Balance

Hola. Going to try and bang this one out quick because I'm pretty exhausted. This week, we managed to get Mia through her school work. She sort of dragged her feet on a fun story project but completed this weekend. One of my favorite parts of the week, was our bike adventures for her gym time. We decided to venture across the street and explore the neighborhoods. Typically, we ride around our side of the street, but I convinced Mia to ride with me by her school. We rode through the beautiful neighborhoods and Mia enjoyed checking out all the cool houses and just having a nice father-daughter conversation. There's one house in particular she loves that's for sale. but there's no way we're in the market for a $469.000 home. Beautiful place too. Anyways, we definitely enjoyed the bike rides and hope the weather improves. We had one Spidey visit for a classmate of Mia's. He was a bit shy but Mia said he always is. 

I picked up a 2nd Spider-Man suit. My original one was falling apart, the mask was busted and overall, it just wasn't working for me anymore. My 2nd one at a distance, may not look the same, but it's different. More contour for the muscles, I ordered a tighter size and everything just looks cleaner. 

Thursday, I did an interview with Kramp from Fox 6 to follow up the Share Lemonade piece a friend submitted. Not an easy thing to do on Zoom, but we did it. We set up a meet for a photojournalist for my visits for the weekend. I was stoked because I'd have my new suit for my weekend of visits. We started with a car parade in Waukesha for a friend of ours. Fox 6 mic'd me up at the meet location and we were off to the car parade. The birthday girl was super cute and loved our balloons we brought. Fox 6 did a little spot after and that was it. After the parade, we jetted over to Mukwonago to visit a little boy and his family. He was sorta shy, but his sister certainly didn't mind seeing Spidey. On our way there, we saw some kids outside so we decided to cruise the area with some spontaneous visits and photo opts. The families would yell "GRAB THE KID! SPIDER-MAN IS ON TOP OF A CAR DRIVING AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD! SERIOUSLY!! GO GET THEM!" Too much fun. These are the kind of visits I personally like. The ones where kids aren't expecting something extraordinary in their town on their street. We headed home, grabbed some lunch, built a trampoline for Mia and went back out to a car parade nearby. The size of the car parade was pretty great. A lot of kids in the parade were waving to me as I climbed on top of the Civic. As we rolled up to the birthday boy's house, he seemed to be in shock. We gave him Jill's impressive balloon display she beautifully built and that was it. They were handing out Jello and cup cake pops as we moved to our last stop of the day in Bayside. 

Our last visit was a couple kids in Bayside. One girl had gone through a major surgery and both her and her bro were big super hero fans. I arrived on top of the car like always, and they were just so excited to meet me. I got some super hero questions and they loved watching me leave on top of the car. "HOW DO YOU STAY ON?" Kids love it. That completed the Spidey stops for the weekend. We hung out, had some Qdoba and watched Scoob! Mia loves the movie, but I give it a strong "it was okay". 

Today we woke up to a rainy soggy damp Sunday. Not an exciting way to end the weekend, but it happens. This week, more school, more art and I believe Fox 6 will air our little Spidey story on Wednesday. Keep your eyes out for it. Just trying to balance everything while keeping sane. That's all for now, stay super and thanks for reading! 

Ride

Greeting everyone. Hope all the Moms that read my blog enjoyed their Mother's Day. Wasn't a bad week for distant learning. Mia had a few projects this week including doing a report on the woman who invented the chocolate chip cookie. She did a great job. Thursday, we picked up some hanging baskets for my Mom, Jill and her Mom. Mia enjoyed looking at all the flowers and picked each person that best suited their personality (according to her) . She was ALSO motivated to bang out her school work, spelling test and math so she could have a social distance bike ride with her friend Scarlett and her family.

I hooked up the bike rack for the first time in forever, we loaded up bikes and headed over for the first time since March by Mia's BFF. The girls were thrilled to see us and we went out for a 45 min bike ride. This was the longest the diva has gone on a ride, but you'd never guess if she was tired. Catching up with Scarlett was pure joy. Her Mom, myself and Scarlett's sisters Angie and Sofia chatted and caught up throughout the ride. Really good time and fantastic weather on top of that. We went to Lee's for ice cream after. I haven't had a milk shake in forever, but Lee's had a great caramel shake. The girls started to get chilly (minus Mia in her t-shirt and shorts because she's NEVER cold) so we went back. The girls ran around a little bit before we said our goodbyes and left. Mia couldn't stop smiling exclaiming "this was SO much fun Daddy!" So thrilled to set this up for her and hope we get another day soon for the girls to ride. We did our best obeying social distancing and had an absolutely awesome time.

