With great power, comes great cosplay, or something like that. Kansas City Comicon 2014.

My blog is a year old. It all started because of Planet Comicon 2013. We had so much fun, that we decided to return for 2014. This year, there was a heavy Star Trek appearance list. And there were a few other appearances that interested the kids.  The last day of school before spring break, also coincided with the day that I picked up our wristbands.

Planet Comicon, here we come!

This year, both of the kids wanted to cosplay. What is a cosplayer, you ask? It is a person who dresses up and takes on the personality of a particular character from a tv, movie, comic book, or video game. 

Nik decided that he wanted to wear his Power Ranger costume. One of the Power Ranger actors was scheduled to make an appearance, so this came as no surprise. Noah wanted to wear a Superman costume. He no longer fits into the kids costume, so I had to order an adult version on line. Thank you, Amazon Prime! The costume arrived a couple days before the convention, and with a little roll of the sleeves and pants, it fit!

Noah as Superman!

Now that we knew what to expect from the convention, we made sure to arrive an hour early. Apparently, Trekkies like to arrive early, because there was already a very long line waiting to get in. We took our place in line, and patiently waited. Did I say patiently waited with two kids living with autism? Why yes, I did. The beauty of waiting around in a Comicon line, is that there is always something interesting to see. 

My boys rockin' the Comicon costumes.

It's the 501st Legion!

Every Comicon convention must have an appearance by the local 501st Legion. 501st Legion is a world wide organization of Star Wars fans. These are more than just hard core Star Wars fans. In order to join, your costume must meet very strict guidelines, right down to the dings in the bounty hunters helmets. But the real beauty in this organization, is that it has participated in events that have raised over $14 million for charity worldwide. 

As we waited in line, the 501st started to get into formation to prepare to enter the convention. So before I go on, let me tell you about a school assignment that Noah had. His teacher and her band of paras really think outside the box when they are teaching the kids in their class. They are an awesome group of ladies, because they do such a nice balance between educating, and making it fun and interesting. The assignment was to explore hobbies. He was asked to go out during spring break, and try out photography. So when the 501st started to line up, we handed over the camera to Noah and he went nuts. Here are his first shots.

 

                                                          Jawa and Tuskan Raider          

                                                             Admiral Ackbar. It's a trap!

                                                 501st Legion getting into formation.

The baddest bad guys are in the house.

More Star Wars awesomeness.

Once the line started moving, we were inside the convention in about 10 minutes. The line was long, but it moved quickly. First things, first. We headed straight to celebrity row to meet Blue Ranger, David Yost, aka Billy. The line wasn't too long, but we did have a short wait. While waiting, we noticed the line for Sylvester McCoy. He played Doctor Who (thank you, Marika!), and also played Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit. Sylvester's line was really long. Doctor Who and Hobbit fans are pretty loyal. Noah spotted a Radagast cosplayer in line. 

Noah picked up his camera and snapped a picture of the Radagast cosplayer in line. He is the dude in long hair and long brown coat. His costume was amazing, but you had to see it from the front. When the guy got to meet Sylvester McCoy, you could hear how impressed he was with the costume. It was cool.

Radagast, as photographed by Noah.

It was finally our turn to meet David Yost. Nik is a big Power Ranger fan, so he was excited about this. And the guy was pretty nice. He asked the kids what their names were, and autographed a picture. Nik told him he was his biggest fan, and Noah said so was he. Then David Yost let them take a picture with him. He even let Nik and Noah hold props from the show! Now, I say let, but we paid for this luxury. $20 for autograph and $20 for the picture. And I saw no problem with that. This is how these guys make money, and it give the fans a great opportunity to meet them. So I happily paid the $40. 

Autographed picture of Billy, the Blue Ranger.

Check out Nik, flexing those muscles.

I wanted to hit the Sylvester McCoy line, but it was pretty long and the kids didn't express a huge desire to see him, so we moved on. John Ratzenberger was another actor they wanted to meet. John was the voice of Ham in Toy Story, the Yeti in Monster's Inc, Mack in Cars, he has been in every Pixar movie. You may know him as Cliff in Cheers. He wasn't at his booth yet, so we headed over to the exhibit alley to check out the merchandise.

This is my favorite part of Comicon. No, not the shopping. It is the people watching. Some people really go all out on their cosplay. 

Chewbacca, as photographed by Noah.

Noah and a Gremlin.

There was a Lego table. It had a big crowd in front of it, but my little Superman was able to snap this picture.

Photo by Noah. Hey, is that a hidden Mickey?

There was a dj playing music, so a couple of cosplayers decided to have a dance off. 

Cosplay awesomeness!

There was so much merchandise for sale. We could have spent a fortune, but showed some restraint. And by we, I mean me. I could have spent allot of money there. The kids were given free reign on what to buy. They picked an assortment of action figures, comic books. plush characters, shirts, etc. I think we ended up spending less than $300. 

