Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow Party

Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow Party
Bryce Jordan Center
State College, PA 
April 2, 2023

April is sandwiched between both the boys' birthdays, Jasper's in May and Otis' in March. We ended up celebrating Jasper's birthday with a family party on April Fool's Day, because of the dates and everything. Unfortunately, we put a ton of time into getting our house prepared for receiving company, and there was a sudden wind storm the day of, when we were 2 hours shy of people showing up, and our power went out! (It stayed out for 48 hours, too!) Fortunately, we were able to move the party down to my folks' house, where they have a full house generator, a system that has saved the day several times now! That's another story. This one is about Monster Trucks. It was somewhat of a Monster Truck party, as Jasper ended up getting a big remote-control truck from his grandparents for his birthday. It was perfect timing, because a week or so back I had ran across the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live show and on a whim, bought tickets for the entire family and decided to give it a go, sensory issues and all. 

I had purchased sound canceling ear gear for both of the boys, and after arriving a week or so before the show, of course we could only find one set before we had to leave that day. But we still headed over, and figured we'd make due. We were a little late, so there were no crowds or lines going in, which helped with the overwhelm, but it was so loud in the building because they were right in the middle of the donut competition when we got there. So we got some ear plugs from the first aid stand, but Otis was still flat out refusing to go down to our seats. Jasper took the head gear, so he agreed to go down with Dad and Sissy, so I stayed back up in the hall with the little guy, trying desperately to convince him. I thought it was hopeless, until they took an intermission and I was able to convince him to go down to our seats. 

Luckily, after the intermission they went into Motocross stuff, with the lights on and it wasn't anywhere near as loud, so he enjoyed it enough he was okay with staying. By the time it got loud again, he was so invested that he did okay with me just jamming the ear plugs into his ears the best I could and cupping his ears with my hands as he sat on my lap. I'm glad he tolerated it this way, because overall he had a great time. So we made it through the show, even if we didn't have proper head gear. There was a kid with his father behind us that didn't have anything the entire show, and at one point where the dinosaur truck starts breathing fire after eating a car, I looked over and saw the poor kid was crying. It was definitely a sensory experience. 

The boys left happy and Jasper remembered all the names of the trucks he had seen and started drawing pictures of each of them when we got home. He named the remote control truck he got at his party from Grammy and Pop "Mega Crush" after that, so he seemed to understand the name game, and enjoyed decorating it with stickers and flames. 

The kids also had their first soft pretzels and Jasper just gripped his the entire time like a prop while Celie ate about three of them. I think that was her favorite part. And of course we found the other pair of ear gear not long after we got home, wrapped up in the blankets on the boys' bottom bunk. Glad it still worked out, because the experience was a good one.