

Tomorrow, I'll be in Waukesha and Tuesday in Watertown photographing for the year books. We've got a PFC meeting Tuesday after Mia's dance class. So much to do, so little time. Will we get snow this week? Who knows. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

One Last Dance?

Good evening everyone. Well, it's been a busy year but school is finally over for the diva. What a year. She gained so much knowledge, confidence, friends and a lot of skills that I can't believe she could master in a short amount of time. She's academically and physically more than ready for 1st grade, but for now, we're going to enjoy the time off from school as much as possible. She's got two zoo classes coming up this month and we're working on setting up violin lessons as well.

Wednesday after school let out,  I delivered my Skywalker drawing that I did for Samuel, one of the awesome kids I taught a few months ago. He wants to be an artist one day (like I did when I was his age) so I decided to surprise him with something special. I found out he had a rough week and the drawing made him smile. Awesome :) After wards, myself, Mia and Noelle walked home from school together. The pair most likely can walk to school daily next Fall since Noelle may be not riding the bus. I know Mia would love it. They hung out with Noelle's neighbors for a few hours till it was time to head home.

I met up with my Dad later and we went to the Torrent vs Kzoo FC match. Both teams fought hard, but in the end Kzoo with the help of some clueless refs got the win. It was a frustrating loss to say the least. Today, they drew 2-2 in Michigan. The team really needs to kick it up and get some more wins. We had a great time at the match and hope they can win the next one on the road. Thursday, Mia had her dress rehearsal before her recital. She had no problem dancing in her costume and was ready for Saturday.

Friday was Mia's LAST day of school. She was super excited and brought a couple of gifts for the teachers. She had a early release and got to spend the rest of her day with Jill and I before I had to split for work. The pair went to Store Fire Pizza for dinner.

Saturday was the first time we didn't have to get the diva up for dance, although she ended up waking up early anyways :P We visited with Jill's family before heading home to get ready for the big recital. Mia got ready backstage with Jill as we patiently waited for her group to come out. There was about 26 different groups performing all together. My parents joined us as well. When Mia came out in her dress and ballet slippers, I couldn't stop smiling. She stuck it out through dance class and performed very well. A lot of the girls in her group would be peering over at Mia to see what dance moves to do next. She was just so perfect on that big stage in front of so many people. She's currently proclaiming that she will not be doing dance next year and would like to try something new and different. I'm fine with either. Who knows what her future could look like for an extracurricular activity. All I know is that it was very special seeing her perform. She was also rewarded Perfect Attendance as well. After dance, we went to get frozen yogurt at Yo Mamma. VERY good and we'll for sure be back.

Sunday, Jill and I surprised Mia by taking her to Minooka where she met up with her grandparents who set up a little End of School picnic at the beach. We grilled and Mia and Grandma made tin can ice cream. Very tasty. I watched the Penguins beat the Predators in Game 6. What a season. First Chelsea takes the Premier League title, and now Pittsburgh gets back-to-back wins. Unreal.

I'm glad that Summer break is here and we can try and relax before the school year starts again. This week, back to work. Jill's got some late nights coming up. I've got some Torrent game day images to make and Mia will most likely play with some friends. Nothing major going on this weekend coming up. Father's Day is Sunday and I'm working so we'll see what the girls have planned.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

The Singing Diva

Good evening everyone! Great week for the most part. Not a bad weekend. We had some bizarre February weather with 60s-near 70's up to Wednesday! It was unreal! When Mia got out of school, we immediately got home, she went to the bathroom and we hit up the park. Normally, we'd just go to the park but from incidents in the past, the park bathrooms have been locked during the Winter months. Anyways, so we took Remi for a walk and she ran into her classmate and boy-next-door Max at the park. The kids ran around and enjoyed what would be the very last day of the warm weather.

Friday, I took the day off so that later, Myself, Jill and both sets of Mia's Grandparents could watch her perform and sing at the Kindergarten Friendship Concert. There were 3 classes of kids. 20+22 each. They all sounded great and the songs were adorable. As far as Mia, she sang her little heart out. Did all the motions, and had an awesome time. We were all so proud of her. She's really come a long way from 3K when she refused to sing to now in Kindergarten singing in front of a much larger group.

