The Epic Halloween Party

Good morning everyone. Still recovering from the rather insanely busy week we had. The majority of the week, we spent preparing for Mia's Halloween party on Saturday. On top of that, work has been busy for both Jill and I so the stress level was high. Drawing up signs, making treats and trying to figure out who was coming was getting to us.  By the end of the week, we were ready to go on this party. Mia would ask every morning "IS IT SATURDAY YET??" Saturday morning I got up very early to watch Chelsea take on the EPL Champs Leicester. We prevailed with a 3-0 win, but I saw NONE of it. The NBCSN site wasn't working and I couldn't watch anything. I tried everything. I eventually settled for the audio and tuned in that way, but I seriously need to figure out why it wasn't working. They play this Saturday again and this time I have to watch.

Mia had her dance class,which was a lot of fun. When she got home, we started preparing for the party. My parents and Jill's played a huge role in helping out. We couldn't have done it without them and absolutely appreciate everything they did. Mia got in her costume, Jill and I got in our vampire attire and the party was running as soon as Irianna, the first one to arrive, showed up. Roughly 25+ kids were running all over the back yard playing the wide variety of different games we had. We had kids painting pumpkins, wrapping up friends like mummies and knocking down ghost-cups before all running at once to get some tasty food. The kids lined up for the flashlight hunt. 1...2...3....GO! They took off. One by one they all packed up their goody bags and slowly started heading out. Her last couple of friends stayed till about 8 watching part of a spooky movie. Overall, the event was incredibly fun. All the kids had a blast and she got to see some old pre school pals she hasn't hung out with in a long time. We are casually thinking about doing a "girls night" where her friends can hang out, watch movies and eat treats (more like, 4-5 friends) but if we do it, it won't be for quite a while. It's fun hosting parties. This was absolutely the biggest one. We met a lot of parents. (one dropped her kid off and picked her up later) and it was awesome catching up with some of the parents from her preschool. At the end of the night, Mia said "Wow...THIS was a lot of fun guys!" It's nice being able to do something like this for her and I hope she appreciated all the hard work that went into it.

Sunday was recovery day for us. Started taking down things, putting this back and that back. Mia and Jill later went to the pumpkin patch to get a small pumpkin to carve when we get closer to Halloween. This week, I've got a lot of Torrent work to do, and my usual art for Mia's lunch notes. I've been working on some Halloween-inspired ones to keep things fun and spooky. Not sure what the weekend holds for us.

Thanks for reading!

Short Week For Short People

Good evening. So it was a rather short week for Mia at school. The kids at Orchard Lane were granted two days off for teacher inservice or something but come Tuesday night, she wasn't feeling well. I got home from work and Jill said she was dizzy and had a fever. Poor girl. Wednesday we tried to wake her despite having a crappy night sleeping. We ended up letting her sleep in hopes the rest would help her out. After Jill left for work, Mia woke up feeling a little better. She didn't make it to school, however we did have a little adventure together.

Since she was feeling better and eating some food, we took it upon ourselves to surprise Jill. Wednesday apparently marked 16 years since her favorite show Gilmore Girls aired. Jill has been an avid fan since before I met her. She has watched every single episode dozens of times. Can quote it by heart, has researched some of the references etc etc. Netflix is doing a short one-off series based on Gilmore Girls with the same characters and they redecorated 200 different cafes across the country. Two of the 200 cafe locations were in Milwaukee, where they were handing out free coffee to the first 250 people that came. I asked Mia few times if she'd like to go and get Mommy a special coffee with Luke's on it (one of the characters). She really liked the idea of surprising Mommy, so we packed some food and headed out. We knew there would be lines so I made sure she had something to do. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, we talked to some of the people in front of us who thought getting Jill coffee was really sweet. They had Luke's signs on the building and employees dressed up. It was pretty nice. The fans were smiling with their coffee, headed back to school or work. Mia felt so glad she could be a part of this and she couldn't wait to bring the brew in to Jill at work. I personally never got into the show, but I know that it's a big part of Jill's life so I knew I had to get her something special.