Throughout the week, I built a couple SCW kits for fun. Currently working on an FC Wisconsin Nationals in between other projects. Over the weekend, we had some Spidey visits. First stop was a little girl in Waukesha. She was pretty excited so see Spider-Man, but her sister seemed more excited. Her Mom later messaged me "she was in love". Ha! After that, we were off to Washington Heights to meet Elijah. He's a little dude that would do Spidey poses and wave to traffic with a sign "honk if I've made you smile" His Mom left him a note from me that read "meet you on the corner at noon. From S" When I arrived and snuck up and surprised him, his Mom and Grandma. He was super excited, we posed for a few photos, waved to cars a little bit and that was it. Definitely a unique Spider-Man visit and I was honored to meet the little mini me. Later, we drove to Brown Deer for another birthday visit. About 30 people were at this place and the little birthday boy was so thrilled to meet Spider-Man. He was dressed as the Miles Morales Spider-Man which was pretty awesome. His brother was equally excited to meet Spider-Man. Even said "Wow, you're tall Spider-Man!" After we said goodbye, we were done for the day. We stopped at my parents house with a cake Mia made for my Mom including a picture collage and her hanging basket. Later, we picked up some Qdoba, watched Rock Dog with Mia, and she finished her other cakes for Jill and Jill's Mom before calling it a night.

Today was Mother's Day. The weather was absolutely lousy and it was freakin' snowing. Despite the crappy weather, we still had a Spider-Man visit to do. After dropping off Grandma Missy Shell's cake, we stopped at birthday boy Nolan's house. Because of the lousy weather, I decided it would be better to ring the doorbell. The little dude screamed with excitement. I gave him a birthday balloon complete with Golden Rod Spidey book, posted for a few photos and said goodbye. He was just so thrilled and it no matter how many kids I've met, it always warms my heart when I see the excitement on kids faces. After that, I had an odd 1-9 shift.

This week, I have plenty of commission work to accomplish in between Mia's school stuff. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Gutted

Greeting. Busy week with much to discuss so let's get right to it. I had a few Spidey stops this week and video messages for kids in between working with Mia on distant learning. Not been easy, but we're trying to grin and bear the school work. I helped Mia work on a fun project about someone who's important to science. She chose Ocean Ramsey from Oahu, HI. She runs the cage-less swim with the sharks that myself, our friends Leanne and Andy did with me. I hope one day to return and do it again, but this time, with Mia.

Last week, I posted about how we were fortunate to get a delayed Spring season...but it turns out the WYSA (or Wisconsin Youth Soccer Association) declaimed all Spring club soccer was cancelled. Such a massive bummer. It was literally the one thing we were looking forward to. Mia and Cecilia were to play their very last season of soccer together before Middle School, but I doubt they'll adjust it. Such a disappointment. I know it was to be expected, but there was a little glimmer of hope that when they released an e-mail that read "THE SEASON IS NOT CANCELLED" that something positive would emerge from this. I guess we'll just have to do some training over the Summer in the yard since absolutely zero parks have any nets on them. The NBAA apparently is hoping for a Fall season as they just posted that they open registration for Fall soccer.

After mentally processing this, I decided that in some spare time, I'd design some fun concept kits for the area youth teams. I started with Strike FC which a friend of mine and his daughter Echo are a part of. The kit turned out nice so I hope to come up with a fun one for SCW next.

Over the weekend, I had a few more Spidey stopes in some absolutely stunning neighborhoods. We're talking like, million dollar homes. It's crazy. First house on Saturday, the kid was a little crazy but the family was super thrilled to see me. We were supposed to visit a kid that dresses like Spider-Man and waves to people on corners, but his Mom messaged me earlier in the day that he wasn't feeling well. We'll visit the lad in Milwaukee next Saturday. We explored Wirth Park to take some photos of Mia in a handful of outfits she picked out. The park is just massive and I sincerely would like to start the skatepark some day.

