Ben's Brigade2013

This past weekend was our awareness walk.  This was my second year of co-chairing the event, and I admit the job is not getting easier.  I know that seems odd because things tend to get easier the more you do it, and while I agree that is true most of the time, for me it was not.  Second the reason the job got so much harder, is because during the last three years that I have been involved, we have doubled the size of the walk in terms of both money raised and total walkers.  It has been great raising more money and having more walkers.  However, ordering and sorting 1600 t-shirts is a whole different ball game from sorting 750 shirts.  It all requires more volunteers, and those are harder to come by.  But in the end getting bigger is a good problem to have.

We are very proud of our team who continually comes out and supports Ben's Brigade (even on cold mornings like it was on Saturday)  Through fundraising we were able to earn three fact posters that were displayed along the walk. 

 

Ben enjoyed seeing himself in the photos.  

We are always happy to welcome new team members.  This year we were able to welcome a few of Ben's Kindergarten classmates.  I am just sorry that my duties as walk chair prevented me from doing more socializing with my team.  We were also sorry that John had to attend the Harvest of Harmony parade with the school band and had to miss out.  For the first time we were unable to take a family photo at the walk.   Thank you for everyone who supported Ben's Brigade!

2013 Ben's Brigade

 You can support Ben’s Brigade by walking or donating.     There will be food and fun for the whole family with the String Beans, Der Viener Schlinger, Face Painting and much more.

 We are so proud of Ben and all that he has accomplished in the last year.  He loved going to preschool and playing T-ball and working on his reading skills.  He also enjoyed cheering on his brothers at all of their sporting events.  Ben is looking forward to starting Kidergarten at Elmwood Murdock this fall.  Thank you to everyone who has donated in the past and to those who are planning to donate this year.  You are helping to make a difference in the lives of individuals with Down syndrome in our community.

We appreciate everyone's support.
Thank You!

The W Family

Ben's Brigade 2012

This weekend was our local awareness walk. This was my first year co-chairing the event and the day started at 6:45 am and the temperature was at 26 degrees heading for a high of 50. But that is how the weather is in Nebraska. 80 one day and freezing the next. Unfortunately we got the freezing day. But at least the sun was out and the wind was not blowing, so it did not feel that bad.
Other than the weather and some unexpected construction, the event went pretty smoothly.

 A huge thank you to everyone who donated, volunteered, or walked at the event. Ben's brigade raised over $2,000 dollars and we had around 50 walkers. It was a great day and we appreciate all the support we received from family and friends.

 We are thankful to everyone who helped make the walk a huge success !

Step UP for Down Syndrome Walk

Thank you to everyone who has registered or donated to Ben's Brigade for the 2012 Capital City Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk.  Through your generosity, Ben earned 3 fact posters (pictured below) that will be displayed along the walk route at the Step Up Walk on October 6, 2012 in Lincoln NE.  A huge thank you to Erica and Images for a Lifetime for taking such adorable photos and for making the posters for the DSAF.  There will be 98 posters displayed along the walk route featuring 39 different Nebraska children with Down syndrome.   They truly are inspirational.  There is still time to register or donate.  Anyone who registers by Saturday the 15th. will get a free t-shirt with their paid registration. 
Click here to go to Ben's Team page:  

                                              We appreciate everyone's support!

Fifth Time is a Charm

Every year since Ben was born, I have submitted a photo to be shown on the video screen in Times Square in New York, for the National Buddy Walk.  This year his photo was finally chosen! 

Ben will appear in the bright lights of Broadway on Saturday, September 22, as part of the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) annual Times Square Video Presentation, which embodies the NDSS mission to promote the value, acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome.

  

The photo of Ben was selected from over 1,000 entries in the NDSS worldwide call for photos. Over 200 photographs will appear in the video, which will be shown on the News Corporation Sony Screen, located in the heart of Times Square.  

Ben is pictured playing on his big brother’s drum set.  He loves music of all kinds. 

  

The Times Square video presentation kicks off Down Syndrome Awareness Month in October. The video presentation will be followed by the 18th Annual New York City Buddy Walk® in Central Park. This year, Buddy Walk and Step Up Walk events will be held in more than 300 cities across the country, as well as select international locations, in and around October.   

Our own Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk in Lincoln, NE will be held on October 6, 2012.  Here is a link to Ben's Brigades fundraising page.  