Along the way, Noah spotted his hero, Spider-Man. He still had his camera, so he snapped a picture as Spider-Man posed for him.

With great power, comes great cosplay, or something like that.

Noah spotted a couple of cosplayers dressed as characters from Predator. He snapped a picture as they walked around. Note that these costumes are mostly made by hand by the cosplayers. BY. HAND! You really have to see these costumes in person to appreciate the talent. Ok, so I cheated by buying store made costumes. I don't have a sewing machine, people.

Predator, as photographed by Noah.

Noah was thoroughly his role as photographer. He would pick out what he wanted to photograph and snap away, with a big smile on his face. He just loved it. Allot of his shots came out blurry due to hand shake, but that is something we can teach him to avoid. Even his old mom has that problem. 

By this time, we were all getting a bit hungry, so we hit the good court. This years selection was better than last year. $30 for burgers and hot dogs. That wasn't too expensive, considering where we were. They served Pepsi, instead of Coke, but we forgive them. 

After lunch, we let the kids go to the bathroom. This meant taking off the costumes. No way we wanted them to get those dirty in a public restroom. Alex helped them out, and we were able to keep the costumes nice and clean. But Nik did not want to put his costume back on. No problem. They had clothes on underneath. 

We walked by to see if John Ratzenberger was at his booth. He was!  So we paid the $40 fee to get a picture taken with him. We had to stand in the line and wait. While in line, Noah noticed that a Bane cosplayer was standing in front of us. Bane is the enemy of Batman, in case you didn't know. Maybe I should have drawn a nerd diagram for this blog post? Bane turned around and said something in character to Noah. To our surprise, Noah talked right back, also in character. OMG Noah was cosplaying! After a minute, Bane turned back to face forward and Noah shouted "Don't turn your back on me, Bane!" LOL It was hilarious. I should have taken a picture or video, but I was too busy enjoying this awesome exchange. I don't know what it is about Comicon's and costumes, but Noah totally comes alive at these events. He seems to love to perform. He was talking up a storm to random people we came across. It was great to see.

Finally, it was our turn to meet John Ratzenberger. I should say, it was Nik and Noah's turn. $40 was only for 2 people in the picture. They did let me walk into the area so I could help Noah. John Ratzenberger said hello to them. After the picture, Noah started to rattle off various lines from the movies that John has been in. I think this confused the actor for a second, because he had this puzzled look on his face. Anyway, it was a quick, but pleasant exchange. There was a line behind us, so I took Noah by the hand to get him to move along. 

After that, we did more people watching. Apparently, Darth Vader was preparing lunch for the 501st Legion. I hate Jar Jar Binks too, Darth.

Check out Nik with Darth's lighsaber spatula.

We wanted to check out some of the panel discussions, but there was a very long line to get to the room. I figured out that this was for Sylvester McCoy's presentation. Sorry we missed it, because I read a revue from a comicon fan that said it was one of the best presentations ever. Well, we would have never made it into the presentation by the looks of that long line. Oh well.

We did get to see the kids costume contest. We did not sign our boys up. I wouldn't have the nerve to do that with a store bought costume. Some of the kids costumes were amazing, and some were nothing to write home about. But the audience gave a nice round of applause for each kid, so that was nice. 

After the contest was over, we headed back into the convention hall. Did you know that there is an R2D2 building club? Well, there is. This R2 unit roamed around the convention floor and led us right to the 501st Legion's table.  

R2 as photographed by Noah.

Alex and Nik checking out the merchandise. 

The 501st area was Star Wars Heaven. Just look at all the characters! The next 3 pictures are all Noah. Go Noah!

Needless to say, we were loving this! There were characters everywhere. Darth Vader tried to force choke Noah at first, but Noah wasn't digging it.

 Check out this awesome custom Star Wars truck. There was so much detail. Right down to the carbonite Han Solo in the back. So cool!

Then this happened. Nik and Noah got to kick some 501st butt! Major kudos to these Legion members, who had Noah do a fake punch, and Nik pose with the light saber. Look at those smiles! This was definitely a highlight.

Check out Noah's glare at the Emperor's royal guard. Back off, dude!

After the excitement of taking on the Dark Side, we needed a cotton candy break.

Then it was more people watching. On our way back to Exhibit alley, we ran into My Little Pony. At least, I think that's who this is.

My bronies. It's a thing. Google it.

The adult costume contest registration had ended, so the more elaborate cosplayers were coming out onto the convention floor. 

The makeup on this guy was amazing.

Noah and a dwarf from The Hobbit. Not sure why Nik didn't want to get in on some of the pictures.

Alien! This costume was awesome!

