Quality Creative Time

Good evening everyone. Hope you all enjoyed the week including a little snow tease. Mia enjoyed her first week in full bright purple hair. She got plenty of compliments which is always nice. I watched the Bate vs Chelsea match Thursday. The good guys got the win thankfully so we'll be moving on in the Europa. Later after school, Mia and I met up with Jill and attended her conference with her teacher. It was the very first time we've gone to a conference together since Mia's been in school. Her teacher had only the best things to tell us so that was nice to hear.  Mia sat and drew while her teacher told us she's doing amazing with reading and comprehension. Later, we went to Stonefire Pizza for dinner and games. Mia earned over 3,000 points over a few visits there so she picked out a big surfing penguin. Awesome!

Friday, Jill chaperoned Mia's class to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum. Originally, Mia had wrote in that I was going to do it, but I have to watch how many days I take off, so I had to cross that off but apparently Mia put Jill on the list. Jill got a group of 6 kids and they all had a blast. Saturday we had a low-key kind of a day. We weren't able to do any yard work due to the new bit of snow that came. Jill went to acupuncture while I watched Mia play in the snow. Later, we grabbed lunch at a new exciting place called FreshFin Poke. Super tasty. I had a coconut shrimp curry and Jill had spicy tuna. Mia had a little cup of fish eggs as well. In Hawaii, Jill fell in love with their poke so we were very curious on this new place. It turns out, it was better than what Jill had and of course Mia enjoyed her fav little fishy eggs.

Later, we spent some quality time together making art. Mia and Jill creating some ceramic masterpieces while I just doodled. Doesn't seem like much, but when you rarely get to spend time with your family, it's truly special. Most likely, the highlight of our weekend. We put on Zootopia later and had some pasta for dinner before crashing for the evening. Today, I woke up and watched Chelsea struggle to beat Everton. The match ended 0-0. Bugger. Plenty of chances but Everton was outplaying us. Lots of yellow cards and some dirty garbage the refs were missing on the Toffees. Still unbeaten, so there's that. I was hoping City would lose today, but they stomped on Man U. Damn. Need to step it up and grab some much needed wins. This week, maybe some art lessons, Mia's got a birthday party coming up and I've got to continue working on the Christmas book. Hard to believe Thanksgiving is already next week. That's all for now, thanks for reading!!

Pizza Pals

Good evening everyone! Hope you enjoyed your weekend. Always seems to go quickly over here, but that's mostly because I'm always off Saturdays only and work Sunday nights. Anyways, so the week started a bit rough. Mia stayed home sick Monday recovering from a fever. She was slightly afraid her consistent coughing would keep her distracted from schoolwork so she stayed home and we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Great movie. Can't believe it took me this long to watch the HP movies. They're really well done and I've never seen Mia so captivated by a movie.  Looking forward to watching the next one.

Luckily, the rest of the week she felt better and went back to school. Tuesday, Noelle's Mom messaged me asking if Mia was feeling better because Noelle missed her. Awww..Mia was glad to go back. Wednesday after school, we delivered her friend Hayden her birthday party invitation only to discover that Cecilia was playing at her house as well. Upon us arriving at the door, there was high-pitch screams of excitement coming from both Cecilia and Hayden with Hayden yelling "HOW DID YOU FIND ME!!?!?!?!?!" They couldn't believe Mia was there. Never knew my kid could have that kind of impact on her friends. Hayden didn't know the previous weekend, Mia and I were out delivering the Hogwarts letters to her friends and didn't leave one with Hayden because she wasn't home and had no way of sticking it in their door. Well, the kids played for a while and when Cecilia's Mom came to pick her up, Cecilia pleaded with her to let me take the girls to StoneFire Pizza. Her Mom couldn't go, so I ended up taking the dynamic duo. So we went back home, Mia finished her homework and I took Remi out for a pee before returning to Cecilia's house to get the kids over to StoneFire.

