I decided to clean out the glove compartment of the Red car today.
I found an Illinois map from 1989.
The Iowa Map was 1995.
The road atlas was 1999- which makes sense as the year we got married and started driving together?
The Wisconsin map was 2008.
Also, a map of Milwaukee bike routes. Because you need bike routes in a car?
Also a collection of individual county maps Chris has printed over the years-he likes to be able to take back roads.



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Ready for Camp!

Maggie went to camp this week, APPLE CAMP that is. Chris gets all the credit for finding this FREE camp for Maggie to attend at our local Apple Store.  I took her on Monday and discovered it was run by 3 eager 20-somethings and Maggie was one of only 4 campers that day.

Jack, Marie, and Hayley gave the campers their shirts and name badges, and cool flash drive bracelets, and then told us the campers would be filming a video and using Garage Band to create a soundtrack for the video. Parents would be "producers" helping the campers, but the campers were in charge.  As  group we created a story board for a sample movie and talked about the different camera angles, and learned the basics of Garage Band.  We then had work time to create the story  board for our own movie, and a little time to compose music in Garage band.

Creating her story board

Composing music

Then we were sent home with instructions to come back on Tuesday with film clips ready to edit to create the movie.  Maggie had a very clear vision of what her movie was going to be, which made it slightly easier for filming. But her crew of Dad, Katherine and Abby worked hard to get all the filming done!

On Tuesday, Chris took her and they put all the film piece together and made the movie. They also worked on the music a little bit, but ended up doing most of the music production at home.

Film Editing

While I was at work on Thursday, they did the finishing touches. Maggie composed some original music and used some 'pre-fab' music and sound effects from Garage Band. She will tell you it was tricky to get the music to match up exactly with the film.

But, in the end, she was thrilled with her movie. This morning, we all went to the Apple Store to watch her movie premiere.  And we clapped as she received her Certificate and Badges for completion.

No Autographs Please!

And now, because you're dying to see it, I present you, Maggie's movie...............

 THE SWIM

Oh Katherine, sometimes it's hard to be the middle child!  Tonight at dinner, Maggie was complaining about her bee sting (?) from earlier in the afternoon, and how much it hurt. And Abby was whining about her scratched off bug bite/band-aid on her arm. Both being rather dramatic, but Chris and I were working on ignoring them (nicely!)

I noticed Katherine hadn't been eating, and asked what was wrong. She looked at me with a quivering lip and whispered, "I need to talk to you in private!"

What the what?

OK, so I took her up stairs, and asked her what was bothering her. She burst into sobbing tears and managed to tell me that she was feeling left out, because she didn't have anything that hurt, and that we were giving all of our love to the other girls and didn't have any left for her.

Wwwwhhhhhhaaattt?

So, after I held her and let her cry for a moment while I squeezed the breath out of her, we got calmed down, and I reassured her that a Mom has enough love for all of her children no matter how many she has. And that even though I might have to help the other girls sometimes, I still always loved her.  We talked for a bit, particularly about Gram, and how she had SIX kids to love and we all got enough.
I told her even if I was in China and she was in Wisconsin I would love her, and even when she moved into her own apartment I would still love her. And she felt better, and we were able to return to our dinner.

It was crazy, and unexpected, but I praised her for telling me what was bothering her, and reminded her that she could always come and tell me when something was bothering her, no matter what it was.

But whoa, where did that burst of emotion come from?

Way back in January, I signed Abby up for a dance class. It met on Tuesday mornings, which matched well with her M-W-F preschool schedule.  She had been asking to do something, but I was reluctant, because, well, "Third Child Syndrome."  Money, time, quality of programming, money, time, sigh.
The morning of her first class, I captured the photo above and felt like the worst Mom ever that I hadn't had her in class sooner - look at the joy in that face!

She LOVED her class. 6 little girls and Miss Amy, the very patient teacher. Rarely did all 6 girls show up on the same day, so Abby always got a lot of attention.  One of the reasons I agreed to join this studio, was that their end of year recital was optional. However, joining in January gave me only 3 weeks to decide if we wanted to do the recital.

Knowing that at Abby's level, her dance would be very basic, and knowing that to buy her costume (which I found ugly) would be around $60-75, and knowing that to buy the tickets for our family (not grandparents, just family) would be $40, and knowing that I had no intention of putting a full face of make-up on her, and styling her hair - - it seemed an easy decision to say, "No Thanks" to the recital.

But, seeing her face crumble on the day the costumes were delivered and handed to each girl who WOULD be in the recital? And having to answer her pathetic, "Why can't I go on the big stage, too Mommy?" every week?  That killed me. She fully understood that she was 'missing out' on something other girls were doing, and it was very hard, for both of us.

At the end of April, they had a parent observation class when we could come in and watch their whole class. (Otherwise it was looking through special "windows" from out in the hallway)  Other than the recital it was the only time to see their routine. (I did sneak a video on the last day, but it wasn't very good quality, from outside the classroom.)

Seeing the performance took away some of the burden of being the 'Meanest Mom in Franklin' because I know I made the right choice to NOT be in the recital.

And I've already signed her up for GYMNASTICS for next year. She can go at the same time as Katherine, we get a family discount, and there is NO RECITAL! Just a welcome mat to watch whenever we want, and a final performance in June - during class time!

I've lived in Milwaukee for almost 10 years now, and I had never taken a brewery tour. Until today. On one of the hottest days this summer, we went to the Miller Brewery for their free tour.  Surprisingly - we had a lot of fun!

 There was a fair amount of walking involved. Walking outside, in the hot sun, but that just made the air conditioning feel so much better when we found some. And the underground caves were delightful!

The free beer samples weren't bad either! I'm not much of a beer drinker, but when it's this hot? And free? Why yes, a summer Shandy sounds perfect, thank you very much!

Abby wasn't impressed with her lemonade.

After our tour, we went over to Brewer's Stadium and had lunch at the TGIFridays overlooking the park. Service was terribly slow, but the girls had fun watching the grounds crew repairing the field after the Paul McCartney concert this week.  Then we stopped to buy tickets for a game next week before coming home.

The funniest story of the day might have been in the car on the way to the tour. Abby had been chattering non stop, and then saw a city bus, and said, "Look, that bus says 'DOWNTOWN' we could get on it and go downtown!" 

Katherine exclaimed, "Abby stop reading everything! You don't have to read EVERYTHING!" 

Poor Abby replied with confusion, "But I CAN read, I just love to read!"

Katherine then tried to explain that it is OK to just read things in your head, and not out loud, but Abby wasn't buying it. To Abby, if there are words, she's going to read them, no matter what her big sister says!

We're going to attempt an outdoor concert tonight, hoping not to melt!

I promise more blogging coming soon. But here is a start. Maggie and Katherine were thrilled to sign up for Park and Rec Tennis and  "Poms" classes this summer. Poms was 5 Monday nights to learn a routine. They've been excited every week. They practice at home. Tonight was the final performance.  Watch for Katherine (and her shaking hips) in the front row. Maggie is in the back row far left.

Tennis started last week. 2 weeks, M-Th, 50 minutes each day. They are in a true beginner class, with about 12 kids ages 7-14. The age gap is significant. And, it ends up that Katherine, and sometimes Maggie, get "private" lesson time with 1 of the 2 coaches (husband/wife)  I took this video today, which doesn't show how "good" they actually are, but gives an idea of the personal attention they are getting! The other 8 kids who were there today were on the other 2 courts using 'faster' balls.

And just so you don't think Abby is being left behind, she got to go swimming with Chris today while the girls were at tennis. And, I just caught her upstairs in her bed, with her light on, surrounded by books at 10pm!