Massive hair style change

Well, two of my daughters were itching for a change in hairstyles. Peanut was looking to get the tips dyed and Monkey wanted to get rid of her curls. It is always interesting how sensory processing disorder presents itself. While my oldest does not battle SPD, Monkey does. It has always been a struggle to wash her hair, brush it daily, style it, etc. She really does not like it to get knotted, but she hates the brushing. We tried all types of brushes and combs. We tried all types of shampoos and gadgets to help her feel comfortable. When we finally asked her what she wanted ... she simply said, straight hair.

HOWEVER ... we were under strict orders not to TOUCH the hair until after October 10th. The girls were participating in a wedding and the bride already had the hairstyles selected for the bridesmaids and flower girls. Short hair was not part of the plan. So the girls waited .... and waited ... and waited.


I caved with Monkey first because I knew she wanted it cut SO bad. We looked at several photos online to see what she was looking for and she selected the same style in three different photos. After giving her a few weeks to stew about it, we looked at the photos again. She selected the same style. I figured it was safe to head to Great Clips. We have fallen in love with the Great Clips in Merriam, KS because the stylists are always so patient with my children. When you are going short and have to use clippers, this is an absolute MUST. On the way to the salon, Monkey simply said, "I hope it looks good on me as it does in the pictures." She fretted the entire time they cut ... while mommy did deep breathing exercises watching the locks hit the floor.

Thankfully ... she absolutely LOVED it. It has been a few weeks and she STILL loves it. Truth be told ... I really love it too.

Now ... a few weeks later Peanut started discussing face shapes and hair styles. I didn't realize she was really getting tired of having long hair and had fallen in love with Monkey's short hair. We talked about what type of hairstyles would look good on her and what would still allow her to dye her tips in a couple months. She decided to go with a shoulder-length style and had 8" cut off. She loves the fact she can still throw it back into a pony tail if she wants, as well as use a straightener on it if she wants it left down. She looks super cute .... but I'm sure the bride still is happy that they waited until after the beginning of October to finally have a style they enjoy.

Fun for some ... hell for others

Halloween used to be my all time FAVORITE holiday. I absolutely loved getting dressed up and going to parties. Then after having kids, I fell in love all over again. Getting them all dressed up and watching them go door to door in pure excitement.

However ... Halloween became the holiday I dreaded. I dread most holidays. It is completely shake up of the routine, schools usually have shortened weeks, there is travel involved ... change in diet ... yeah, it's just a complete mess. Peanut has always done well with Halloween. She is my social butterfly. Bullfrog does great with the trick-or-treating, but put him into a closed room for a dinner or party ... you often have a mess on your hands. Monkey THRIVES on Halloween. While she's not exactly a social butterfly ... she is a seeker. She loves dressing up, loves going door to door, loves the games, loves touching ... stuff. Halloween is a great time for her. Thankfully, she and Bullfrog are super tight, so they usually stick together making Halloween fun for him!

Goth Unicorn

SuperGirl

Zombie ... in the beginning stages after a bite, I think

Now, enter my Turtle. Turtle is my neurotypical child ... but she definitely has her limits. We are starting to notice that she is a HUGE avoider. She prefers things to be quiet and peaceful. She is a dare devil, but does not care for large groups of noisiness. She was a complete MESS during Halloween. We went to a Halloween party at my college, and she found a quiet area and stayed put. She was so stressed that she wouldn't even eat her pizza. The next day, during trick or treating time, she HATED it ... until we found a street that was completely lit up and I pushed her in the stroller. That stroller was her safety spot. Once we got all that figured out ... she never wanted it to end. She was a riot most of the day because ... well ... candy!

What was my kids favorite part though? Definitely me dressing up as Minnie Mouse this year.

So, how do you celebrate the holidays when you have special needs children? Let me know in the comments below!

Rough days mean extra comfort

I knew this week was going to be rough. I just didn't have any idea of how rough. My eldest has continued with her struggles with ADHD and it is now beginning to affect her in school. She has HUGE plans, so this just wasn't going to do. My son found out last week that his teacher was going to be pushing group work, so he already knew that his anxiety was going to be taxed. My little Monkey also knew that she would have a different teacher, but didn't realize it would be in another area of the school and she would have a different bus all together.