Our Little Vampire

We have had a bit of an issue lately with Ben biting his brothers.  Quite a few times last weekend Ben would get very frustrated when his brothers would pick on him or tell him no, and the bite would happen.  It is pretty easy to see it coming.  First he gets mad, does a little growl, starts snapping his teeth and then goes in for the bite.  But boys can be pretty unobservant and not get out of the way. 
This new trend seemed to come out of no where, so I asked school if they have a biter, and they said no. Maybe he saw it on TV, or just tried it once and liked the result? We might not ever know.

Today Noah was playing on his Nintendo DS and would not share with Ben so Ben bit him in the side so hard he actually drew blood. Later when Noah was showing Dad his war wound I heard him ask, " Dad, how old does Ben have to be before I can slug him?" No Noah. No slugging your little brother. He really is more alike than different.
At least we know what not to dress him up as for Halloween this year.

Here are Ben's fact posters that were displayed along the walk route at the Step Up for Down Syndrome walk this year. 

Things have been crazy

Sorry for the delay in blogging.  It has just been very crazy around here.  First we had a couple of storms that went through.  The first one knocked out the power for 12 hours and we lost Internet for a week.  The second one knocked out some barn windows, and took down a lot of tree limbs.  We did not loose power, but we did lose Internet for a day.  Elmwood and Murdock were both hit hard, and they even called off school for a day.   Here is a picture of the barn minus a few windows.

The big boys have been playing football.  John is playing center on the 5th and 6th grade team.  They are 2 and 1 right now. Here is a picture of him about to snap the ball.

Noah is playing tight end and is trying quarterback a little.  He likes it a lot.  His team is 3 and 0.

Ben was enjoying one of the football games by having a nice cat nap.  Unfortunately we scored and the nap was cut short by all the cheering.  He has been fighting a respiratory infection and it got him down a bit this week.  Got some antibiotic yesterday and it seems to be helping a lot.  Now if I can just figure out how to get him to take it without having Randy hold him down while I try to squirt it down the back of his throat without choking him or having him spit it all out.  If he could just realize that taking it was what made him feel better. 

 Last week I went to Cincinnati for work.  Here is a picture of my work team.  This was the first time we have been all together in one location.  It was a good trip, but it was very tiring.  We got to go to an Ikea store while we were there.  I did not realize how cool it would be.  All three of us ended up bringing home light fixtures of some kind.  Randy already has mine installed in the basement.  It was worth all the worry and repacking I had to do to carry it on the plane on the way home. 

 

I have also been trying to help out the DSAF group by doing some web support for the Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk.  We have had a few issues with registration and getting the t-shirts ordered.  Hopefully it is all straightened out now, as the walk is next weekend.  I am so proud of everyone who have stepped up to help out.  Ben's Brigade has raised,  almost $1500 and we will have around 45 walkers between Ben's Brigade and the Elmwood/Murdock School team.  Thank you to everyone who has helped out.

Come on Down and Join in the Fun........The Nebraska State Fair.

Today we went to the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island, so John could do his Power Point Presentation.  He already won Grand Champion at the county fair with the presentation and now it was time to do it again at the State Fair.  The title of his presentation is "Will You Step Up for Down Syndrome".  He did awesome. He got a purple ribbon.   I think having 2 hours in the car to perfect it helped.  Here are the screen shots from his presentation:

 

Here is a picture of John with his Creative Mix Cookies that also got a purple.   They were made with a devils food cake mix and have a white chocolate drizzle on them.  They were yummy!  The ones left at home are long gone.  The best part is that now John can make the cookies next time we have to take some for school!

Noah got to have some fun too.  Here he is catching a pass from former Husker Player Eric Crouch.  The funniest part was that the boys had no idea who he was while they were doing the little obstacle course.  I asked them how it was to catch a pass from the former Husker Quarterback and they all looked at me like I was nuts.  After going back to take a look they figured out who it was.  They thought it was pretty cool.

He also got to milk a pretend cow.   I told him after seeing the way he was going about it,  he would have been kicked in the head by that cow if it had been real.

Ben got to enjoy the fair too.  He liked petting the goats.  But it was just too much for him.

On the way home we stopped at Chances R in York.  It was delicious.  Maybe going all the way to Grand Island to visit the State Fair isn't so bad after all.  Our first year attending there was pretty good.