Weeeeee! It's IEP week.

It's IEP week for one of my sons. We have 2 special needs kids, so we have the pleasure of experiencing 2 IEP weeks every year. If you have a special needs child, you know this can be a challenging week. You say you don't know what an IEP is? Let me enlighten you. Grab yourself comfort food  (chocolate for me) or drink of your choice, and read on.

In a nut shell, an IEP is a legal document that clearly spells out what type of services your child will receive, and why. The IEP has a way of picking apart your child that you love more than life itself. It sheds a glaring spotlight on every academic deficiency or developmental delay. It does this in the hope that we can all come up with a plan that will help the child reach their full potential. IEP meetings are not for the faint at heart. It's gut check time. You really are forced to come to terms with some pretty difficult facts about your child's development.

On this week, I become painfully aware of the things that my child can't do. Now, I'm a glass half full type of person. I like to focus on what is right. IEPs focus on what is wrong. Needless to say, it's difficult to take at times. It can make you down right scared for what is down the road.  Imagine walking down the street, totally happy and content with life. Then out of the bushes, someone jumps out and punches you in the face. That punch is the IEP. Yay, right?

But the suckage doesn't end there, folks. While you have to sit there and flip through this report of what your child can't do, you are surrounded by the world, who are eager to tell you about how successful their child is. Normally, I love to hear these stories. I want to pump my fist in the air when little (insert child's name) is a Rhodes scholar. But on this week, I want to punch my fist in another direction.

This week, I have endured multiple stories of  a son getting full scholarships from Harvard, a daughter who is the next Doogie Howser, a 1st grader who just solved some scientific mystery, a 5 year old who mastered advanced calculus, and OMG an infant who just learned how to speak  Russian. Wow. Your kids are awesome. Ok, I'm exaggerating. In reality, the kid did well on the SAT, or  won a science competition. In any event, it's something that my child can't experience right now. And that hurts. . I'm normally so very happy for you and your child. But this week, I am struggling. I just can't cheer this week. I feel bad about this. I'm a Christian, and realize that envy is bad. But the fact remains that I struggle with it this week. Because I love my sons so much, I don't want them to struggle.

Right now, my heart aches. My child has to work so hard to overcome his diagnosis. This week, I need to focus on that. It requires all my energy. It's part of the process. Sometimes that process includes tears. And chocolate. There's always chocolate.

You know what else is part of the process?  Excellent educators, who work hard to prepare my sons for the future. And my boys, who continue to work hard, with no complaints. Ok, there is some complaining. But they do work hard every day. I believe in my boys. I know they have yet to meet their full potential. They are making improvements. With every IEP, there is proof of that. But the road is hard.

So on this, the eleventh year of IEPs, I say this. Screw you, IEP week. Just screw you.  Now where did I put my chocolate?

It's zero degrees. Let's go to Lego Discovery!

An arctic blast made it's way to Kansas. How cold did it get? How about 0 degrees?  And that wasn't the lowest temperature of the day.

Now that's cold. Ironically, we were in sub zero degree weather before in California. Mammoth Mountain gets way more snow, and is colder than our beloved Kansas. On this cold day, we decided to head out to Discovery Lego. I did what their website suggested, and prepaid for tickets to avoid standing in line. Yeah, right! In reality, not only did we still have to stand in line. We had to stand in line OUTSIDE! WTH?! Fortunately for us, it was a short line. Unfortunately for the man in front of us, he didn't bring a coat. Who doesn't bring a coat in freezing weather?

It was finally our turn to show our confirmation and pick up our tickets at the counter. The tickets were $58, but I decided to add activity passes to the kids, so add another $8 to the total. The activity pass was la scavenger hunt, with a lanyard with plastic cards attached. Each card represented a different thing you had to find throughout the building. Find the location, get a stamp, then move on. At the end of it all, the kids would get a Lego minifigure.

So here we go. Photo op time. Attack of the falling Legos.

It's Lego Batman!

We made our way into the building and came across the Lego Factory. Honestly, it was just a few displays, but the kids had fun weighing each other, and seeing how many Legos equaled their weight.

