Skate and Destroy

Evening everyone. While Wisconsin prepares for one of the worst weeks snow and cold temps-wise, I'm going to reflect on the week and try to distract myself from my horrific commute to work Monday. Work was pretty busy. Thursday I watched Chelsea take on the Spurs. Really good game that ended in spectacular PKs that saw Chelsea into the finale at Wembley! Later, Mia and I were determined after school to go snowboarding. The temps started to drop but we still made a few runs before it got dark over at Pickle Pond. It's a bigger hill than the one behind Mia's school so I was eager to see how she'd do. Despite the chilly temps and higher winds, she had fun, even though we had a few bails. We both still have to work on turns and stops. I want to take her to a different hill next time. A wider one with more room to try new things. This week, we'll probably have to skip snowboarding because the weather is supposed to be absolutely insane. Bummer. I had to do some adjusting to my bindings so it'd be more comfortable to strap the boots in. Looking forward to going again. Maybe next weekend.

Friday, Mia didn't have school so we did some art before bringing her to my parents house. Saturday, Mia had her makeup dance class. She said it was pretty intense but was really looking forward to spending time with her friend later. Mia and BFF Cecilia went ice skating at Eble for a couple hours during the Winter Jamboree. Last year it was super busy because the temps were much warmer. This year, mildly busy. We randomly ran into their former teammate Jana so they skated a bit with her from time to time. The girls had a great time and ended up playing for a bit back at our house. A little later, we ordered sushi and they had fun trying different rolls. The highlight of the evening was them competing to see who could hold wasabi in their mouths the longest. They played in Mia's room a bit and sadly, we had to her back off. Mia sincerely loves playing with Cecilia and she really is an amazing friend. She made her best efforts to help Mia skate. Hopefully in a few weeks, they can do a sleepover.

Sunday after dropping off two big boxes of books and getting very little for them, I watched Chelsea take on Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup. Comfortable win for the Blues as well. Mia and Jill did some pretty awesome art as I was leaving for work.

This week I should have my phone interview with C2 (that is, if their office is still open) and I'll try my very best to get some serious logo work accomplished. That's all for now, stay warm and thanks for reading!

Art Teachers For a Week

Good evening everyone. First of all, totally forgot to do my year-end review of 2018, but will go through all of that and the exciting things we've done last year in another blog post. For now, a well-thought out post about our week as Artists in Residence at Orchard Lane. In 5 days, we had over 450 kids and lead 22 art classes and assisted several kids in 5 separate lunch/recess sessions. Each class had a specific artist as well. Kindergarten had Picasso, 1st graders had Van Gogh, 2nd graders had Klimt, 3rd graders had O'Keeffe, 4th graders had Britto Romero, 5th graders had Dali and finally, 6 graders had Warhol. Phew.

Kindergarten was easily, the toughest group. No matter how much we tried to clarify how to do the project, we always had kids that didn't pay attention. A lot of them did an amazing job, and had a great time helping me put the pieces of my in-class portrait together. The first class we taught, all gave us huge hugs afterwards. Our last class drew us some cute pictures.

1st graders was another tough one. We knew water color would be a tough medium for them to work with along with the oil pastels, but for the most part they did okay with the majority of the projects. Starry Night was a huge struggle. The wheat fields and flower piece turned out alright for the most part.

2nd graders did pretty well with Klimt. Mia's class was our very first one of the week. Each class took on a different version of the Tree of Life. Mia's class did really well. Some struggled with the basic tree shape, but overall they were pretty great. All 3 classes recognized Jill and myself so they were pretty sweet.

3rd graders had a tough one, using mainly chalk pastels with Georgia O'Keeffe. The landscape one was a pretty basic one, but some had a hard time getting those basic mountain shapes. It was our first group that we got to instruct and teach how to properly blend the pastels. A different class took on her flowers and our last class on a sea or snail shell (pending how you look at it). They really liked the last one and most of the class did a great job.

