Having fun with her table while Mommy helps her practice standing.

Eating pasta

Giving Kristen from Bay Ridge Cares, who hosted us for brunch, some of her famous snuggles.

So cute in these PJs!

Hi all – Some of the folks from Bay Ridge Cares, the local organization in our neighborhood who is organizing a fundraiser for Sally, invited us to join them for brunch today so we could get to know them. These are individuals from the neighborhood whom we’ve never met, yet between the fundraiser and setting up the meal train have done so much for our family and we really needed a a good excuse to meet them. We enjoyed tasty food while all the kids played and they told us about the plans for the fundraiser. Sally gave her approval by snuggling with Kristen, the host of the brunch. Sally rarely goes to strangers anymore yet went right to her without a sound. Probably also a thanks on behalf of her Daddy for all of the stupid questions I’ve asked about the event over the last month.

It will be held on October 5th from 2-5pm at the Wicked Monk on 3rd Avenue and 95th Street in Brooklyn from 2-5pm. It’s at the end of the famous Ragamuffin Parade (http://ragamuffinparadeny.com/) which for almost 50 years entails all of the kids from the surrounding neighborhoods getting dressed up in their Halloween costumes and marching down 3rd Avenue. Thousands participate and is a lot of fun. Wicked Monk is located right at the end of the parade route and the thought is many will continue onto the fundraiser to support Sally. There will be activities for kids, as well as food and drinks. Drinks being for the parents who just shlepped their kids for almost a mile.

$10 includes a drink ticket and lite fare, $5 for kids over 12, under 12 is free! There will also be a gift auction and raffles that contain some incredible prizes including two tickets to a taping of the Rachel Ray Show, gift certificates and other great stuff. When Bay Ridge Cares first offered to put this on, we asked if it could be something kid friendly as we wanted Thomas and William to feel included helping their sister.  This sounds like a good mix of being both adult and kid friendly for anybody that wants to support Sally. Details can be found on the event’s Facebook page: http://goo.gl/DRRk69

We overstayed our welcome at brunch, it was great to be out somewhere as a family in a warm and comforting environment, and the kids enjoyed playing with each other. Afterwards, Nicole headed home with Sally and I took the boys to a small carnival taking place around the corner from our apartment where we again bumped into old friends and made new ones who have been following the blog. I bought a bunch of ride tickets for the boys, but 10 minutes later the woman who sold them to me said she was a friend of Nicole’s who wanted to pay for the rides as she couldn’t make the McFadden’s fundraiser. I tried to refuse but she wouldn’t let me, to which I said I would spend the money letting the boys play games as the carnival was a fundraiser for a local church. Of course William somehow managed to throw two ping pong balls into fish bowls (which I picked this game thinking they’d never win) and we won these damn things:

Other than that, it was a quiet afternoon, we ate a fun hastily prepared dinner together, including Sally who munched on some pasta and sat in her highchair for an hour. Tomorrow she starts the next cycle of chemo and will undergo a spinal tap. Nicole and I both think she may be low on hemoglobin as her skin color is pale and she has darkness under her eyes, so won’t be surprised if she needs a transfusion. Nicole explained the next cycle to me, but being a visual person I need to look at the diagram before explaining it in digestible terms. Overall, it should have Sally spending less time in the hospital than she has been if all goes to plan, but we aren’t going to let our hopes get up just yet.

Please keep Sally in your thoughts and prayers as she starts this new cycle tomorrow.

Matt