We saw a huge crowd forming, and quickly figured out why. Some of the super hero cosplayers were out on the floor with a Stan Lee look alike. I wonder how many hours they put into building their costumes?

We spotted one of Noah's favorite villains, Loki. Noah chased after him. Before he could catch him, he had a run in with a Jawa.

Boy meets Jawa.

Finally, he caught up to Loki. The cosplayer was very nice and patiently posed with Noah. Noah just loved it. 

At that point, Noah started to ask where Tree Trunks was. He stopped random cosplayers and asked them if they had seen Tree Trunks. I had no idea what that meant, until another cosplayer told me that it was a green elephant character. So we went looking from booth to booth, until we finally found it. Of course, Noah wanted to buy it. We let both kids pick out their last item for the day. After the excitement chasing down Tree Trunks, we were all beginning to run out of steam. And with still 3 hours to kill before the adult costume contest, we decided that it was time to head home.

My tired, but happy cosplayers.

And some of our loot. There is Tree Trunks, in the middle of the picture. 

My closing thoughts on a great day. It's just another reminder not to give up in the tough times. It was not so long ago, that we could not have enjoyed something like this as a family. The event would have totally overwhelmed the kids a few years ago. The crowd, the noise, the standing in line. It would have been melt down after melt down. I feel so blessed to be able to experience these things with my family, and to see how happy they are. Alex and I are doing a pretty good job with our boys, if I do say so myself!

It's National Dress in Blue Day!

In case you didn't know (and I didn't until a couple weeks ago), today is National Dress in Blue Day. What is it? Well, the point is to draw attention to a very important cause. Did you know that colon cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths? Did you know that 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with colon cancer each year? And did you know that colon cancer often has no symptoms util it has reached advanced stages? You can reduce your risk by getting screenings beginning at age 50.

In honor of an awesome teacher, Nik decided to make National Dress in Blue Day a bit fun. Meet Uncancer Man. Uncancer Man will be spreading the word that screenings are important in the battle against colon cancer. Are you 50 years or older? Uncancer Man says to love your butt. Get screened.

How House of Cards calmed my storm.

I have not posted in a while.  I just haven't had it in me for a couple of reasons. 1. My desktop finally bit the dust. Pour one out for my homie Dell desktop. RIP, you out dated, move at a snail pace desktop. I mean, it had Windows XP, people!
2. It feels like so many people around me are struggling. Maybe it's the age of my friends and I? People are losing parents, or coping with aging parents. Others are coming to the realization that it's time to change career paths. And there are others who are coping with serious illnesses. It really does seem so dark right now. I normally try to find the joy in everything. But this has all left me feeling like some bully just kicked the chair out from under me. In a nut shell, I have been in a funk.

I am blessed with the most awesome job in the world. A big part of that job involves me simplifying scripture in a way for children to understand. I was working on curriculum to teach how Jesus calms the storm. I began to work on a craft to bring the point home. I sketched waves onto blue card stock, punched a hole through a paper boat and the blue card stock. I applied the boat to the card stock with a brad. I glued a picture of Jesus behind the boat. In the picture, Jesus has his hand out to calm the storm. As I rocked the boat on the card stock to see how it looked, I thought about ways to communicate to my kids on how Jesus can calm their own storm. And it brought me back to my current frame of mind.

How is Jesus calming the storm of so many people that I care about? They are struggling through illness, problems with jobs, death, financial struggles. How is Jesus calming my storm? Things seem so sad, so turned upside down for many people. I want reassurance that everything will be ok. Where is my calm?

I plopped down on the sofa for a good "feel sorry for myself and binge watch a tv show on Netflix" session. I started watching House of Cards. I was hooked from episode 1. It is so good. Two hours later, I was still watching. I finally had to stop, because the kids were coming home. But I could have kept going. The show is not a comedy. It's political, the people are down right repulsive and with few redeeming qualities. But for a brief period, I had peace. It was an escape from my own worries. House of a Cards calmed my storm.

Ok, I may be over simplifying things. And maybe it's silly or offensive to some when I say that a tv show calmed my storm that day. But here is my point. Life is full of struggles. We were never given the promise that life would be free from difficulties. Like my craft that I worked on, sometimes that sea will be treacherous. The boat will be rocking wildly in the storm. But the way in which Jesus calms our storm may not be so obvious.

It could be as simple as sharing a beautiful sunset with someone you love as you contemplate making a difficult choice. Sharing one of those hysterical fits of laughter in the midst of dealing with loss. Or watching House of Cards to escape from the stress for a couple of hours. It's those simple little moments that can help keep us sane during the dark days.

Are you living in darkness? I am a person of faith, but even if you are not, you can find comfort in knowing that there is light in the darkest times, even if for a brief moment. Look around you. It's there.

And yeah, I love House of Cards. Francis is one deliciously bad dude.

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.