Preschool Mural

I had the cool opportunity to paint a white shed at my daughter's preschool this week. For those of you who know me, I love to paint and the bigger the better!

This large 40' by 18' storage shed was the original furnishings of our Co-Op, a school ran by the parents of the students. It remained white for 16+ years until I showed up. I'd been begging to paint it all year, but finally had gotten approval to purchase the paints and go at it!

As the art teacher of the school, I wanted to get the kiddos involved and knew just the trick. Let them go at it! They had a blast painting the grass for our mural. They did an awesome job too!

I meant to take more timelapse type photos - and I know a few moms snapped a few pics I'll try to grab those but this whole thing was done in 2 days!

I like it. And everyone else seems to as well, so I'm happy. I could do this all the time! :)

Cheers,

-marc

EDIT** - I think it only fair to show the original artwork, as the people and trees are not my own original creation. I'm not sure who drew this, so if you do - leave a comment letting me know!

4 Years of Marriage Bliss

Four years ago today I married my best friend. In exactly 365 days I may say "Four years ago I married my best friend" because that sound so good.

Now I titled this blog "Marriage Bliss" but it hasn't always been blissful. And over the past month I've been photographing a lot of weddings, hearing a lot of wedding talk, and spoken to many grooms. The advice I give them is to tough it out. Work it out w/ your partner and become stronger as individuals and couples through each up and each down. In the end - you've made the commitment to spend your lives together - you might as well know what the hell you're doing and make it a lot more enjoyable for everyone. And that takes arguments, compromise, good times and bad times. But it's worth it. To fall asleep next to someone who loves you as much if not more than you love them, every night, is priceless. To create babies with a life partner, and raise those babies together, is what living is all about. To create a family that is your own, to share the awesome times together and experience the difficult - it's what makes life worth living.

I love you Stacey Nicole Blackwell, you are my best friend and I don't know what I would do without you. I don't want to know. Ever. I'll die before you, ok? Wait - no ... Shit, um... Let's just die together. Like you always say... :) Cool?

Love you.

-marc

The Burger King Commercial

Did you know Indie and I are famous? That's right - little celebs right here in your midst and you didn't even know!

Last summer Zoe had an audition for a commercial. The 3 of us went and Zoe nailed it. She was so cute during the audition, answering all the questions asked, giggling, and stealing the show. She got a call back.

At the call back, she froze up. "What's your name?" Nada. "How old are you?" Nada. The directors and people were confused - where was the first audition Zoe? But no worries, she was two, I wasn't too concerned. We thanked everyone and started to leave.

Before we could make it to our car however, a producer ran out and ask if Indie was available to work. I said she was, and they wanted her to audition. Granted, this is an audition where I was playing her father so it came naturally to both of us. Indie KILLED it during her audition and she got the part.

A few months later, a couple fittings here and there, and Indie and I have our own trailer on a multi-million dollar national commercial. :) It was a really fun day, exciting to be on the other side of the camera for a change, and we're still seeing residual checks for it. Indie's got her own little can't touch til she's 18 bank account and we're still beaming from ear to ear over the experience.

Can you find us in the video? You gotta look close!

Cheers,
-marc

Minecraft

During the holidays while my family and I were in Oklahoma my nephew introduced me to a game I had heard of many times before. Minecraft explained by a 7 year old is the only way to learn Minecraft.

And ever since, whenever I have an hour to spare, I love to play me some Minecraft. Not that creative mode y'all easy go-ers like to play, I dig the challenge of survival mode.

And thanks to the power of the interent, and my nephew, I've got a pretty good little farm going on my site of the server.

Still figuring out how I can connect to my nephew's server and vise versa so we can play in each other's world - but that's the fun of the game; there's always something more to learn!

Do you play video games? Which games do you play? Do you know how to connect to a server on Minecraft? LMK - I'd love to hear about it.

 Really wanna geek out? Alright - here's a video I made for my nephew;

Cheers!

-marc

Looking for Inspiration

It's a Monday morning. A week lies ahead of me ... what to do, what to do?

Sure, there are things TO DO, like upload those photos, retouch that one image, launch that website ... but the rest is completely open for interpretation.