What this led to was meltdowns ... from ALL of my children. Thankfully, they were all meltdowns that extra squeezes from mom (or a little rocking) helped care for. Their sensory banks were just completely empty by the end of the week.
Peanut went in to see her psychiatrist this week and we all agreed that medication would be necessary. She has done GREAT with behavior modification for her defiance and OCD coping skills. She still has some room to grow, but she is doing SO much better. However, she has two phobias that she just cannot get over. The first is Trypanophobia, or the fear of needles. Normally, this is only a situation when we go in for vaccines. HOWEVER, this week she was informed she would have to have a blood draw and an EKG done to make sure she was completely healthy and ready for the stimulants.

Yup ... she melted down when the needle was present. I held her the WHOLE time and wiped her tears. We made sure she was completely calm before she went in for the EKG, and that nurse made her day by giving her suckers. I don't care if she is 12 years old ... snuggling with mom and getting a sucker after being poked and prodded is always comforting.

Now, Bullfrog on the other hand, he forgot his lunch on Wednesday. He had been taxed all week with the new surroundings, rules, and teacher. When he realized he forgot his lunch, he had convinced himself that he couldn't eat the school lunch because he had no money on his card and that I wouldn't bring him a lunch. Both were false, but he still took himself to the Recovery Room to wait for me while his class was in the lunch room. I gave him a few squeezes and filled his sensory bank just enough for him to make it through the rest of the day (which was good since his teacher had them do group math work).

Monkey ... poor girl, she is still trying to cope. She had a new teacher, a new classroom layout, new bus, new bus driver, and then next week she will start daycare in the morning. She has been trying so hard to keep it together during school that she just collapses when she gets home. Last night was really rough and she woke from dead sleep needing mom. She needed more hugs and rocking tonight. We will see if she can make it through the night or not.

How did the first week going for you guys? Or, have your kids not started yet?

A seeker's paradise!

I have two children who are on the autism spectrum and BOTH are seekers when it comes to sensory processing. They need to be squeezed by someone they feel as safe when they are overloaded, need to jump, tackle, and otherwise be all over everything. In an apartment (or townhome), that can be a tad difficult.

Earlier this year, I was given the opportunity to check out SkyZone back in April for my daughter's fourth birthday. We let Monkey get the birthday party since we knew that this would be a way for her to have a party without feeling overwhelmed.

We were right and wrong. Monkey did LOVE SkyZone, but she was NOT a fan of the massive amount of people and loud music. Thankfully, SkyZone holds a Sensory Night. They try for every month, but it has been every other month, with the last one being held on Monday.


Last week, however, they held a Back to School bash. During this week, they brought back the decal promotion. This promotion allows drivers to put a SkyZone decal on their vehicle for 30 days, put it on social media, and then get free jumps as payment. We will be getting 6 hours free ($108 value).

Decal going on

Making sure it was clean and sealed

He's excited, I promise!

The van at home!

What is living in acronym hell?

So, I thought it would be best to start a new personal blog, and leave my Redbird Empire blog to be more about business related topics. While I absolutely love talking about my kids and my life, it is hard to separate that from coding, electronics, technology, social media, and everything else that Redbird Empire is about. It only made sense to start a blog that was my personal life. I thought for a long time about what to call my personal blog, because there are so many cool names out there.

However, after the past few years of being diagnosed and treated for PPD, having suffered from PTSD, having a psychiatrist tell me that I have ADD (in addition to bi-polar and OCD), then being told I DIDN'T have bi-polar ... but rather GAD & OCD. I started to wonder how much more of the alphabet could be shoved into my life. You know what, never wonder these things! My eldest daughter has been diagnosed with ADHD & OCD. She talks about her life on her blog at Marvel-ously Talented. My son has been diagnosed with extreme anxiety, and possibly Asperger's (pending more testing). Oh, and he has SPD. My second daughter, who is four, has been diagnosed with SPD, which is now classified as a manifestation of ASD.

What in tarnation am I talking about? For those who do know, you are probably crying along with me. But for those who are just visiting my site because you know me from Redbird Empire, let me define.

• PPD - Post-Partum Depression
• ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder
• PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• GAD - General Anxiety Disorder
• ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder
• SPD - Sensory Processing Disorder
• ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder

My goal with my new site is to show you what life is like in my house. However, maybe more importantly, it is to give me a place to talk about what I go through and feel a way to breathe. Maybe someone who has already gone through the same things would love to give insight for me. Maybe someone else is feeling so overwhelmed and they do not know which way to turn. I am not deleting my past blog posts at Redbird Empire. You can still find them. I will edit this post after I get the finalized location set. I plan on making them accessible through a link so they do not distract from my budding business.

