Photo-A-Day #3296

Larry Carroll is a strong Dad. You may not know his name, yet. But, I am thinking that you will. Larry was in college with me, he was a year behind me and he was a funny, friendly guy. He wrote an arts and entertainment column in our school newspaper which was often the highlight of the publication, at least for me. Always one in a baseball cap with a big wide smile. He was a guy you enjoyed being around.

On April 4th tragedy struck Larry’s family. His precious 2 1/2 year old daughter, Savannah died unexpectedly in her sleep. In this moment of heartbreak and sorrow he decided to do something about it. He started a Fundly fund in honor of “Savvy”. Larry would randomly do special little outings or things with his daughter. He called those Stolen Moments. The purpose of the Fundly fund is to provide a Stolen moment for a little girl. Give her something that he and his wife will never be able to give Savvy. Please read the Savannah’s Stolen Moments Campaign and consider donating. In the past 13 days the fund has grown to over $80,000. Larry has stated that $10,000 is for the chosen girl’s family to provide her with a very special stolen moment. anything above that is for a mandatory college fund for that chosen girl.

What an incredible response to personal tragedy.

Larry is also encouraging parents to share their special “StolenMoments with their children on Social Media.

Today Eva had a half day from school and I decided that we’d give her and Andrew a special stolen moment. I picked Eva up from school and took her to Tex Barry’s Coney Island Hot Dogs for lunch. Actually we walked in and decided to walk out and wait for Allison. She was walking from home with Andrew in the stroller. While we waited I let Eva play with my Samsung Cameras. she loves taking photos and is such a silly goof about it. I love it.

Allison arrived and I went in to Tex Barry’s and picked up a bunch of dogs for everyone. We ate at the picnic tables at the Balfour Riverwalk. Andrew inhaled his nearly whole (the kid is an animal). Allison and I had our dogs all the way and they tasted great. Eva enjoyed hers plain and wanted another and barely touched the small bite I tried to give her of the all the way one. I had also gotten cookies so she was good with the one dog.

We walked over to the play one of the two jungle gyms. The kids love jungle gyms. Andrew is fearless and climbing is his thing. He’s one that you have to watch because he’ll try anything. Eva you have to watch as well because she isn’t as confident until she actually does the thing she was trying to accomplish. We played there for a while and then moved on to the smaller Jungle Gym. The kids had fun crawling through the tunnels there. Here are a few photos from our playground adventure.

When we came home from the park The kids and I played with some Crayola Colored bubbles. these are messy outdoor bubbles. I thought that Eva would really like playing with them but she was not that trilled with getting messy. We may try these again sometime at the beach or something. So instead I got some regular bubbles and the kids had fun chasing those and eating their cookies.

My heart certainly goes out to Larry and his family and I am hugging the kids tighter and trying to be a little more patient with both of them. Andrew especially. Trying to gather a few more stolen moments with each of them.