Wednesdays, they're half off which is why we wanted to do it on a Wednesday. I never anticipating the place to be THAT busy. Cecilia was instructed to return closer to 7pm for bed time. We didn't get to eat till about 6, so by 6:30, we were ready to play games. The blew through the game cards pretty quickly and didn't get a lot of time to play. They played Space Invaders, Air Hockey and a few racing games before picking out prizes. I think both her bummed they couldn't stay longer, but Cecilia has an early bed time, so we had to split. They both grabbed slushees on the way out. Mia said her goodbyes when we dropped Cecilia off, and we were on our way. Overall, it was a lot of fun and I hope the next time we go, we can go earlier and bring other friends. Thursday, I drove out to Waterford to photograph 4K-5th graders for candid year book photos. It was pretty fun, despite the confusing school layout.

Saturday, Mia's cousins Easton and Camden came over and we went to the park. Not the warmest weather out, but still fun. Mia scooted and chased them around. Later, we went to lunch before they went home. The night before, Cecilia's Mom texted me about asking if Mia wanted to sleep over with Hayden and Cecilia. Mia was totally for it. For some reason later in the day, she switched and didn't feel like it. She ended up going over and playing with them as well as Harper, Hayden's sister while Jill and I chatted with the parents. I gave Mia the option if she wanted me to return home to get her overnight bag, and I could tell Cecilia REALLY wanted Mia to stay over, but Mia sadly opted not to. It turns out she was nervous there would be too many people over at Cecilia's house like the previous gathering when she had 6 women dancing. I think Mia was worried she wouldn't get to sleep or something. So, later we split and watched a movie. Mia got tired a bit before 10 and crashed. She wouldn't have lasted with her friends who at the time, probably were still awake. She'll sleep over again some time. It was nice to chill and hang out while the kids played.

Sunday, I watched an entirely disappointing Chelsea vs City match. The lack of urgency and passion is ever so present and I don't know what's going to happen. They're sunk in 5th place without that spark that won them the Cup last season. They've got a Barca UCL match coming up and really need to haul ass to get motivated to beat the giants.

Throughout the weekend, Mia's been crazy obsessed with jump roping. I never even knew this kid could jump rope. In previous years, she'd attempt it and get pissed and not want to do it. She's actually really good and can even jump rope one footed. Super impressive.

This week, I've got another school to photograph and there's talk of snow returning. Yuck. Thanks for reading!

Fools In Love

A lot to discuss this bright and sunny morning (way too tired to type last night). So last weekend was a complete blur, and not in a drunk-every-night blur, just a blur because I was here, there and everywhere. Friday night, worked till 10. Came home hoping that Mia would want to get some sleep, but the kid wanted to play. I had to get up at 4:45am and at 12:30am she wants to play my drum set. Well anyways, I think I ended up getting 3 hours of sleep somehow. So while at work, I got the text from my in-laws that drove up planning to watch Mia that evening so Jill and I could go to a wedding, that Jill got sick. She finally caught what Mia and I had earlier in the week, so Jill couldn't make the wedding or reception. I ended up going to the reception solo because I didn't want the bride/groom to pay for two empty plates. Jill's parents were gracious enough to take care of both Jill and Mia. So I went to the wedding, and when I got home, both Jill and Mia were sound asleep. Reception was a total blast. Great catching up with some friends from long ago.

The next morning I went to my nephew's baptism at 9am. Too early for this uncle :P. Ended up photographing the event. Later, came home, changed and got ready for my first adult-league pick up soccer game. Jill and Mia came too. Mia ended up falling asleep in the car so both of them ended up missing the whole game :( So the first half, I realized that I didn't hydrate myself enough and found it tough running with this super dry throat (still recovering from the illness too) and I played left-mid-forward. Wasn't getting a lot of passes to me (some ball hogs) and eventually dropped back to play mid-left-back. Much more comfortable playing defense. I really don't know why, but I enjoyed it. As much as I'd love to score a goal, I felt good keeping the other forward covered making sure he didn't get any shots off. Our team ended up winning like, 7-3 I believe. It was a lot of fun, even in 87 degree heat. OH! For Father's Day I got this little NHL air hockey game thing I can play with Mia, and this amazing Mia & Jill painted soccer ball. It's beautiful. When I came home from the baptism (I was gone all day) Mia was super excited to see me and kept saying "HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDY" with the ball in her hand. Melted my heart.