Later, we all went out to MOD pizza for some much deserved food. Saturday, Jill had acupuncture after a few hard weeks of manual labor at the new studio space. I took Mia to and from dance in between the Chelsea vs Swansea game only really catching about maybe 10 minutes total of the match. We won 3-1 grabbing an important 3 points giving us a 10 point lead over the Spurs. Later, we did some grocery shopping, had a very late lunch and watched the Penguins vs Flyers game. Another great game and win for the good guys. This was probably the first game I've been able to watch all season. Not surprising since most of the games are at night when I'm at work :( Mia even watched the game despite claiming to be a Hawks fan since Jill is. Psfff. Always, after the match, she passed out on the couch. I took her up to her room and drew till about 1am. I had to finish a rather difficult lunch note of Princess Poppy from Trolls. Don't think I'm drawing anymore. To blend the pinks is just super difficult. I need to get better at my soft Prismacolor pencils. It's difficult. I struggled with my drawing last week of Disgust. I used normal pencils on Poppy. I think for the most part it turned out okay. Earlier in the afternoon, we visited Mia's friends selling Girl Scout cookies at the local Pick N Save. Mia's addicted to the Lemonade ones and Jill got the coconut chocolate ones for herself.

Today, didn't do much. Jill and Mia went to my sister in law's clothing event. I did laundry and cleaned the kitchen. Mia called me before I left for work to excitingly say that she's lost her 4th tooth! She now has two missing up top giving her that authentic hockey mouth look. It's crazy. She'll be super excited to show her friend Charlie her missing tooth because she has the same two missing up top as well. It'll be funny.


This week's a weird one. I work tomorrow and then I'm off for three days in a row. I've got a lot of vacation to burn up so I'm using two days this week in that. Thursday I took off for a different reason: I'm volunteering at the Journey to the Arts program at her school. I'll be working back stage during the performance and helping get the kids ready for whatever it is they're doing. I'm sort of in the dark about everything so I'll find out this week what I've got to do.

That's it for now, thanks for reading!

Busy as Bees

Good morning everyone! Lots of cool stuff to discuss. Friday, Mia got an invite to her friend Gracie's birthday party. She's super stoked, so we went out and got her friend a gift. Her friends are excited to meet Jill too. Over the weekend, I watched the Chelsea vs FFC game as we had delicious pancakes. It was a great game. Schurrle got an awesome hat trick. Looking forward to watching the Blues take on the Spurs on Saturday with my older brother.  Jill and I had lunch at the coolest place on the East Side of Milwaukee. The Melthouse Bistro has the most excellent gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. We had a tough time deciding which to order, because everything looked amazing. I had the Sargent Pepper, which was pepper jack cheese, caramelized onions and small pieces of lightly buttered cauliflower. Fantastic. Jill had some pulled pork one. So if you're up for some great sandwiches, check out the place. Totally worth it, plus we had found a groupon deal, so it split the bill in half :)

Later for dinner, we made tacos and got to watch the Blackhawks take on my Penguins. It was one of the worst games I've seen in a while. Almost as bad as the Flyers/Pens series. The Penguins just couldn't get any shots off, Carpenter in goal was great, stopping everything but an own goal. Jill said "it  was a pity puck. You're welcome" It was actually a lot of fun rooting against each other, and Mia was even watching some of the game. After the lousy loss, we worked on getting our Etsy page: ColorfulNoise launched and out to the masses. It's picking up traffic and getting sales now, which is fantastic. Jill's worked hard on everything that's on there, and it all looks awesome. Last night, she added more items too. I have yet to be able to get some art rolling on it, mainly because I need to start the Mike's Hard Lemonade contest stuff. Not easy when Mia's constantly on my lap distracting me. Last night Mia decided she needed a haircut, so we gave her a little trim. She has nevetwanted one before and with her hair being quite pretty, we left it as it is. Now it's nice and the dead ends are gone.

This weekend: We're going to Madison to visit with my older brother and his family, followed by Gracie's birthday party. Should be a busy busy Saturday. Sunday I work 2-10 so I don't know if we've got anything going on in the morning.