After school let out, we took Remi for a walk by the bus stop where her friend Noelle gets out. She was glad to see Mia because she missed her at school. "Charlie said you were sick today Mia!" I'm glad throughout the day she felt better. It was only Wednesday and she was worried she'd miss dance on Saturday morning. She had a great day at dance and we spent the majority of our Saturday doing some yard work, cleaning the house and getting ready for the big Halloween party. Later, Jill went out with some former co workers so Mia and I visited Grandpa and Grandma whom she hadn't seen for about a week. She helped decorate their house for the spooky holiday. We left after 9:00pm and Mia fell asleep instantly in the car. I spent the rest of the evening looking up ideas to draw her for the week. Sunday, we rearranged the basement. My drums are now on the opposite side and Mia has a bigger area to set up toys and play. After the party, we're going to use a long table for her stuff. Chelsea had an international break this week and are back in action early Saturday morning. Hopefully I can watch some of it.

Busy busy week this week getting everything ready so it'll probably go fast. Thanks for reading!

The Dancing Divas

Good morning. Well, we got through the first month of a very busy school year so far with Mia. She's loving it way more than when she started. New friends, new things to learn about and a whole new routine are keeping her (and us) quite busy. During this month, I've successfully drawn her 22 different lunch note pictures every day. I hope to continue it as long as possible. It takes a great deal of time planning on what I'm going to do, but the end result is usually pretty positive.

Wednesday was Mia's first play date with a friend from kindergarten. She was super stoked to hang out with Noelle, who lives very close to our house. She lives so close that Mia rode her big wheels to her house. As soon as we got home from school, she could barely contain herself to hang out with her friend. She ate an after school snack quick and by 4:30, we were rolling to her friend's house. As soon as her friend saw us by their cul de sac, Noelle went RUNNING down yelling "MIA!!!" she showed us that she had written "Mia" several times on a sign and taped it to her door so Mia knew which house was hers. She was super sweet and her parents were just as nice. The girls played in the semi-cold weather and if they could, they would have played all night. 

Friday, I worked a very rare early shift. 6am-2pm. Trying to go to bed early Thursday night proved to be a difficult task. Between eating food and cleaning the kitchen, it was a struggle but the morning shift went super fast. I kept thinking about how I haven't seen Mia since Thursday morning when I took her to school and how stoked I was to get to pick her up later. When Jill got home, we had "breakfast for dinner" which consisted of pancakes, eggs and hash browns. Mia changed into a dress and we walked across the street to her school's dance party. I tell you, it was LOUD with about 120 kids singing to the DJ's Top 40 music. It was almost too much for Mia at first. We met her other awesome friend, Charlie and her parents. They too, were very nice and her friend is such a sweetheart. "I LOVE YOUR OUTFIT MIA!" Her and fellow classmate Ellarose kept trying to get Mia to dance and be silly, but she just wouldn't do it. Before I had to leave for Ian Bennett's launch party, Mia started to be more independent and hanging with her friends. I later learned that she eventually started dancing with the girls. "Dad, my heart kept beating loudly during the music!" She had such a fun time and it was nice to meet some more friends of hers. 

The IB26 launch party was a lot of fun. Very small bar but Ian hooked me up with some drinks. Very proud of him and his hard work. The banners I helped design turned out incredible and he's already got ideas for his next photos he'll need me for. It's fun doing different projects for Ian and I get to keep my design skills sharp, which is always a plus. Saturday morning, Jill had to work and Mia had dance class. I wasn't sure if the diva would want to go since she had hurt her head. She woke up. not feeling the best about going, but she put on her rights, I did about 3 or 4 tries at her dancer bun and she got to dance class. I went home, watched most of the first half of the Chelsea vs Hull City game before picking her up. She came out excited and immediately said "Daddy, I'm glad I went to class". They learned about counting steps with tap shoes and she absolutely loved it. We came home and watched Chelsea beat Hull City 2-0. Great to see the Blues getting all three points, even if it was against a sub par team. They have an international break and won't play next till Mia's Halloween Party.

Later, we picked up costumes for the Halloween party and went to the China lights exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. Absolutely worth it. Even in the crappy weather, the lights were spectacular. Mia was confused thinking "so do we just DRIVE through?" They had a really good turn out for their opening weekend and if you're in the area, I highly recommend checking them out.

Sunday, we did a little cleaning before they went to Jill's parent's house to celebrate Tommy's birthday.