Later we had some dinner and Mia and I watched Sonic while Jill virtually chatted with her friends. Not a bad movie. Glad I watched it but probably don't need to see it again. We finished off the night with some Luigi's Mansion 3 before calling it a night. Today, I participated in car parade for an 8 year old in another incredible neighborhood. The people waiting to wave to the birthday boy were taking plenty of picture of ol Spidey. Always fun. Mia spent some quality time with her little furry buddy outside before I went off to work. Glad we could enjoy the gorgeous weather because from what I hear, it certainly won't last. Oh well. This week, I've got plenty of art to accomplish, maybe more Spidey stops this coming weekend. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Lights, Camera...

Greetings everyone. Another week in the books with some Spidey visits so let's get right to it. Mia returned to her "Distant Learning". The work load lightened up which includes a "catch up day" for Fridays, however last week, the students were told it would be a non-school day. Sweet. Thursday, we made a Spidey stop at Mia's friend Vida's house for her little sister's birthday. She's a shy kid unlike her sister, but she was still happy to see Spidey. Not sure if she knew it was me, but when a super hero brings in a bunch of balloons, I guess any kid would love it. Mia was happy to see Vida from the car :) We watched Trolls 2-World Tour before calling it a night. I got bored with it, and fell asleep about half way, just like I did with the 1st one. I don't know. The Trolls movies aren't that exciting to me. Mia likes them, so that's good.

Throughout the end of the week, I worked on some Green Bay Glory kits for fun. They got a lot of great reviews from the Glory fans which is always awesome. I just love making kits and wish it could be a full-time gig. It was also announced that SCW season is NOT cancelled and that we'll be starting up early Summer for "Spring soccer" and ending in the end of July. I'm totally cool with that and excited to start. The weather should be much better, so I'm absolutely stoked.

Saturday, we did a handful of Spidey stops including visiting Mia's old buddy Trey and his siblings and participated in some car parades. It's my absolute favorite driving on top of the car. The kids go mental when they see me coming down the street. "OH MY GOD LOOK!!" And then all the phones whip out. Gotta make a solid entrance, right? Jill loves it too. We delivered some amazing balloons to the kids throughout the weekend and hopefully made their birthdays better. Afterwards, we hung out, Jill had a video chat with her chums while Mia and I watched a strange movie on Netflix before a little Luigi's Mansion 3 and soon after, we hit the bed.

Today, we had a couple stops before work with plenty wanting a last min visit. We shot a quick video for a kid we couldn't make last minute at some random park in the Menomonee Falls area. Both stops were very fun. The kids were great and I loved meeting them and their siblings. This morning, the CBS-58 story aired on TV. Pari Cruz and her crew did a great job and really captured our message and mission quite well. Everyone seemed to like it a lot and we were quite proud of it. In fact, I'm more motivated than ever to be the best Spider-Man I could be.

This week, I need to bang out some art projects and start a big one of a dog for a friend. I've got some Spidey stops and video messages as well. Mia's got her typical school work per the usual. She admitted over the weekend that she truly misses going to school, which was sad but not terribly unexpected. She initially was happy she wasn't going to school anymore and could work from home, but has been really missing friends, projects and her teacher lately.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Seven

Greetings everyone. Well, it was quite the week off from work which made it super difficult returning back today, but we'll get back to that in a bit. Last week, I spent the last 7 days driving everywhere and anywhere visiting tons of kids, families and neighborhoods. Franklin, Greendale, Menomonee Falls among others. So many awesome kids excited for a super hero visit. Mia tagged along with us on some the adventures. One of my favorite things we've gotten to do was participate in car parades. I've been riding on top of cars lately and it really makes the quick little visit all the more exciting. People really like it and there's always a bunch of phones snapping pictures or taking videos of Spidey. I personally love seeing the kids all dressed up. One stop had an Iron Man, a Captain America and a tiny little Wonder Woman. So cute.

Mia's been off on Spring Break and returns to her distance learning tomorrow. At the end of the week, it was announced that school wouldn't resume this year, so Mia was a bit surprised but mildly content with it. She's been really missing her friends lately and over the weekend, wanted to do a little "virtual sleepover" but everyone she contacted was busy so she was a bit mopey.