But the rest of the week is mine. And after a 10 day hiatus which included a cruise, a 3 day weekend with my beautiful family, and very little work (well... we did shoot a wedding) I'm browsing around the net looking for inspiration.

Perhaps that inspiration is right here within my own soul. Perhaps it's all right here in front of me. A computer, an internet connection, a blog and coffee.

My wife keeps saying it . . . something happened on our trip. It got our wheels turning and it's time to kick some ass.

Oh yeah ... and it's raining.

Cheers!

-marc

5 vs. 1

I think it's fair enough to tell this story.

Stacey and I made the best decision yet of our parenthood lives to enroll our daughter in a local co-op preschool. It's been incredible building relationships with other like minded parents and it's benefited our relationships with our children as well.  That's not the point though...

A family in the co-op recently asked if they could drop their 3 year old boy and 2 twin 20 month old twin boys off for a few hours on a Friday. Stay At Home Dad Mode kicks in. I can do this. I can do anything!

Drop off was made. Find snacks. I thought my 2 girls ate a lot ... boys eat A LOT! And for good reason. They are active! From jumping off the walls, moving around furniture, and constantly getting into things they shouldn't, these little guests didn't slow down. From the 3 year old, whom I'm most acquainted with via the co-op, he's an even more energetic little fellow. It's like he ran a 5k before his mom dropped him off!

Lunch couldn't come quick enough - as the boys I was watching were vegan and I was running out of vegan option snacks. Their mom dropped off peanut butter and sunflower jelly sandwiches, which were amazing and I was holding them for lunch. So we finally dined, a kitchen full of loud, hungry, fun loving little people graciously ate vegan yummies until their bellies content.

And then it was on. Mind you, it was raining outside so throwing them in the backyard was out of the picture. The blocks came out, the balls came out, the diapers needed changing and they were still hungry! We danced to Gangam Style, and played guitar, bongos and maracas, and read books ... it was a full on daddy day care up in the hood.

1 episode of television saved the day...just to rest and calm things down. We don't want to the be the household that you drop your kids off too and they learn the Fresh Beat Theme song. Funny how kids can bond over a television show, thought ...  "Wait, you know Dora? I know Dora too!!".

And then it was on again. I had to put my youngest down for a nap. She couldn't handle all the attention from 3 cute older boys. So she's napping, we're drawing, and mom arrives to the boys yelps of glee.

Pick up was a success, Indie was still sleeping, Zoe and I chilled and then we went to pick up mama.

It's funny - being a Working Stay At Home Dad you plan your days around such events. It's important for Zoe and Indie to have interaction on their home turf (and others' home turf) with their peers. I worked my butt off to ensure I didn't have much to do on Friday so I could over see a successful play-date.

Oh how I never expected myself to type that...

Cheers!

-marc

Slooooooow down.

I found this video on my Facebook page today and it made me slow down ... if at least for 6 and a half minutes.

Whether it really is, or we make it that way, our life as the Cali Blackwells is crazy. With 2 kids under 3, mom working a full time job, me staying at home with the kids and running a small business and EVERYTHING else in between - we feel like we never slow down.

If it's not making dinner before the kids get hangry, or running Z to dance class every friday, juggling preschool activities, fundraisers, and playdates it's taking the dog to the vet or filing our taxes, or cleaning the house.

And sometimes I like it. I feel like I can do anything and everything ... sometimes.

But then sometimes it just all hits ya in the face and you go - whoa ... I need to SLOW down.

Taxes will get filed. Dinner will be made. Business will be had. The other truths that are more important are that our youngest (1 1/2 y/o) is starting to talk. Our 3 year old is a genius and understands every word that comes out of our mouth. They are starting to play together, really love each other, and enjoy each others company. We have two beautiful children in our home that won't always be here. That's the important stuff.

Not money. Not material things we want. Not even getting a second car (but boy how that would be nice!)

Family is love. Family is taking the time to show that love. Everything else falls in place if you show an abundance of love.

I used to tell my mom, "Mom, all you need is love". She would argue, "Yes, but love doesn't pay the bills." I will still and continue to happily disagree with her on this one.