This week, art, designing and more preparations for the party. That's all for now, Thanks for reading! 

Ripe For The Pickin'

Good morning everyone. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and the pleasant weather (when it wasn't raining). School is going real well for Mia, she seems to be really enjoying learning new things and playing with her friends. One of her friends apparently lives nearby and wants to have a play date after school this week so we may make that happen come Wednesday. Early in the week, Chelsea played Leicester in the EFL Cup. They beat the EPL champs 4-2 which at the time, I had hoped would carry them into the weekend derby against Arsenal, but we'll get back to that later.

Wednesday, I spent the majority of the day finishing some design stuff for Ian Bennett's clothing like IB26. The website launched and you can order his new gear. Friday, Mia and Jill went to see the Storks. They've been showing the trailer for this goofy movie for what seems like months and months and I never had an interest in it. Jill said it was pretty silly, but Mia liked it. Jill told me when I got home from work that a boy apparently smacked Mia in the mouth at school. Apparently during lunch, Mia was being silly and he smacked her. Today, Mia told me that "I'll let him off with this warning but next time he does it, I'm telling the teacher". I doubt he did it maliciously and since Mia was being goofy,he was most likely playing accordingly. She's fine.

 Saturday morning, she had her dance class. Still really loves it but she said she has a hard time keeping her arms up for the moves because "it makes her arms tired".  Later, we tried to go to the Halloween store to see if we could find anything she may need or Jill may need for our costumes. Mia insisted she's a big girl and can handle walking around Halloween stores. Apparently, she IS in deed a big girl, but parts of the stores are still frightening. We didn't make it more than 20 seconds. Oh well. "DADDA! WHY WOULD THEY PUT CREEPY THINGS IN HALLOWEEN STORES WHEN THERE IS A CHILD WHO GETS SCARED OF THESE THINGS???!!?!"  Oh Child...

Later, I watched the majority disappointing Chelsea vs ARSEnal match. The Blues for some reason, didn't have their heads on straight. From Cahill's poorly executed back pass to the weak mid fields, it was a game I wish I never watched. They better get their heads of their arses for the next one or we may lose Conte by the holidays. After that nightmare of a match, we went to the apple orchard. Elegant Farmer to be exact. Gorgeous day for it. Mia climbed the trees getting all of the best apples she could reach. She road a pony and also wanted to do the corn maze but it was closing soon.

Sunday, we didn't do much. Cut the grass, retrieved some sale items from the JBF sale and Mia hung out with her grandparents and uncle the remainder of the evening.

This week, more lunch notes for Mia, some light graphic designing and for the first time in several several years, I'm working a weekday shift 6am-2pm so I can attend Ian Bennett's launch party Friday night.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

The Falcon Soars At Midnight

Good morning everyone. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and the gorgeous weather (at least Wisconsin has been having).  My week was sort of short, because I took off Thursday for one of the best live shows I've ever been to, but we'll get back to that later. School's been going really well for Mia, she's been having a lot of fun making new friends, playing and learning new things. In fact, we decided to let her host a Halloween party at our house and let her invite her Kindergarten friends and her old pre-school pals. So far, we've got 5-7 friends coming and she's going to hand out the invites to her class today. This will most likely be the biggest party we've had for her. Her 4th birthday, we had 10 kids running around which seemed intense at the time so hopefully we survive this one.


Speaking of school, she got in to a little bit of trouble during the week. Apparently a little boy was playing with something that she wanted and didn't want to play with Mia, so she decided to knock whatever it was on the floor. Naturally because she's a Justman, she got in trouble. If at all, both should have had a stern talking to. He should have included her, and she shouldn't have reacted that way. She felt bad when she got home and had a good cry about it. The next day, she said she didn't get in trouble this time so I was glad she was able to get along with him. Apparently a boy named Easton keeps giving her kisses during class that she claims she doesn't like. In a way, I was glad she didn't get upset and cry that the wouldn't include her, but at the same time my kid was in the wrong for knocking crap to the floor.