Now this really upset me and Jill: Saturday, I discovered that a large group of idiots were protesting the extended Stay at Home order for the state of Wisconsin. It didn't help that Trump has been tweeting "liberate _insert state here" all over Twitter. So, people showed up on Bluemound road, most not in masks or PPE standing shoulder to shoulder chanting and screaming. Not good. Not good at all. Very scary actually. I understand the reaction and I too, wish things could return, but the cases are  still coming up, people are dying and hospitals are still very very busy. Trump boasted how he wanted to open the states up and because the country really isn't ready yet, he's pissed off. Everyone is. I just hope that any progression we've made in this unfortunate pandemic isn't undone. Florida already opened a beach and they've got a bunch of cases that surfaced recently as well. I've been talking to a lot of nurses that come into the store and they've brought up how difficult it is to having to communicate to families that they can only use FaceTime their loved ones in the hospital that are dying. That is pure heartbreaking. I can't imagine how they have to deal with that and work long long hours while some actually have to sleep in their cars or away from their families. It's difficult, so when I see people getting aggressively angry about the extended Stay at Home thing, it really frustrates me.

Anyways, we got notified about a last minute car parade Saturday, so I suited up and we drove to the house. The family we were surprising were totally excited and that was the end of our Spidey time. The rest of the day, we hung out, made dinner and watched a movie. This has sort of been our routine my week off from work. I honestly am going to miss the daily dinners with the girls. Jill did a video chat with her friends for our buddy Leanne's birthday. Despite the unfortunate circumstances,  the girls had a great time. Mia chatted with Vida and I worked on some football kit designs. I was glad to finally allow myself some time to work in Photoshop on one of my favorite projects. I designed and submitted my kit concept for the USNT the American Outlaws supporters group hosted as well as a USL2 kit concept for the Green Bay Voyagers. The other day, I was working on one for the Green Bay Glory, but Photoshop decided not to work for me so I had to quit for the evening. I did however, make a quit Spidey Vlog which is always fun to update our fans on how things are going from our Spidey tours.

Today, we had an awesome Spidey visit. We drove out to Milwaukee to surprise a boy who turned 8 today. He has Down Syndrome and is super obsessed with super heroes. I knew from the start I'd be arriving on top of the car with a Spider-Man balloon for the child. We rolled up and the neighbor was cracking up and yelled out "well how is my happy birthday song going to match up to this? this is crazy!" I hoped off the car, and little Henry was absolutely THRILLED to see his favorite hero. He was even dressed like me. His smile will stay with me for quite a while. It will go down as one of my favorite visits I've done and I've met a TON of kids. I'm always humbled to be a part of a child's birthday and to see this kiddo light up with excitement just made my day.

This week I'm working my normal hours, I've got some Spidey stops and Mia's back to school. Hopefully I can get some art accomplished. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Stay Super

Man, this past week has been super surreal with everything. We've been balancing Mia's distant learning thing with the whole Spidey in a Civic thing pretty well and things are still staying pretty busy. Last week, I did an interview with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via phone call and later that day, they published it on their website. It got a lot of praise and circled around everywhere. The next day, I did one or the Waukesha Freeman via e-mail, which was great because I could thoroughly think of my answers in a more thoughtful way. I jokingly said "if this makes the front page, we're taking a picture of me dressed as Spidey reading about Spiderman" and sure enough a few days later, I made the front page. It was pretty exciting and I'm glad so many people enjoyed the article and this whole experience. We've met so many kids and families and it's been absolutely amazing. I love being a part of something positive that brings happiness to kids. Hopefully, it inspires others to do something positive in their own way.

Friday on my last day before I was going on vacation, I had to work at store #184 to learn how to fry chicken. Luckily, the girls I was training under were very nice and patient and I was able to get the training I needed and could leave early. The store is super slow so I was out by 7:05pm. Saturday, we were up and ready to film with Pari Cruz and CBS-58 for the Spiderman story. They met us at Mia's friend Noelle's house so all of the kiddos were outside excited to be on TV. We got some great shots throughout the day with all the families. These kids were dressed up, holding signs, made chalk drawings and we even saw kids dressed as villans. One had a great DIY Doc Oc costume his Dad made. With every group we stopped at, the crowds of kids grew bigger and bigger. One of the standouts from the Spidey tour was a young boy we missed the previous weekend. Him and his sis were napping the previous weekend so there was no way we were going to miss him the 2nd time around. Him and his sister were SO stoked to see me when we rolled up. He was jumping for joy, and could barely keep contained. When the reporter was talking to his Mom, he kept staring at me smiling. I found out later he called his Grandma describing my suit in detail and everything about the visit. He slept with his stuffed Spiderman as well. These stories melt my heart and I love hearing about it.