I hope this site continues to grow and become a place where I can feel that it is no longer hell ... but just normal life. Parenting is hard. Parenting with severe anxiety is extremely hard. I just want one day for it to feel "normal."

Birthday Parties & Sensory Children

If you are like me and have sensory children ... whether it is autism, Asperger's, or just Sensory Processing Disorder ... birthday parties can ring fear in your hearts. There is a lot of noise, a lot of people, the variable temperature changes ... did I mention a lot of noise and people?

I KNEW this going into yesterday. We were invited to a very dear friend's party yesterday. Her daughter is 6 months older than my Turtle. We RARELY get to see each other because she's moved out-of-state. When I heard the party was going to be at Pump-It-Up, I was guarded but hopeful. I have to say, regardless of a few snags, I was very happy with how well yesterday went!



In all reality, I did set myself up on Saturday. Saturday morning was our monthly CoderDoJoKC meet. Peanut and Bullfrog LOVE going, although, sometimes I think that Peanut likes it more. She has really gotten into coding and has begun to build some pretty complex things in Scratch. This is the second month she has taken 1st place with her project, so she submitted it for Scratch Mastery. That will be presented next month.

CoderDoJo is all about trying to get children to get into coding, and our group has grown to having 100 kids PLUS a waiting list EVERY month. It is so awesome to see every month and watch the children learn. However, it is also very taxing on my son with his sensory issues.





So, I shouldn't be surprised that if he was already melting down before noon ... that 2pm wasn't going to be much better. However, I knew that it would be WORSE if he didn't go with us to the party.

We ended up getting there about 15 minutes late (my bad because I needed a power nap to tackle my anxiety-induced exhaustion). The first room was the BEST for all FOUR of my children. There was a slide (Turtle's favorite), a bounce house with basketball goals, and an obstacle course. It had something for every age range. LOVED it! There was also enough space that it didn't feel like ALL the kids were bunched together.



However, after 40 minutes ... we left the room where sensory children all got along. The next room was not as much fun for the younger children. There was a slide ... but it required you to pull yourself up through several layers of netting. This meant my wonderful son was NOT able to go up ... nor Turtle (who was irate at that concept). My son has issues with things that do not have sure footing. This includes walking and standing on nets. He tried a few times, but it all ended up with meltdowns. The other things to play with was a large bounce house, Nerf ball shooter, and an interactive floor mat. This room was met with doom.



I ended up having to take Bullfrog out before the play time ended. He just had enough and everything was causing meltdowns. He didn't want to leave, but I saw the warning signs and I didn't want him to completely lose it at the party. When I was taking him out ... the most awesome thing happened ... one of the employees asked him if he was okay. When I explained that he's just in sensory overload, he said this:

"I totally get it. I have Asperger's and some days are harder than others. Aspie fist bump for making it this long."

Bullfrog took a few minutes to recover, but he was able to enjoy the remainder of the party. I know that if I had not pulled him out and put him in the quiet room ... that wouldn't have happened.





So, why do I feel that Pump-It-Up is great for sensory children?

• Several activities in every room so it divides up the groups of people


• Keep people moving so boredom doesn't occur


• Routine kept, without feeling like there's a schedule


• Large party rooms that allow children to sprawl

I do wish that there was an ability to reserve only one play room ... or have the ability to go back and forth. Especially considering ages and activities available. I didn't like the fact that two of my children weren't able to do much of anything in the second room. It was also difficult dealing with the strong emotions from Bullfrog when he just wanted to go into the room that had things he could enjoy.

Overall ... it was a great birthday party. I am so glad I was able to see friends and celebrate another year. It is also showed me a location that I could throw a party at for my children in the future, without having to be super stressed about all the details!

Toddlers & a Dress Fitting

There are times when I hear an idea and my mind is like ... no ... just ... no. When my mother mentioned that I should bring the toddlers to my eldest daughter's dress fitting, I snorted. You have GOT to be kidding me. Can you imagine a two and a four-year-old ... in a bridal shop? What could possibly go wrong (right)?

If you see the picture above, you will notice in her hands a wonderful little piece of electronics. My husband and I decided that if we were taking the girls into a dress shop, we were going prepared. We brought both of their tablets, fully charged, and tethered them to my WiFi. Monkey actually was extremely well behaved. She sat for quite a while on the tablet, and then walked around and looked at dresses (as seen above). Turtle, on the other hand ... well, let's just say there was a TON of mirrors and TWO stages. The tablet had NOTHING on the entertainment she could provide for herself.