Thursday was a beautiful day to have off. It's normally a busy day at work so having that day off was fantastic. I was able to finish some art that I made for the singer, do some cleaning and laundry and it was the perfect weather for a walk to school to pick up Mia. It truly makes me wish I had a 1st shift job so I could be home with her every night. Later that evening, my co-worker Jon and I met at our work and drove down to Madison to see super-ground The Falcon headline the Frequency, a quaint little venue that the owner of Red Scare Industries claims is one of his all-time favorite places for shows. The crowd was pretty tame during the 1st of 4 acts. Not the best group (since I can barely remember their name). During the 2nd one, I saw lead singer of the Falcon (and Lawrence Arms), Brendan Kelly walking around so I walked up, and handed him the Lego drawing I made. He was stoked about it and I found out later, hung it at the merch booth. Hopefully it wasn't picked up by anyone. We talked for a while by the merch area. He's definitely one of the nicest musicians I've met in the last 20 years. The 2nd band, Help Desk wasn't too bad. More hard-core meets Joe Cape style. All of them in shirts/ties singing about work-related stuff. Not bad stuff. Last opener was local band from Eau Claire, Arms Aloft. They were okay, and had quite a mosh pit going for the majority of their set. I was more than stoked to hear some Falcon. They took the stage and dominated a 16 song set list. They opened with Sailors Grave and performed at least 10 songs off the new album, Gather Up The Chaps. They closed out the night with "Lazyboy 500". At the end of the set, they had a conga line going around the venue to the infectious 80's tune "Call Me Al" by Paul Simon. I got on stage with my buddy and we conga'ed around the whole place with everyone. The band quickly went back stage. Some came back out to start packing up their gear. I saw Alk3's Dan packing so I went up to talk to him. I thanked him for coming to Madison and he gave me a set list off of Neil's drum monitor. Never got a set list before so I was pretty stoked about that. We drove home exhausted from an exciting show at a fun venue.

Friday, I was dead exhausted all day but had to work. I was bummed to be missing the Chelsea vs Liverpool game, but later found out at work that Chelsea lost. So pissed. Saturday, Mia had dance class again. She still REALLY loves it. Later, she hung out at the park with BFF Olivia and her brother. She watched him play soccer at his game WHILE playing soccer with Olivia. While I was at the park, Jill hit up the JBF sale and picked up some fall/winter clothes at a good price.  Sunday, we gave Remi a bath and that was about it. Jill and Mia did some trial runs on some treats for the party at Mia's Grandparent's house. Majority of the week, I've been working on Ian Bennett's clothing line ads getting him ready for his big event. I've also upped the quality of Mia's lunch notes. So far, my favorites that I've done are Clawhauser from Zootopia and a Rainbow Dash. Both really turned out nice and I hope they get better and better. Today I'm starting note #14. Tomorrow, Mia brings a snack to school for her class. String cheese! :)

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Put On Those Dancin' Shoes

Good morning everyone. Well, the school year is in full swing and things seem to be going well for Mia in kindergarten. She's befriended two or three new girls in her class and one in particular she talks about ALL the time, Charlie. In fact, she had me draw two Monster High pictures for her friend because Mia was stoked that she too, loves the show/movie series. This morning I finished the 2nd one and Mia brought them to school. I've also been drawing a picture in her lunch every single day as well. Some more complex than others. My nightly routine when I get home has turned into: eat food, draw Mia a picture, shower then bed.

Tuesday, Mia was supposed to have her very first ballet/tap class. I had a missed call and a vm while at work and it was my mother-in-law telling me that Mia didn't want to do dance that day after school. She was tired, hungry and didn't want to put on the outfit. As frustrated as I was, I was glad we were able to transfer her to a Saturday morning class. It was weird Wednesday. It was my first day off while Mia was at school so I had literally 7 hours to myself in the house. Did some cleaning, some art and drumming before getting Mia with my parents to show them exactly where and how to pick up the diva. The rain was obnoxious keeping me from hitting the pitch for the first time so I'll have to try again this week.

Saturday, Mia had her dance class. It was like night and day from Tuesday. She got up, got in her tights and outfit and was out the door for dance. She's in a class that consists of 3-5 year olds which is good for her since this was her first year taking a dance class. I forgot how old some of these kids were when I saw her next to some of these girls and saw how tiny they were. We dropped her off and had about 45 minutes to do whatever we needed (which is almost always a Trader Joe's run)
We picked her up after TJ's and she couldn't have been more excited to tell us about dance. She wanted to dance more! Great. Glad she was able to do Saturdays.

