Aaaaah Summer

By Sarah Koehn

Happy Summer to all of you! These past 2 weeks have been full of change for me personally as well for GiGi’s.  My kids started camp this week; for Daphne it’s a return to last summer’s routine with some familiar faces and for Jacqueline and Harvey it’s a brand new “camp!” experience.  Daphne’s first day was rough! There was lots of hair-pulling and testing boundaries. But, her behavior has improved every day since then.  The twins are, as usual, excited about every new day and telling me about new friends.  For the first time, I drop off all three of my kids at the same time – woooooo hoooooo! Of course I had grand plans with how I would use these 3 hours each day, but this week it’s mostly been spent on GiGi’s stuff and minivan shopping.

As for GiGi’s stuff, most of my week has been spent on two things: hiring a new Site Coordinator, and planning for our fall fundraiser.

Many of you have asked me whether we have found a new Site Coordinator. The short answer is no, but we are very close.  Jamie is such a gem and I’m so sad to lose her, but I’m also thrilled for her and this next chapter of her life.  Very likely she will be around the Playhouse through the 2^nd week of July.

In July we will start promoting the next fundraiser for the Playhouse. We are calling it the Brew-Ha-Ha and it will be on Saturday, October 14^th at the University Club in Milwaukee. The event will feature a comedian and beer tastings. The venue is awesome, and we plan on setting it up like a German beer hall.  It’s been over a year since we have planned a large fundraiser, and I am super optimistic about this one.   I feel awesome enthusiasm amongst our families when I attend programs which tells me they understand the value of what we’re doing and want to support us.

I almost forgot about a third thing: tomorrow I will complete and submit a grant application for Harley Davidson. Anyone know anyone who works at Harley? Please gimme a shout if you do! Skoehn@gigisplayhouse.org.

Regarding the minivan, I have convinced my husband Charlie that we are still in the minivan phase of our lives. He was thinking that we were into the SUV phase. I just can’t give up those sliding doors.  My Town & Country has not been reliable, and there’s a laundry list of things that need to be fixed on it, including the AC. So, I’m a bit thankful for this cooler weather. Anyone have strong feelings about their Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna? Love em? Hate em?

As I finish this blog post, there’s a bunch of moms headed to Klode Park for GiGi’s first Field Day. I can’t go – just too busy today, plus keeping track of Daphne at Klode is hard for some reason.  Anyway, I saw some Facebook chatter amongst those moms about heading to Klode, and it makes me sooooo happy they have found each other. Their kiddos (mostly boys!) with Down syndrome are between 1 and 3 years old and every time I see these moms i’m reminded of how in love I was with Daphne when she was that age. I couldn’t get enough of her, and loved the new community I found myself in. These moms – Trinny, Marie, Casey, Nancy, Jen – you all inspire me to keep working hard for GiGi’s.

Thanks for reading!