Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Happy Birthday!

It is official!  My hubby is old!  
To help him celebrate, I made a little poster to take to his work.  Randy's parents gave him the balloons and a few other over the hill items to make the display complete.  He is not one to do much to celebrate big days, but he was a good sport about the poster.   Now to keep Noah and Ben out of the candy!
Happy Birthday, Big Fella!

Sorry the poster is so hard to read.  It says.  Turning another year older is nothing to "Sinicker" about, Do you feel like a "Butterfinger"?  Does your mind play "Twix" on you?  Do your bones "Krackel and Crunch".  Don't worry, we still think you are worth "100 Grand".  We love you to the "Milky Way" and Back.  So celebrate "Extra".  Love your "Smarty" pants wife, and little "Air Heads"

 

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Support Down Syndrome Research and Get Great Educational Products at the Same Time!

October is also Down syndrome awareness month. As a mother of a child with Down syndrome and a Barefoot Books Ambassador and Signing Time Instructor, this topic is near and dear to my heart.  Signing Time and Barefoot Books have played a huge roll in Ben's life.  Signing Time helped teach him to read before he turned three and Barefoot Books help keep him interested in reading.    To help give back, during the entire month of October 2014, I will donated a portion of my online and in person sales from ABC Barefoot Kids  and ABC Signing Kids to the LuMind Foundation for Down Syndrome Cognition Research (formerly DSRTF).

So why Down Syndrome research? In August 2014, our local Down syndrome support group, welcomed a special guest at our parent's night out event.    William C. Mobley is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosciences at UCSD. He also serves as Executive Director of UCSD's Down Syndrome Center for Research and Treatment. and the Florence Riford Chair of Alzheimer Disease Research.   At this event Dr. Mobley shared with us some news of his fascinating research and let us know just how close we are to having a drug available to help prevent Alzheimer's not only in the Down syndrome population, but in the general population as well.  It helped me to realize just how much research is going on that will benefit our kids, and how much funding is needed to help keep this research on track. 
I chose the Lumind foundation because it supports lots of different research opportunities to benefit the Down syndrome community. 
The LuMind Foundation founders are committed to opening doors for people with Down syndrome. They established the LuMind Foundation in 2004 to identify and fund the most promising lines of cognitive development research.
So if you would like to join me in supporting Down syndrome research and could use some award winning children's books or Sign Language DVD's, Books, or Flashcards  to help fuel you child's passion for reading or to help them communicate before they are ready to speak, please use one of the following links to start shopping now:

Thank you for Supporting Ben's Brigade!


Thank you to everyone who helped our family raise over $1,600 This was my final year of chairing the event.  The Down Syndrome Walk has grown significantly over the last 4 years that I have been involved.  I am proud to be part of a group of parents who worked together to grow the group to the organization it is today.  However, all the change and growth experience did not happen with out a lot of hard work, and I am ready to pass on my part of that job to others.  
Here are some photos showing the fun we had on Saturday.