Banana Split Festival

Today was a very busy day. We got up and did our 2 mile family walk/run. It was such a peaceful morning minus the yard sales going on in our circle which made for extra traffic. We usually don't have to worry about any traffic in our neighborhood which is sooo nice. I was off by 11:00 to get setup at the Banana Split Festival. Our non-profit Little Hearts Big Smiles set up a booth there to raise funds for our fully accessible playground and to raise awareness for children and adults with different abilities (I'm trying not to be so politically correct and use the term disability because I think that it can have negative impacts on the people themselves) so, I'm trying to do better with that. I don't really look at my daughter as having disabilities, it's just that I think that they are different abilities that we've learned to adapt to and that have become pretty normal for us. So, anyway, raising awareness was our goal for the day and I think we were very successful. We raised some $ in the process so it was a great day. I came home to get the kids ready and head back up to actually partake in the festivities. It's tradition around here to go each year and the kids love it...and so do Barry and I. We visited our booth first to see how everything was going and Davis purchased a Marshmallow shooter from the booth next to us. The man, John, had worked next to us all day and was a really great man. He was missing his wife all day as she was at their other booth at Trader's World. He said, "We've been married 38 years and she's my best friend, we just always do this stuff together." I thought he was the neatest man to talk to. It was fun all day watching him demonstrate his homemade marshmallow shooters to all the kids as they passed by. He gave Brei one because he had heard us talking about her all day at the booth and he just had a heart for her. After that we were off to get our yearly grease fix, there seemed to be a lot more food options this year. You can't go wrong with fried Oreos and Werner's BBQ. We were able to support the Knights of Columbus and get our food on (as Barry says). So, here's the really cool part, I bought these fried potato chips and they were Gluten Free so I put them out to see what Breianna thought. Well, it was very exciting to watch her plow through a plate of these chips! It's been very exciting to watch that kid eating so much since we started the B12 injections. We decided to take a break from the food and head over to the inflatables/train rides. The girls really weren't big fans of the inflatables so Davis used up most of the tokens and we rode the big train as a family. That's when Brei spotted the ponies. She couldn't even contain herself, she was so ecstatic to see those ponies that anyone could have understood what she wanted even if she is nonverbal. So, of course as soon as we finished the train ride it was off to the ponies. I could tell right away that Baylie wasn't going to have anything to do with that so Davis and Brei rode while Baylie cheered them on from the sidelines. We were all getting tired but you can't go to the Banana Split Festival and not get your Banana Split. Luckily the lines weren't long when we got to that side of the park and we got in and out pretty quick. Barry and I shared the amazing neopolitan 3 dip split with all the toppings and Davis skipped out on the bananas this year and just had a vanilla/chocolate combo. Baylie had a single and Brei ate half of Barry and I's that we were sharing. Hold up, wait, did I just say, Brei ate half of a Banana Split? Yes, you read correctly, Brei did indeed eat lots of ice cream! How exciting. We decided to meander back over to the Little Hearts Big Smiles booth and help tear down and box up everything. Another successful year at the Split Fest - See you Next Year!