Mostly Memories

Greetings readers. It's getting late and I've got all kinds of things to discuss so let's get at it, shall we? First, I'd like to get to last weekend. My in laws came in for a visit for a few days, and stayed at a hotel near us. Saturday night, they checked in, and Mia and I casually watched a 60's cover band butcher songs in the hotel bar. The door woman told me we weren't allowed to go in because she wasn't old enough. After about 10 or so minutes we headed upstairs to check with Jill's familia. Soon after going up, she said "Daddy, go see band?" So naturally we went back down again. This time, the door woman said after about 5 minutes of watching outside the door "if I get a wrist band on you, you can go in and get closer to watch, but just make sure you leave by 9". Hell yes, sounds good to me. So that's what I did. Mia and I had so much fun. The band was compiled of older men ranging from 50s-60s. I didn't think they need two tambourine players, but that's alright I guess. Mia had a great time. Clapped after every song. Older women would approach her and say "oh are you going to dance sweetie?" She'd simply ignore and try to watch behind their big ol' head. That'll make them go away :) So that was technically Mia's first "show" if you wanna call it that. We left after 9, and when we went back upstairs she told everyone about the band and how she clapped.

Tuesday, 11:08pm my little brother became a Dad, I became an uncle again and Mia got another cousin. Today, she met little Easton Cole Justman. She got jealous of Jill holding the little 5 pounder. I guess every toddler goes through that. They hate seeing their mother holding another kid. Man, seeing my little brother with his new son, and the smile on his face reminds me of when I was a new Dad. Everything is new, scary and exciting. The kid was totally brave to be there to watch everything happen is pretty amazing. Since Mia was a emergency c-section, I wasn't allowed to be in the ICU. Mia tried handing a block to sleeping Easton and said "Easton play with block!" Poor kiddo doesn't get it yet, but before you know it, they'll be playing as often as possible.

Speaking of playing, today we met up with some friends and let loose our kids at the Big Back Yard, a little indoor playground for kids of all ages. They had different jungle gyms, slides, basketball hoops etc. Mia met some new kids and had a lot of fun. Good place to let her run off some energy and meet some new children. She befriended a little girl, Caroline and her bro Wyatt. They even gave her, Jill and myself hugs before the place closed down for the day. All in all, busy day. Found out Chelsea FC tied and the Penguins lost. Not a good day for my teams. :( That's all for now. Thanks for reading and stay warm. It's been a cold few days here!

Drop the puck

Greetings everyone. Today was rather a weird day. First off, Jill was off from work. During the Winter, she has to take one weekday off, so why not take a day off on MY off day right? Well after a late night with Mia Tuesday, she ended up sleeping in till 11:40am today. Jill woke up first around 11 something and said to me "what time is it? I hear the mail truck outside". I knew it was later then usual. So we started the day late, and ended up heading over by my brother Andy, picked him up and headed over to the Delafield pond. He repeatedly asked for myself or Jill to shoot some updated photos of him playing hockey. It was a great time. Jill got behind the lense and took some fantastic photographs. I love watching her work hard with the camera. I'm quite used to seeing her shoot pictures of Mia just about every week, but today seeing her get creative with the elements & shooting some action shots of my brother was a little treat for me. Mia loved watching her uncle play. She would keep yelling "MISS IT MISS IT!"  when he'd shoot at the dilapidated net. All in all, fun time. While walking with Mia on the ice today, I imagined in the next few years seeing her playing hockey on her own. Skating circles around me, stick in hand. I won't be disappointed if she decides not to play hockey, but it'd be rad if she had interest in it. Hopefully the next time, I'll get to hit the ice and play some with Andy.

In other news, the NHL and the big wig owners finally reaching a deal means hockey season is in full swing. As a major fan, I'm super stoked to get to see my beloved Pens play again. Today in Pittsburgh, they had a free scrimmage for the fans, and it packed about 18,000. Needless to say, NHL hockey was quite missed and every one's stoked. It's great timing for the casual fans because football is drawing near, which will possibly draw some people towards professional hockey. It's still a pity the Winter Classic fell through, but what can you do? So now I'll be avidly following all things Penguins and of course, Chelsea FC.

Speaking of Chelsea, bummed they drew today. 2-0 up in the first half, then they ended up tieing in the end? They need these points to catch up to Manchester United. Let's do this Blues!

All in all, great day off. Mia was pretty silly most of the day. Later in the evening when she hurt her head, Jill said "Mia would you like some ice cream?" Mia quickly perked up and said "With candy on top!" We have no clue where she got that from. Still adorable, as always.

That's all for now.