One Last Dance

Good evening everyone. Quite a week with a fun weekend, so let's get started. Throughout the week, Mia's been wanting to explore as many music stores as she could. First stop was Guitar Center. She sat down at this pricey e-kit equipped with a double bass drum pedal, and immediately went to town on it. I explained how drummers who play double bass play really fast and she figured it out quite quickly and surprisingly stayed in time while drumming with her hands. HOW? She constantly impresses me with things she can do. We made our way over to the bass room and she plugged in a very bright green Jackson bass guitar and instantly fell in love with it. She never heard my bass guitar  plugged in when I play it because as a baby, she broke the knobs. She loves the low sounds of the bass and really really really wanted it.

The next day, we went to Cascio. Mia immediately wanted to look at bass guitars but alas, they didn't have any nearly as "cool" as the one she discovered at GC or that actually fit her.  She still had fun exploring the E-kits, banjos and ukuleles. Later, we picked up Jill from work before making dinner and calling it a night. The movie for the evening was Ralph Breaks the Internet. Such a great movie. I didn't have any art lessons this week, but will be getting back in this coming week. Mia had rehearsal Friday for her big recital the next day. Saturday, we made some pancakes, did some cleaning, cut the grass and later met up with family for Mia's recital. Her last dance. She has been a part of the Dance Academy LTD for the last 3 years and decided at the half way point this year would be the end of her dance career. 3 years of ballet and tap, 2 years of jazz. She'll claim that it became "too easy" for her, but deep down I know that it just wasn't as fun anymore. After the recital, she admitted she'd miss the rehearsal/recitals but really disliked the practice for some reason. She's most excited about her new adventure that starts this week. I'll post about that soon :) Thanks go to both our families that could make it including Auntie Ashley and Uncle Tommy. After wards, we went to YoMama for some fro yo before calling it a night. I gave my very special Father's Day gift to my Dad as well which was 2 tickets to see Fiorentina vs Chivas in Chicago at field level. I swear to God, I've never seen him more excited. I had a really hard time this week coming up with something fun and unique for Father's Day, but decided the old man needs more experiences than "things" so this was a good idea. He'll probably never ever get to another European game again, so why not sit him as close as possible? I'm looking forward to it as well as he is.

Today, Mia made blueberry muffins for Father's Day with Jill and we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone before I went off to work. It was a nice little moment with the kiddo. Her and Jill got me a cute pineapple shirt and Mia made a fun card.

This week, I'll polish off the rest of my resume before sending it out to jobs, I've got an art lesson, Mia and I are planning on some much-needed soccer at the park and hope the weather improves. The last few days have been weirdly cold. Mia starts her new adventure Tuesday evening as well which she couldn't be more excited about. That'll do for now, thanks for reading!

Another Week, Another Performance

Good morning everyone. MY was it a busy busy week. Most of the week I was off (including the weekend!) YAY! I had some mandatory vacation hours to burn or else they'd be gone, so I worked Monday and took the rest of the week off till Friday. Tuesday, Jill picked up some paczkis from the nearby bakery. Huge lines but she got a dozen. Right away, she wasn't super impressed. Mia liked the raspberry ones. It was nice to be away from work most of the week. Wednesday, I went to Jill's studio to help out with any lifting or moving around heavy things for a few hours. Thursday was Mia's performance with the classes at the Journey into the Arts program. Her school hired a couple of singer/songwriters to help write songs with the kids and perform them for their parents and family. The kids had TWO shows Thursday night. I volunteered to help out with the first one.

 My existence at the show to help out was plain pointless. They told me to help with "crowd control" with a class. So naturally, I stood with Mia's for a little while. I had to take a kid to the bathroom at one point but that was about it. The woman in charge then told me to wait in the wing and help escort kids on and off the stage. Okay that's simple enough. No. The teachers were getting the kids on and off stage and onto the risers. I just stood there like an idiot and completely felt out of place. Not planning to volunteer again for a school-wide event like that unless its something more direct like "tickets" or something. Anyways, Mia and all of the kids performed very well. Her class did two songs. Most of the other grades did one each. It was amazing. By the end of the 2nd performance, she was so tired and ready to go home.