My wonderful husband, who was really struggling with how grown up our oldest daughter looks in a dress, kept the younger two corralled while I dealt with the dress fitting.

I sent an email to my mother and sister at the beginning of the week, letting them know that Peanut was no longer a Peanut and already creeping into women's clothing. She is now in a size 16 girl's for some things, but can also easily fit a size zero dress or size four pant in women! She was in size 12/14 in December! This is CRAZY. *note - very thankful for friends, as one of them just gave us an entire wardrobe for her*

Anyway, we get to the fitting, and they start her out in a size 12 .. mainly because the 14 in the style was not available on the rack. They were doing a whole bunch of talking, so I moseyed on over there to make SURE they were well aware that there was NO way she was going to fit into that in October, and they weren't going to be able to "let it out" enough. The dress fitter grabbed a size 16, and other than length and a few issues in the bust; she fit in it REAL nicely. Taking a dress in is SO much easier than letting one out ... and she was going to need any dress hemmed ... cause she's still short. *another note - the measurements were done AFTER the initial dress was tried on and I was right ... she's a size 16*

Then we got the bad news ... which caused stress to enter the bridal shop. This dress would not come in until the DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING. Pffft. Yeah, and it would still need to go through alterations ...

Bride went off to check on our dad, who was at the men's wear store next door. Our mom and I were chatting with different fitters trying to figure out a different solution. While Peanut has the day off of school, 24 hours is just NOT okay in our books for dresses coming in. My mother started asking about women's dresses ... prices, styles, when they would come in, etc.

THANKFULLY, we found one that works. It is a size zero (again, I was dead on) AND it will come in by the end of July. *whew* It is gorgeous. There is part of the dress that my mom and sister will remove since it doesn't go with the style the bride wants (and I agree with them whole-heartedly), but it is an easy alteration.

Again, it will need to be taken in a few locations, and definitely hemmed up, but it looks gorgeous. It is a GREAT price, AND it is casual enough that she can wear it to other things after the wedding ... which TOTALLY rocks.

My son also discovered you NEVER want to stand too close to the bride when she is shopping ... or you will end up getting prodded as well.

The wedding is going to be beautiful, and I'm sad I won't be there ... but at least I got to take part in a small section of the planning.

By the way ... we totally used lunch as a bribe to keep the girls occupied through the fitting ...

If you can make it a few minutes longer, we'll be going to lunch soon. I promise!!

Some of the cutest things my toddlers have taught me ...

It comes as no surprise to many of you that I have (what I call) two sets of children. I have two that are in their tween years and then two that are toddlers. I guess one of those toddlers is actually technically a pre-schooler now since she will be starting Kindergarten in the fall of 2016. In any case, my toddlers are getting quite vocal and have developed quite the attitude. Here are just a few of the cutest things they have taught me over the past few days.

We just go together! I love you, so when I get much older, I'm going to marry you. Cause when you just go together, you marry each other.

This was from Monkey to me. She later told me that when you love someone and can't live life without them, you should marry them so you will be together forever. This is 4-year-old logic.

You STOLE *MY* bed!

This was from my Turtle to her daddy. Daddy had just laid down on his side of the bed ... where Turtle had been snuggling only a few hours earlier.

I'm just a little small, but I know how to drive. I learned at school. I can teach MeMa how to drive cause she doesn't know how. But Grandma Mo knows, so I don't have to teach her.

Another wonderful tidbit of information that our Monkey told us. MeMa is not ALLOWED to drive at the moment so Monkey thinks she doesn't know how. However, she goes places with Grandma Mo. It's just so cute how they process things.

My food put my heart back together. It was a little broken apart, but it's all fixed now. The food helped it a lot.

Monkey had just run out of Cheetos, so I went to buy some more ... when she had a few, she apparently felt all better. Food healed her broken heart. Emotional eating starts young people.

You like my hair when it's curly? You need to do it more often and put it in hair ties. *After informing her that we don't have a curling iron* Aha! I know! We need to buy one. That's a fantastic idea. We can go buy a curl iron.

Monkey had finished playing in the rain and her hair had developed ringlets. I thought they were ADORABLE so I told her so. This was her response.

I no want to get out. I playing in the water with my toys. No one minute, no five minutes, NO minutes. I finally clean!

Turtle's response after we got her clean. She usually is completely done with her bath after we wash her because she just cannot handle her hair being wet. So, she was baffled as to why we were trying to get her out when she was actually comfortable. Her face stated "you wanted me IN this tub and now you want me OUT?"