4th graders took on Britto Romero. They drew their version of his fish, cat and dog pieces. Our class that did the dog was the only one that had a handful of people struggling, but once they got that basic shape, they were off and running. I had one girl in tears trying to get her fish shape. She told me how she was never confident with art but once I calmed her down, she was totally into it and make her piece her own. Totally proud. The cat drawings were super cute as well. We always had some 4th graders stopping in during their lunch/recess to finish their Romero-inspired drawings. We had a handful of girls in our last class asking for our signatures or a quick drawing (with an autograph) Super cute.

5th graders had a pretty tricky one. Salvador Dali's pieces are both intriguing and intimidating for kids but I think all 3 classes knocked them out beautifully. First class took on his elephants. They carefully worked on getting that shape and bringing in the background to give the illusion that this creature is larger than life. 2nd class took on his "Eggs On a Plate (without the plate) which was basically the kids creating their own food images in the same style he did. We were prompted this group would struggle with this project but they were super creative and had a total blast. Very proud. Our last group had the famous "Persistence of Time" or better known as Melting Clocks. Most of them did a great job. A few needed some blending and shaping help but they rocked it as well.

6th graders took on that wild Andy Warhol. They all did their own food-package artwork. There was some seriously talented artists throughout the 3 classes. Our last class of the week blew me away. Some of the kids methodically planned their artwork out and will be finishing it in due time. Like i mentioned after wards, we always had kids hanging out during their lunches so it was pretty fun.

This was definitely an experience we'll always remember. Jill wrote a well-thought post the other morning about her experience that sums it up perfectly. She found herself gravitating towards the struggling kids, where myself and the school art teacher would help out wherever we were needed. IT may be with some kids needing some blending techniques or simply getting kindergartners to draw a simple circle. Ever since I began doing private art lessons, so I knew this would be a fun test for myself and I sincerely love working with kids. A lot of them would take our suggestions to heart and many asked if we could return. Of course we'll be back for Showcase Night and I can't wait to see the kids again. Lastly, I've always respected teachers of all subjects and everything they do, but when you're thrown into the mix teaching over 450 kids in a week, you really feel what they go through. We were there for only a week, so I can only imagine how this art teacher goes through. We had a lot of kids asking if we could just work at OL..If only it was that easy. Mia really enjoyed having us at school every single day and we even had lunch with her on one of our breaks. Super fun. She was always a great helper setting up our classes before school and helping us take them down after school. I'm super thankful for Jill and Mia's art teacher for making this happen.

Saturday I watched the Chelsea vs Newcastle game. Great match. Even better that Spurs and Arsenal lost over the weekend as well. Saturday evening, Mia and I went to the Petit. She was super fortunate to skate on freshly zamboni'd ice. She absolutely loved it. Still needs to release my hand and skate solo, but hopefully we get there someday this year.

Sunday, nothing special. I returned back to work unfortunately. I've got some logos to design this week and we'll be heading to Indiana for the day on Saturday. I promised Mia that unless the conditions are lousy, we're going snowboarding. Can't. Wait. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Neon Glow

Good evening everyone. Busy week and plenty to talk about. Here...we....GO. Early in the week, I went to lunch with Mia. Well, I completely surprised her for lunch. I couldn't stay for recess though, but we still had fun with her silly friends. They still ask her "SO WHAT DID YOUR DADDY DRAW YOU!?" Wednesday I got a hair cut and had the barber cut way more than usual. Mia at first wasn't a fan of it, but got used to it over time. After school, I couldn't convince Mia to go sledding in which appeared to be perfect ramp-building snow conditions so we built a "Snow Mia" instead and a few porgs and penguins. The snow as pretty wet but we made the most of it. Noelle and her sister came over too and played for a while as well. Later, we had heart-shaped pizzas and watched a movie before Mia went to bed. Not a bad Valentine's Day.