Friday she was off from school so in the morning, we had scheduled a photo session with Ian Bennett and some of his Wave players at Brookfield Indoor. He texted me that he was going to release his 2nd collection of clothes and apparel and wanted new images. Awesome. So, Mia watched and I spend about 10-15 minutes photographing him and two other players in some new gear. We left and went home where she was bouncing off the wall with energy. Turns out, her friend who lives down the street had some friends over so Mia immediately wanted to run over and play with them. Luckily, her Mom said it was okay so they played for about an hour before Mia's grandparents came over to watch her when I had to leave for work again.

Saturday, she had dance and later, we went over to my parents to help celebrate my Mom's retirement from work. Mia chased the cousins around most of the time. They had a lot of fun :) Later, I had a Milwaukee Torrent supporters meeting.  Great turn out comparing to the previous year. We had some new faces that were passionate about having a team here and wanted to get as involved as possible. Great!

Sunday, Jill drove to Fond Du Lac for a baby shower so Mia and I drove to my parents to go play at the park. Later, we met up with Jill and went to her parents for their weekly Sunday dinner. Uncle Tommy also attended so Mia was pretty excited to see him.

All in all, busy but fun weekend. Mia was totally excited to see her costume for her big dance recital and we made the most of the time together. This week, nothing major going on. We'll probably do her balloon photo soon for her upcoming 6th birthday. Chelsea plays today (which I'll miss) Thanks for reading!

It's Snow Problem Mon!

Good afternoon everyone. Busy week per the usual with no real end in sight. Saturday was one of the busiest days ever. Mia had her last dance class for the semester to kick off the day. Jill had to work, so I got the privilege to take and watch their "open house" dancing session. Parents could watch and I've never seen Mia do tap/ballet before so I was really stoked. There are just two girls in Mia's class. Mia, and this other girl Addie Mae. They started out with stretching and ballet. Mia's apparently pretty flexible and has amazing posture and focus in ballet. The last part of the ballet portion was leaps. Mia's still learning how to coordinate your body to kick both legs out opposite with hands out. Her classmate is really good, but on her 2nd leap, fell right on her face. Lots of tears, and she basically was checked out the rest of the time, leaving Mia to continue the "performance" in front of me, and the adults that came for Addie Mae.

Mia started the tap portion and was incredible. For a girl who used to complain that she didn't like tap dancing as much, she's super impressive. Once again, great posture and form the whole time. They somehow got Addie Mae to come up next to Mia to continue the performance, but she still was pretty out of it. After wards, Mia came running to me and told me "I tried my best Daddy". She was amazing. I took video to show Jill later and she couldn't believe it either. I'm really glad she has this outside of school interest that she enjoys. Who knows how long she'll continue to dance, but for now, she loves it.

We jetted to Monkey Joe's for her pal Olivia's 6th birthday party. Mia changed quick and played and ate pizza/cupcakes.  We couldn't stay too long because at 12:30, we ran to Jill's studio for pictures with Santa. After that, We ran to Carroll University to look for a college shirt for Mia for Wednesday (it's wear your parent's college shirt day). Book store was closed so I went today and picked one up for her. After that, we decided to go to the movies to see Trolls. This was Mia's 2nd time seeing it and my first time. I was so exhausted from a sincere lack of sleep that I was nodding off during the movie. I caught the majority of it. Cute, weird and funny. Later, we made dinner and watched the snow fly.

Sunday I got up early for the game. Chelsea beat West Brom 1-0 which means they've won NINE games in a row. We've got a game this Wednesday :) Can't wait. Our stupid snow blower wouldn't start thanks to an old spark plug, so we shoveled and shoveled till I had to go to work.

This week is "Mike absolutely needs to finish the book" week. No time to lose. Saturday, we're baking cookies with my parents. That's all for now. Thanks for reading and stay warm!!