I found money ... it's going to be for Lego World so we can go again. I'm going to go put them in your purse. *told her the purse is on the table* Which table? Your working one or the eating one.

Monkey telling me that she found change on my floor and apparently we have too many tables. We have a table that I used to work at, a table that we eat at, and then the child's plastic table. However, it does show that they had a BLAST at Legoland Discovery Center.

What are some great things you have learned from your toddlers by their logic?

Staying Sane in Sensory Hell

I'm not going to lie, today has been absolutely horrid. I have NO idea what sparked today, but it was just the pits. My eldest had an attitude most of the morning ... thankfully, that broke after a phone call with her father. My two children on the autism spectrum were both in a funk. My son (with tentative Asperger's diagnosis - handling with therapy at the moment) was just meltdown city and anger over everything. He was either really up or really down. My little Monkey just had a downright AWFUL day. She was in sensory hell. She was either crying for her tablet so she could completely zone out, just crying, asking for everything to be blue (seems to be her control), asking for a hug, or refusing to talk at all. It was AWFUL.

You know, these are days that I simply want to pack it in and give up on this parenting thing. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what we had done differently today. We had a day yesterday where our schedule was messed up, but they were all fine yesterday. Or was that just the calm before the storm? I really do not know. What I do know is that I needed to do something that would prevent today from rolling into tonight and over to tomorrow.

I love this quote. I did not cite it because it is usually attributed to Martin Luther King, but there are some sources that say he wasn't the one who originally said it. However, the point stands ... even if I knew that everything would disappear tomorrow, I would keep today as normal as possible. I do this for my children ... I do this for me.

So, my normal Monday thru Friday has us up by 8am, at breakfast by 8:30am, goofing off until lunch at noon, and then some sort of afternoon activity. Today, when all but one of my children woke in a horrifically crabby mood, it was SO tempting to just say screw it, and send them back to bed. However, I KNEW that if I did that ... the odds of things getting worse were great. I stood firm.

The turbulence blew in as soon as we got home. The older two got into it with each other and with me. I finally gave in and pulled their dad in to help with the situation. One child was able to pull it together, while the other continued in a funk. I stood firm.

We had a fairly mild afternoon. Peanut had cheer camp (which she talks about on her blog) and planned to ride the Metro home. We had gone over the route and she had a charged phone just in case. However, she didn't want to call me (even though it was POURING) because she REALLY wanted to ride the bus. She went straight when she was supposed to turn, and ended up 5 blocks from her bus stop. No big deal. I picked her up and we talked about the mistake. Told her that she can try again tomorrow when she has her next practice. She is so excited about the independence. I'm a nervous wreck ... but I think that's the role of the mom.

Once I got home with her, I took a power nap because my anxiety had taken everything out of me. The girls had fallen asleep so it was safe. It wasn't until I woke that MORE turbulence blew in. I'm really glad I had that power nap. Bullfrog was grumping about wanting a specific fork (I have no idea) and Monkey was fussing because she wanted a blue cup. We didn't have any blue cups clean, but she was convinced. It was just really bad. She refused dinner, refused to say thank you when we found a blue sippy, etc. She spent a great deal of time in her room trying to calm down but wouldn't really talk to us about it at all. We finally got her to snap out of it with a different dinner (all she wanted was her blue sippy with water, sun butter, and S'Mores Oreos) and some strong hugs.

So ... how did I stay sane? Well, I went to Dollar General and I bought the kids S'Mores Oreos (mentioned above) and decided that I would just treat them because of all the work they had done over the summer so far. They knew that I could surprise them at any time. Therefore, I felt the S'Mores were not a reward for poor behavior, but rather a treat they had already earned. It took everyone and put them in a good mood. I can go to bed knowing that I have happy children, despite the really cruddy day ... and pray tomorrow is better.

Now I ask you ... how do you stay sane and repair a day that is just perfectly awful? Do you have children who have higher needs? What are ways that you deal with the meltdowns (I am NOT talking temper fits ... these are meltdowns).

We took on Sea Life & Legoland ... the reviews are mixed

I was given a unique opportunity by US Family Guide, as well as Sea Life Aquarium Kansas City/Legoland Discovery Center. We were given four passes to spend a day at both attractions. We have been to Sea Life Aquarium as a family in the past, but it was back when they had first opened. Everything was still a baby and super small. My kids visited Legoland while they were staying with their aunt, but I have never been with Turtle. I was in for a great surprise.