This week I took off Tuesday and Wednesday. My nephew Alex was in town so my Mom and I wanted to keep the kids busy. Tuesday we went to the zoo. I finally got to pet the sting rays. The sharks you can't reach for so I didn't get to pet any sharks. Mia was a little irritated they wouldn't come up close enough for her to reach. We didn't see everything, but we saw enough. I have been to the zoo enough times where it doesn't matter what we see, just as long as everyone leaves happy.

Yesterday we tried Monkey Joe's. I have never been there, but both my Mom and my mother in law have been there and I guess the last time Mia was there (I think was quite a while ago) she was too little to enjoy the bouncy things. Well, this time she started out timid. Wanted to watch Alex do all the big gnarly slides. Later she slowly walked through this little kids one and was totally fine. Alex went in as well to show her how fun it is. Well in the end, they both chased each other around all of the obstacles, falling and bouncing all the way. They wanted to go into this other bouncy thing were you climb this ladder and go down the slide. Alex helped Mia climb the ladder (what a great guy!) and she went down the slide like a bullet. She got up "That was TOO fast DADA!" Then wanted to try it again. So she climbs the ladder, got scared at the top and I had to go in and take her down. For dinner last night, we went to Stonefire Pizza. She was too distracted by all of the games to actually want to eat her dinner, but she ate some. Both kids loved playing the games.

Sigh, so that's it for now. Back to work today and tomorrow. No idea what's going on this weekend. Thanks for reading!

Navigating the Windward Passage

Greetings. Been an interesting few days. Over the weekend, we ended up going to Stone Fire Pizza again. Mia bowled for the FIRST time. yes, they have bowling for little kids. Only one bumper was up, so gutter balls frequent, but she still had some fun. The place was super packed, which reminds us not to go there on a Saturday evening. The lines for food were insane and the game room was littered with people. Overall, great evening :) Not excited to post this, but Sunday, my lovely wife Jill hurt her back again. Luckily, she's on he slow recovery, and as of today, feeling a little better. Even after an 11 hour shift. But man, that Sunday when I left work early to get home and take care of her. She couldn't move, walk or do anything. I could easily ramble about how unfair it was that she hurt her back again after suffering with a bulging disc most of 2012, but that would take me quite a few hours. Plus, no one wants to read a long ass rambling. Anyway, so this week, she's recovering and I hope she can get better soon. It isn't easy trying to take it easy on the back and chase Mia around. She's a sweetheart, but can be a challenge at times.

Been thinking about Spring lately, on my early run/walks with Remi. Can't wait to go on bike rides, hit up the park as a family (or with my friend Nicole and her kiddo) play soccer, family walks with Remi...etc It looks like we've got some snow in the forecast for the next day or so. Exciting right? Nah, I'm over Winter. Good riddance.

While Tommy and Mia napped on the couch today, I did some drawing before work. Haven't done anything real serious lately. Sorta wanted to try something different. My friend Jaci does some real cool and adorable art work and it inspired me to do a little sketch of Mia playing soccer. It's nothing super exciting, and I'll probably do another one much cleaner and post it when I can. Normally, I'm off today but ended up working 6 hours to make up for the time lost Sunday when I left early to take care of Jill. So my day off will be Saturday, which still feels far away. Haha.
That's all for now, thanks for reading. Sorry for another week without a fun picture. Nothing on my sad laptop :(