Friday, I was off to help volunteer the Valentine's Day/Friendship party. I ran a Pictionary station. The kids took turns drawing and guessing what their classmates were drawing. Great fun. Some of them were pretty competitive to win candy. Probably could have avoided a prize, but they had fun. After wards, I went home and watched Chelsea destroy Hull City 4-0. Great game! Picked up the diva and went home to get ready for the 2018 Neon Glow Daddy Daughter Dance.
Mia picked out a cute dress and sweater and I gave it my best to match her. This kid sure is stylish. Anyways, we arrived at New Berlin West and discovered that there were a LOT more people at this dance than the last one we did. I swear that one was in spring and not around Valentine's Day. ANYWAYS, Mia instantly wanted to located all of her buddies so we looked around and found Cecilia, Noelle, Charlie, Hayden and Izzy. The girls ran around, danced, chased each other, ate food, took pictures and from time to time, remembered it was a Daddy'Daughter dance and danced with their respected Fathers. Most of the time, they would spend time trying to find _insert friend here_ so we'd have to help them look. It was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to have a blast. I was pretty disappointed that they didn't have anyone playing the music. They had a computer set up with some lights. That was it. No one taking requests or anything. Mia wanted to request Portugal.The Man but no one was available to take the request. Bummer. We left a bit after 8, but not before BFF's Mia and Cecilia made plans to ice skate Saturday afternoon.

Saturday, we drove to the American Science Surplus store. (I think that's what it's called) We were on the hunt for tubes and bottles and files (oh my?) for Mia's Harry Potter-themed birthday party. Jill's got a bunch of fun ideas that require lots of science stuff for the kids. We've never been here and had heart it's pretty fun to explore. After wards, Jill dropped Mia and I off at the Petit to meet up with Cecilia and her Dad to skate. The kids skated for about an hour and a half. Cecilia had got new skates she was dying to use. She did great as well as Mia. Still hoping I can get Mia to skate solo without my hand hopefully in the near future. Later, we went back home to relax and start making a list of things we want to do and people to invite for the party in March. Later, we went to my brother Andy's hockey game. Close one, but they lost in the penalty shootout.

Sunday I worked and didn't get much accomplished. Came home tonight to Mia bouncing off the walls till she got tired and went to bed. Tomorrow, she's off from school. President's Day. She asked me "does that mean we get a new president?" Sadly, no. Chelsea plays the dreaded Barcelona game in the UCL this week. HUGE match they really have to win. Come on Chels!

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Two Divas Skating

Good evening everyone. I want to try to get through this rather quickly. Body is pretty exhausted after work today.  We had plenty of snow this week so after school on Wednesday, Mia and I went on an adventure to try and find some new sledding hills. We couldn't find the one with lights at Valley View. I found out later in the week that it's on a different side of the park. We ended up at a place called Calhoun Park. The hill had potential to be really great except it was way too powdery and no fresh sledding tracks. Mia didn't get the speed she needed to even make it all the way down. She got frustrated so I dragged her butt in her sled all the way back to the car and we went home. We worked on her Valentines for her class when we got home before dinner.  Earlier in the day, I had a meeting with some parents about two big events at the school I'm helping with.

Friday, the lucky little diva had a snow day. After another dumping of snow in Southeastern Wisconsin, everybody had off including her school. She woke up around 8:30 and was SO excited to learn she didn't have school. She hung out at home, we went out to Panera for lunch before I had to dig my car out to go to work.