 Later after our last house (Mia's BFF Cecilia) they did an interview and some fun shots of me on top of the car, crouching on a rock and others. Overall, we had a ton of fun with them and can't wait to see the final product. Mia enjoyed watching all the behind-the-scenes stuff they have to do to make it all happen. We did a Zoom video Easter chat with Jill's family later which was a lot of fun. Mia and I picked out a new addition to our family that we're not going to go into a lot of detail right now, but let's just say that she's completely in love with the little fuzzball and couldn't be more happy. I watched Spiderman 3 and worked on some art while Jill and Mia watched a movie in the living room. Yesterday, Mia did her Easter egg hunt and harvested her blow pops that came up over night from the magic beans. We did another visit, drove around and went home for the day. Sadly, my zipper busted on my mask but on our drive today, we did alright. Visited a few kids for birthdays. This sweet group of kids were so excited that I was there and talked to me like I was Santa. "So how's your super hero friends? Did you have a good Easter and go Easter egg hunting?" It was very cute and I felt like a character at Disney or Universal Studios. The smiles are always the most memorable, but from time to time, we'll get tears. This comes with the territory. You never know what kind of reaction you're going to get. Parents know their kid(s) would be excited to meet Spidey, but when the day comes, you just don't know what kind of mood they're going to be. It is what it is, and we move on. We're just here to remind kids to STAY SUPER.

This week, Mia's on Spring Break and I'm also on a week of vacation. We've got a lot of houses to visit this week and as always, I look forward to all the smiles and wonderful families. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Viral Virus

Greetings. Man, what a week. While Mia kept grinding on her school work, we started building quite a busy weekend of house, courts, and cul de sac visits throughout the area. In total, it got to about 34. Phew. I was also contacted by CBS 58 to do a tag along and interview about my story of becoming Spiderman. What started as a simple gesture turned into something bigger than we predicted.

Thursday, Mia got her school work done, we got some sushi for the girls and I enjoyed a couple tacos :) Don't remember the exact movie we watched, but it's always enjoyable spending time with the girls on a day off. Friday, I suited up and made my way to a kid's house that was celebrating his birthday. Prior to making the stop, I picked up a few Spidey balloons I'd be giving out throughout the weekend.  The look on that child's face said it all. He was absolutely shocked Spidey visited him for his special birthday.  As we pulled away, Jill noticed him making a beeline for his balloon. His Mom sent me a video of his reaction and it was priceless. Absolutely priceless. This would be one of many memorable moments from our 5 hours of driving around Saturday.

We tried to make as many houses as possible that contacted us and it turns out, 30+ houses was way too many. It was a great time with many great memories made. We met with kids that were supposed to make a trip to Universal Studios so meeting me was the next best thing. One kid said to his Mom "I've waited all my life to meet Spiderman" which was super heartwarming. Lee's Ice Cream hooked me up with some treats for spreading kindness which was pretty sweet. They took photos of me holding a cone with red/blue sprinkles that I ended up giving to Mia for being patient while Jill and I drove around making kids happy.

One pair of girls surprised me with a Thank you Spiderman" sign. One little dude had a costume on and a handful of houses had Spiderman art drawn in chalk on the sidewalk. Absolutely loved it. After 55 miles, we called it a day. It was a long exhausted day, but we definitely made some special children smile. Despite all the success this has been and recent media attention, I wish these kids could celebrate birthdays with friends, didn't have to cancel travel plans and could be at school learning. Sadly, this is what they're dealing with and it takes a goofy Dad dressed as a Superhero to brighten their day on his day off. I'm honored to bring smiles and hope they can still STAY SUPER and be kind to everyone.


We picked up some MOD for dinner and watched Onward. Jill and Mia watched it Friday while I was at work but they watched it again with me. Really good movie. Great story and beautiful art. Always got to remember the art when it comes to movies. The overall feel you get from the art is very crucial. Anyways, after the movie, Mia spent the rest of the evening video chatting with her girls and drawing till pretty late.

Today, we did a lot of cleaning and a little time outside before I went off to work.

This week, I'm literally at a house every day before work. Some interviews, Mia's got her school work and hopefully, a lot of art. Thanks for reading and stay safe!!