We moved on to the first of two rides. Kingdom Quest had a medieval theme. We were greeted by this guy.

Kingdom Quest was a laser game ride. It reminded me so much of Toy Story Mania at Disney World. Except this ride was shorter, had a Lego theme, and the laser guns weren't very accurate. I mean, I'm totally blaming my laser gun on the fact that my score sucked.

We headed over to the 3d movie theater. We wanted to see Lego Chima, but they were showing some other movie. The kids still enjoyed it.

Next up, another ride. Merlin's apprentice was similar to Aladdin's Flying Carpets in Disney World. Except, no carpets, no spitting camels. We sent the kids on this ride on their own. This usually makes me nervous, because Noah often has trouble understanding instructions. But Nik was with him, and he is an excellent big brother.

This is the best photo I could take. Think small boat going around in circles, with the riders controlling the up and down motion of the boat. Except Nik and Noah decided not to raise their boat into the air. They wanted a more leisure ride.

This guy was hanging around outside the ride. Loitering, no doubt.

We walked through the Lego village. Now, this is a pale comparison to Legoland in California, but beggars can't be choosers. It's fun to observe all the details of all the buildings.

Go Chiefs!

The best part was the Wizard of Oz display.

We made it to Emerald City!

That is Dorothy and gang inside.

Spinning Auntie Em's house.

OMG! The witch's castle!

And yes, there was a melting witch. 

Next up was the build a race car. We tried to build some, but the pieces were hard to find, and it was so packed. 

The kids got frustrated, so we walked back over to see if Lego Chima was playing. Yay! It was the next movie. They loved the movie. After that, we completed the last steps of the scavenger hunt, then went to collect their mini figures. We had seen and done it all, so we headed back to the car. It was still freezing cold, but I did snap a photo of the Christmas tree, along with some crazies ice skating in the cold.

 And that was the end of another successful outing.

There's no place like home! There's no place like home!

It was finally time to return home. While we love visiting family and friends, we were all looking forward to getting back to our routines.  We had a late afternoon flight, so we spent the early part of the day just enjoying the company of family. My in laws are such awesome people. It's hard to say goodbye. And of course, it's hard to say goodbye to my mom, sister and nephew.

We got to LAX (I hate that airport), only to find out that our "on time" flight, was actually delayed. Ahhhh. We checked our bags and got into the loooooooooong security line. Ah, the holidays. You gotta love it. Since our flight was delayed, we patiently waited in the mega line. The kids were so patient.

Once we cleared security, we just plopped down at our gate and relaxed. Look at my boys, taking the delay in stride. Take that, autism!

The kids loved their candy treats from Aunt Donna.

Our flight eventually did leave. We did have quite a bit of turbulence, but my veteran flyers weren't scared.

We finally did make it home at midnight. The kids wanted to open up their presents. Here's a 

sampling of what they opened. The white horse is from Noah to Nik. He bought it himself and was so proud.

So what did they get? An assortment of video games, money, movie tickets, gift cards, clothes, Lego, etc.

                                     

And this is what Noah bought for me. Alex got a frog. :)

The "Santa" present. They loved it!

No matter how much we spend on the kids, they always love the $2 gifts more than anything else. 

What a great trip! More opportunities for the boys to grow. And more opportunities for us to marvel at progress.

Dinosaurs and a hat

This was our last full day in LA. We had plans to meet up with my mom, go to the movies, then have lunch at The Hat. I called mom to give her a pick up time, but she informed me she was sick. :( Apparently, she had developed a sore throat, had chills and felt pretty crummy. She did not want to get us sick, assured me that she was stocked with plenty of soup, medicine, and tissue. Then she ordered me not to go near her. :(

We were sad to not have another visit. But we decided to still carry on with the rest of our plans. The kids wanted to see Walking with Dinosaurs. Oh look, a photo op.

 The movie was fine. And by fine, I mean that I didn't fall asleep. If you hear me say that I didn't fall asleep in a kids movie, that's the equivalent to Siskel and Eberts two thumbs up.
The kids really enjoyed the movie. You can't go wrong with dinosaurs with my kids. After the movie, we headed to The Hat. This place is junk food Heaven. I ate many high school meals at this joint.  So good!