We started the day off slightly rocky because we had to make sure the eldest, Peanut, was picked up for her social group class she had. We got arrived about 15 minutes early, but the kids did really good waiting in line. Even when they could SEE people inside!

 Once inside though, they have an aquarium that have a few fish for the kids to look at while the parents wait to get the tickets. Again, my kids were supremely patient while they pulled my tickets out and got us set up for the day of fun. It was then that I learned not only were we going to Sea Life, we were also going to Legoland.

*spoiler alert - I should have had a second adult*

I have two children who are tactile seekers. In other words, they need to touch EVERY.SINGLE.THING! This can be a HUGE problem in most places, but Sea Life Aquarium is perfectly set up for this. They have a huge tank near the very beginning that allow you to touch cleaners, sea stars, and a few other creatures. Bullfrog and Monkey absolutely loved it. Turtle wasn't convinced. She was much happier looking at all the fish and sea creatures ... but was perfectly fine with the solid glass barrier.

Before you enter the main exhibit, you can pick up paper goggles ... which were a huge hit with my son. Monkey preferred them only when she was "going under water" in the adorable bubbles that they created in a few of the tanks.

 While Sea Life Aquarium does have one GIGANTIC tank with sting rays, fish, and a few sharks, they do have smaller tanks with other sea creatures. They also are well prepared for children. There are small areas to sit down and interact with things along the wall. There is an Octonauts kid play area, as well as a play area at the end of the exhibit. My kids could have spent all day at Sea Life ... and next time I go with only one adult, that is all we will do!

HOWEVER .... I didn't know then what I know now. There are so many pictures I had to choose from with the Sea Life attraction. Unfortunately, Legoland Discovery Center is NOT designed for younger children. In fact, I think I would go as far as to say it really is best for children who are at least old enough to handle long BORING lines or they live, breathe, and sleep Legos. I have two of the latter but I have one that isn't EITHER of those. Turtle HATED Legoland ... like with a passion. I was not impressed at all.

Let's start from the beginning ...

Even though we had tickets, we had to leave the building and go back outside to get BACK in line to wait for our turn at Legoland. Really?! Okay, so once we got scanned in with the tickets we already had, we had to wait for over 15 minutes to get through a line (with nothing for the kids to do but stand) to get our picture taken (that we had no interest in purchasing) and then wait on the elevator to go up to the main entrance to the attraction. Over 15 minutes of boringness. Yup ... things were already going downhill.

Once we got into the main area, the first section was their "Lego factory" and there is a part of me that wishes we stayed there for a LOT longer. This area is very hands on and the kids had a blast trying out the different things. They could see how much they weighed in Lego bricks, design their own Lego creations on a touch screen, as well as pretend they were making a Lego!

I thought with how exciting that first section was, it would completely make up for the stupid wait at the beginning. I was so very wrong though. They put a ride at the VERY beginning of Legoland so of course, there is a bottleneck. Now, I could have bypassed the ride with the little girl having a meltdown, but then I would have had two other children having meltdowns because they didn't get to ride in the Lego car and shoot bad guys. THIS is why you MUST have two adults present if you have two very different types of children. Otherwise, you get to do what I did for nearly 45 minutes ... deal with this:

Turtle did not care that there was a ride ... she cared that she was forced to stand for 20 minutes for that ride (that you cannot go back to). She did not care that there were Star Wars Lego displays (which I couldn't photograph because of meltdowns) ... she cared that she couldn't do anything with them.

They did have a mini play land area, but neither of the toddlers were impressed. What they WERE impressed with was the build area (and playground) at the END of the exhibit. So ... for Turtle, we could have done the first part and the last part and totally skipped the rest. Honestly, Monkey would have been perfectly fine with that as well. However, Bullfrog KNEW the ride was there and wanted to show Monkey.

In the end ... we had a good time. Will I go back to Legoland? Meh, not so sure. It's a lot of money and really NOT designed for my children. It would be a great place for my husband and son to go on a dad/son outing ... possibly something that Peanut would enjoy as well. I just don't think I will attempt to take the entire gang back.

Have you been to a Sea Life Aquarium or Legoland Discovery Center? What are your thoughts? Do you live in Kansas City and want to go? US Family is teaming up with Sea Life Aquarium Kansas City and Legoland Discover Center to give you discounts making summer fun more affordable. Click on the hyperlinks in the previous sentence to get a coupon you can print off!