The Mall of America from an Autism point of veiw

We went to the Mall of America for vacation and had bunches of fun.  The first day, we just checked out the Lego store which was wonderful.  They have a cool little station where you can design your own lego people to buy.  My eldest did this twice during the trip.  They also had stations with computers where you could pick building plans and it would show you how to build different projects.  My eldest loved this.  There were also life-size sculptures of cartoon characters made entirely out of legos.  I had pictures but unfortunately my camera was stolen (not the highlight of the trip for sure).  On day two we went mini-golfing at Moose Mountain Adventure Golf.  Which everyone enjoyed and kids 5 and under play for free which is a huge bonus.  There was a kiddie carnival with games but the lines were horrible so we skipped that even though it was free.  The kids refused to eat anything but burger king while we were there which wasn't surprising given their limited diets.  We squeezed in some healthy snacks and such and cooked dinner in the motel room so it wasn't too bad besides lunch lol.

Day 3 was the most fun.  We hit Nickelodeon world which has a bunch of little kid rides as well as some adult rides.  My eldest braved quite a few "big kid" rides including a small roller coaster.  He liked some of them and got scared on a couple.  From an autism point of veiw, the lines were extremely short for an amuzement park.  I talked to guest services and we could have gotten a chaperone band to go on rides with the kids with autism for free.  We passed that up only because we wanted to be able to go on rides separately if we wanted.  Many of the slightly scarier rides like the swings announced that if at anytime a rider wants to get off, they can raise their hand high and the opperator will bring the ride to a stop.  I thought that was a nice feature but we didn't need it.  Little girl's sensory issues got the best of her with the noise a few times but no major meltdowns.  She was very limited on the rides she would try but she did ride the really mild ones multiple times.  Little guy who tends to be more on the sensory seeking side, couldn't get enough of the rides.  He could only ride with a chaperone because he is still so little so I squeezed my but onto countless rounds of kiddie rides!  lol  He loved it though!

Day 4 was the last day at the mall which we spent at the Aquarium which I thought was cool but overpriced.  Thankfully we got a combo ticket that discounted the price down a bit.  First off, their website advertises a play area which they no longer have.   This dissapointed my eldest two who had already seen pictures online.  Better update their site.  Now as far as sensory issues go, the aquarium has some louder sound effects which my little girl really didn't like.  Also they have this giant underwater tunnel through their tanks which is really cool but totally freaked her out.  She didn't like that part at all which was unfortunately the majority of the aquarium.  There was a few touch pools where you could touch starfish that she liked.  My eldest pretty much ignored the fish in favor of quiz questions on the wall throughout the aquarium which wasn't too shocking.  And little guy, well, he loved every bit of it.  Lots of stuff to touch and see which kept him plenty busy.

We stayed at the Best Western Plus by the mall which has an awesome little kiddie pool with fountains and slides that they loved.  The service there was a little lacking but the motel itself was nice.  They had a good free breakfast, and a built-in italian place that offered room service.  The main issue was the people didn't clean our room the whole time we were there.  Oh well.

Anyways, we had a really good time, and spent way too much money!  lol

Belated Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl

Wow I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted.  It has been a busy summer to say the least.  A few weeks back, we had my daughters 5th birthday party.  I can't believe she's five already I really can't.  We had it outdoors even though it was freakishly hot outside.  We cooked hotdogs over the firepit, blew up the inflatable bouncer and had cupcakes which Baby Girl didn't eat.  She really doesn't eat much of anything right now and basically lives on pediasure.  Gotta love sensory-related eating issues right?  Anyways, she licked the frosting off so oh well.  :) She got spoiled of course!  She is really into tangled right now so we got her the Rapunzel doll and a double doll stroller.