Ryan's Banana Split Party

I don't know how much this story has made it around yet, but a friend of mine posted it on Facebook today and I decided we should join in the fun.

The basic back story is that Ryan Roberts is a 21 month old who has Down Syndrome and a heart defect. After multiple surgeries, his parents recently signed a DNR for him.  He is not expected to live beyond his toddler years. His family has been offered support from a lot of different people, and her response was,"just go create a memory with your kids. Just go put a banana split down in front of your kids for dinner and watch their faces light up. No chicken, rice and broccoli tonight, just ice cream. They're going to remember that forever.”

Obviously the banana split comment may have been an off the cuff suggestion for creating a fun moment but it's become a literal thing and the Banana Split Party has a FB group to help spread the word.

I read about it when we were out running errands and after what should have been our last stop I told my kids we had to make one more stop - to the supermarket to get stuff for dinner. My daughter was surprised, normally I do all my shopping on Sunday and plan for the week. I told them the whole story, and off we went to pick out ice cream and toppings.

As excited as they were about the whole idea (I'm usually pretty strict about eating balanced meals), they also did talk about how sad it must be for Ryan and his family to know that he will not reach most of the milestones the rest of us take for granted, and how while there are plenty of rules we all need to live by, we also need to enjoy life.

So last night to kick off the official start of summer, my kids splashed around in their little pool and had banana splits for dinner (well, I guess technically they are ice cream sundaes, but I don't have the special banana split bowls).

If you're hearing about this for the first time, don't worry, any night is a good night for a banana split dinner, so why not tonight?