Later, Mia raced the neighbor boy (and her classmate) Max in the cul de sac before we had my parent's over for dinner. We started the preliminary planning for a friend's Halloween Party at our house. Mia wants to invite friends (old and new) to our house for a flashlight candy hunt and snacks. Hopefully, we can figure it out and get her friends to come. To close out the Saturday, I watched part of the Earthquakes game and missed the Sounders unfortunately tie the game.

Sunday morning I watched the Chelsea game.  Talk about an intense match. Chelsea got the early lead with a great goal from Costa. 2nd half, two mistakes led to Swansea getting the lead but once again, Costa picked up another goal and we secured a draw. Should have won but it was pretty physical. I'm missing the Friday match against Liverpool sadly.

This week, I'm busy busy busy in the creative department so hopefully I can get all of my projects complete. I'm off Thursday for The Falcon show in Madison. I only go to concerts once every few years usually for a band I either have never seen or rarely get to see. These guys are totally worth driving for. That's it for now. Thanks for reading!

First Day of School

Good morning everyone. Having a very slow Labor Day after a night of drinking and dancing with some old college friends of mine last night, but we'll get to that later. This week was the official last week of Summer before school started Thursday. My goal was to enjoy it as much as I could with the diva. Wednesday, we met up with some friends of hers at the park. Hannah and Gracie met us so the girls had a great time playing and running around. They won't get to see each other much during the school year so I figured it would be great the day before school to hang out, tell secrets and play one last time.

Mia had high hopes her BFF Olivia would join as well since she had a Best Friends necklace she wanted to share with her. She didn't make it. I guess the past few days she wasn't feeling great. Mia was missing her greatly, and well after FaceTiming with her and her Dad, it appeared she was feeling better so we went BACK out to the park (different one) and they hung out for one last time. She gave Olivia the necklace and they played. I love seeing Mia care for her friends like this. To have these special friends that she loves so much, it makes me very happy. Wednesday evening we got the very excited girl to sleep a little after 9:00pm. I packed her lunch for her and drew her a small picture for her to see at lunch time.

Thursday we got up early, got the sleepy diva awake, dressed, fed and out the door. It was a very emotional walk to school. To think how fast the last 5 years have gone, and where we're at right now, is surreal. This little child will be at this school for the next 6 years, making new friends and experiencing new things. Mia was determined as ever as we walked in with the other misty-eyed parents. We waited in the gym for the teachers to meet with the kids. They told them to say their goodbyes, and that was it. I wouldn't see Mia till the very next morning. 7 hours of school. It seems like a lot to take on but that's what kindergarten is these days. Jill and I walked home, both sad and somber about our little girl growing up. We were relieved when we learned the neighbor boy was going to be in her class with her so at least she knew ONE kid. Jill went to work and I went home, but luckily had a freelance photography job to go to at 10:00am to keep me busy. I can't talk much about it till things are published, but it was a lot of fun and you should see something in the near future.

Mia and Jill stopped in by me at work and I couldn't have been more stoked to hear how school went. Mia didn't say much because I was hella busy, but it sounded like she liked it. She said the girls liked her pink/blue hair piece she had in and they thought it was dyed. She simply told them "no, but the blonde hair is natural!" Adorable.

The next day, we walked across the street again and dropped her off but this time at her class. When I saw her Friday night after work, it sounded like she had made some new friends. Saturday she did her homework while I helped my sister move some chairs with my brother to her new apartment. We cleaned and spent some time outside with Jill's pal that drove up to visit. Jill and Leanne conspired a plan Saturday to get early Sunday and drive down to Indiana to visit a friend for her birthday. Sort of a surprise, and thats exactly what they did. They left at 5:00am yesterday and should be home today. After I got out of work last night, I drove over to Bullwinkle's to meet up with some old college friends to celebrate my friend Shawn's wedding. We drank, danced and had an awesome time. It's pretty rare I get to drink with friends these days so this was a pretty fun night. We always have an awesome time, and I expected nothing less than pure drunken debauchery from Shawn and his new wife.

This week, back to school tomorrow for the kiddo,  she starts ballet and tap tomorrow after school, I'll probably squeeze in some drumming and I don't know what else is going on. Thanks for reading!