Saturday, I got a text from one of Mia's best friends Cecilia's Mom about ice skating at Petit. Funny that Mia mentioned during the week the girls were planning on skating over the weekend and well there it was, a text about seeing if Mia could skate. I said absolutely we could go skating.  Jill wasn't feeling that great so Mia and I met up with Cecilia and her family. All of them went skating. They had to hold up her little sister but she was a good sport about it and made it a few laps. Cecilia had only been skating ONE other time and after a few early jitters, she was skating solo BY herself. Every once in a while, she'd bail and want to hold a hand but she always had a smile on her face. Even falling on her butt, she'd get up laughing. Great attitude. Mia is still getting used to single-bladed skates so she'd hold my hand or Cecilia's while holding my hand. It was an absolute blast. The girls are so fun to listen to when they're together and always have a great time in each other's presence. It truly brings a smile to my face when I hear different stories about them. Like when Cecilia forgets to bring snow pants to school, Mia will purposely not wear hers at recess so she'd stay on the blacktop to hang with Cecilia. Those little things are just so sweet. I mention that to Mia, and she thinks nothing of it because that's what you do for your best friends. Clearly, she could wear her pants so she would stay warm at recess, but that's not what Cecilia did, so Mia opts to just not wear them and hang with her. When Cecilia feels sad, Mia told me she tries to have her friends help Cecilia feel better.

After two hours of skating, Mia was exhausted. Cecilia didn't seem like she was, but they both didn't mind getting their skates off their little feet. Mia wanted to go over to her house, but knowing Jill was waiting for Mia to come, we had to decline the play date offer and head home to see how she was feeling.

Later, we had some dinner and watched the Olympic skating and snowboarding events. Both were great. I don't know how much of the other events I'll get to see, but it was nice for us to watch them together.

Sunday, we got yet another dumping of snow. After Jill got home from church with her parents, we went out to lunch with them and cleared the driveway so I could go to work later and Jill's parents could return later to visit. All in all, great weekend. This week is a busy one. Have a lot of design work ahead of me, Mia's got her Valentines Day party + the Daddy/Daughter dance Friday night. Saturday, no plans that i know of.  Mia's off that following Monday so hopefully we can meet up with friends to enjoy the time. Maybe sled or something. Chelsea plays West Brom tomorrow and if they want to secure keeping Conte around, they need to start winning again. We dropped to 5th place and need to dig ourselves out of the rut BIG TIME. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Hittin' the Ice!

HEY! How's everyone today? Okay, I've got some awesome things to share. No, really. Well, it's awesome to me and Jill at least. Over the weekend, Mia decided she wanted to try ice skating. GREAT! So, we drove to what I was told to be an outdoor rink in Waukesha. She fell asleep on the way, but we still went anyways in search of this rink. Nothing. Didn't see anything at all. Bugger. Well, later that night, Mia still wanted to go skating, so we drove to the Petit Ice Center, which is where local hockey games (of all ages) are played, as well as where speed skating olympians train and have trials, and of course, where the public can open skate. Been there so many times growing up. Anyways, so thankfully because Mia's under 4, she was free :) So Jill put her skates on her boots, as I got laced up. We walked up the stairs and I slowly got her onto the crowded ice. Jill was a bit nervous, but I reassured her that I would NEVER let Mia fall. EVER. Mia got on, slid a bit and got off. Crap. After some lemonade and a slow walk out in her boots, she tried it again with her skates. "This isn't scary" she said on her boots, so we got the skates back on and she was good to go. Not as bad the 2nd time around. So she skated a bit, with me holding on tight to her hands. I think the crowds of people was a bit much at first for her. I couldn't have been more proud. Every hockey player dreams of their kid's first time out on the ice. It's special. My brothers and I learned on a frozen "lake" of water in our backyard we'd be fortunate to get every time our neighborhood would get a big rain before winter. The way the hills were in the back would hopefully fill enough with water to get a nice frozen lake for hockey. It wasn't much, but it worked. Anyways, I was super happy she took an interest in something new, and didn't give up.

We've had crazy cold weather as of lately here. Like, -17 a few times. Walking Remi hasn't been easy, but you just need to layer up. Luckily, it's starting to warm up some. like, 20s today maybe? Haha. Unsure what we're doing this weekend. Chelsea plays Stoke, so hopefully we'll get a win. Been craving some futsal lately. Haven't played in a few months, and sadly haven't gotten any emails from the pick up group for any subs this week. Bahhh. Hopefully soon I can get playing. Finished this wonderful piece of art I've been working on for months. Alright, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!