Banana Split Party

Earlier this week I saw a FaceBook link to Ryan's Banana Split Party. If you Google it, you can find it if this link doesn't work for you.

Ryan is a little boy with a fatal heart condition, and his parents created a bucket list to fit as much as possible into his brief but brilliant life. Although having a banana split was on the list, he is too young to eat one. And so his parents are making a simple request: have a banana split party one night for dinner in his honor.

The premise is simple: if you have kids, take one night off from broccoli and cauliflower and instead, enjoy the simple joy of ice cream with them.

If you don't have kids, take one night off from diets and "adult decisions" and lose yourself in a moment of childhood. Rejoice in the experience and wonder why you don't do it more often.

I love this idea for SO many reasons.

First, Ryan's family is taking what could be such a sad moment in life, and using it as an opportunity to rejoice and remind each of us that life is short, so enjoy the hell out of it. Wallow in the good times and make time for joy. All it takes is something simple, like a banana split for dinner.

Second, it is a great little nudge to make time and enjoy your kids. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day drudgery and lose sight of one simple fact: kids are FUN! Make memories with your babies so that you have a wealth of amazing adventures to reminisce over together when they are all grown up. You only have one chance to give them an incredible childhood, so get goin'!

Third and most importantly, it gives us each an AWESOME reason to eat ice cream and feel good about it. What more do you need?

So I challenge you.

Make time tonight (or tomorrow, or both) for a banana split. Take a few moments to rejoice in the life of a little boy that you probably won't ever meet, but who has hopefully touched your life in some small way.

I took two special little monkeys out for a treat, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it even though Bennett only got to gum on a piece banana.

It ended with Sterling jumping up to dance on the table while I was throwing away garbage, and Ben reaching up under my dress to goose me when I reached across the table to peel her off.

See, memories were made. And we enjoyed every gloriously hectic, messy, mayhemy moment :-)

Sterling sizing up her first banana split...

 

And a little "Cheese Face" after everything was all cleaned up :-)