OMG! The Hat!

Since it was in the high 70's (in the winter!!!), we decided to sit outside.

Here is just a sampling of what we ate. Cheeseburgers and chili fries. 

After lunch, we decided to high tail it back to the in laws before rush hour. Traffic starts early in Southern California. As we were driving back, I spotted the San Gabriel mountains. When we still lived here, Alex and I had a perfect view of these mountains from my home. I rag on California allot. Mostly because it really is not suited for my family. Special education is pretty bad there. The traffic is a nightmare. Homes are ridiculously overpriced. Smog. A lack of four seasons (I love fall foliage and a good winter snow storm). And people are not as friendly. I mean, who wants to be friendly after sitting in traffic for an hour? But there is some beauty to the state.

Hakuna Matata!

When we decided to visit LA over the holiday, I checked to see if ant good musicals would be in town. As luck would have it, The Lion King is touring, and had performances during our visit. I booked our tickets a couple months early. I was not able to find any discount codes, so had to pay full price. At $112 a ticket, it wasn't cheap, but we were only 10 rows from the stage. A few weeks later, my sister, nephew and mom decided to see the show. The closest seats were only 2 rows behind us.

The boys had really enjoyed our previous Broadway musicals, so they were very excited to see Lion King. To get a jump on LA's horrible traffic, Alex and I decided to head over to Hollywood at 3. We figured we could walk around a bit, eat at world famous Pink's hot dogs, then head to the Pantages Theater. We did run in to some traffic, but it was light by LA standards.

We got to Hollywood in 1 hour. Believe me when I say that is fast. Oh look, here's glamorous Hollywood.

We did get a bit of street traffic. Hey, there's the Hollywood sign!

We made our way over to Pink's. This is one of those fast food joints where you can find yourself in line with either a tourist from Ohio, or George Lopez. This place gets crazy packed.

See what I mean? It was a long line. This night, it was filled with Ohioans, not George Lopezins. Yeah, that's a word! Anyway, we waited in line for an hour. Can I just give a shout out to my sons? They were so patient in line, despite the fact that we were standing in a long line, and on a busy/loud intersection.

When it was finally our turn, we ordered an assortment of hamburgers and chili dogs, plus sodas. It came out to $26.  We sat at the outdoor patio and enjoyed our junk food. Was it worth standing in line for an hour? Hell yeah! My boys patiently stood in that line.  Boom! Learning opportunity right there.  Mastering the fine art of waiting patiently is something that our family could not do a few years ago. So yay us!

By the time we had finished dinner, it was time to meet up with the rest of my family at Pantages Theater. We paid $20 to park (OMG!), then looked for my family at the front of the theater. 

We had time to kill before the doors opened, so I bought a program for the boys, then checked out some of the stars. Aaaaaeeeeyyyy! It's the Fonze!

One the doors opened, we headed inside. I had read that the Pantages does not allow photography, but everyone was taking pictures. I had left my camera at my in-laws house, so all I have are bad cell 

phone pictures. They don't do this place justice. The theater was gorgeous. It was built in 1930, and was the home of the Academy Awards for many years.

We walked around for a bit just to soak in the atmosphere. Of course, we made a stop at the souvenir stand. $65 for 3 Lion King stuffed animals. It was getting closer to curtain call, so we headed to the orchestra area. We spotted Lion King masks and snapped a quick photo.

We had great seats, only 10 rows back. Check out the beautiful interior of the theater.

My mom, sister, nephew and niece were just a couple rows behind us.

And the stage before show time.

The show was excellent. I did let the kids wear their noise reducing headphones. I gave them the option to not wear them, but once the music started, they both put their headphones on.  My favorite part was just watching my kids leaning forward in their chairs, with the look of pure joy on their 

faces. What a night.

It was 10:30 when the show ended, so we just headed home. We did get a nice view of downtown. 

And still some traffic.

Tomorrow, The Hat and a movie.