And let the Circus begin!

The circus came to town a couple of weekends ago and since it was rather rainy and cold and my children were begging to ride a {stinky} elephant, I folded and brought them to the overpriced Hokey Jose Cole Circus.
Okay, I suppose if you were 2 and 5 it wouldn't be all that bad...you know with all the loud music and flashy lights, but I think I could have put on a better puppet show in our living room.
Don't believe me?
Well, the ring master (is that even what they are called) announce that everyone must stay seated for the next demonstration.

You know, because they were going to bring out the lion.

You wanna see the lion?

Ooooohhhh, roar!!!
There was a trapese act...but just one person. She swung from this rope first and then a bar later but the part that struck me as weird was her outfit.
Sorry for the poor focus in the one below but take a closer look at her get-up. Was there a reason it was supposed to only cover her ta-ta's and whoo-ha in the front and look completely bare in the back? It was a bit risque and not so sure that is appropriate attire for small children to be witnessing but thankfully we were sitting far enough away that I don't think they noticed.
The highlight was supposed to be the {stinky} elephant ride. We stood in line and stood in line for the $8 per person {stinky} elephant ride and when it was time to board, the told me, 'The 2 year old can't go. She's too small." I said that I would pay another $8 so I could go with them but she said adults weren't aloud (funny because 3 rides before I saw a Mom get on with her 3 kids!) Audrey was crushed so I had to promise her a box of popcorn and a bag of cotton candy to get her to stop crying. And then to top it off...the people behind us had a little boy that was 2 1/2 (just like Audrey) and he got on, no questions asked and Grant was asked to be his big buddy. Hmmm, why couldn't he be Audrey's big buddy? Needless to say, Mama was a bit ticked that her Tooters couldn't fulfill her wish of riding the stinky elephant!
I did find humor in talking to Grant after we got home, though. I asked him how he liked riding the elephant and he said, "It was good, but I was kinda scared." I asked him why and he replied, "Because it was really high and bumpy and the whole time I could hear someone behind me going hmmmp, hmmmp (whimpering) and it was freakin' me out!" I about bust a gut laughing. Now when I go back and look at the pictures, I can guarantee it was the girl in the pink dress, second from the back doing all of the whimpering! Just check out her face in this series of pics!!!


For the remainder of the intermission, the kids and I shared some goodies in the grand stands and took some silly pictures.
Grant couldn't get enough of the cotton candy, which is surprising because Audrey is my sweet-tooth kiddo.
Even though the price was a bit hokey and overpriced, it was worth seeing the kids smiling and having fun taking in the whole circus atmosphere.



My favorite part of the the show was the elephant performance.
It amazes me that an elephant can learn to stand on a metal stand and dance to music.
I also think it is funny that she has her front 'toe nails' painted white. So fancy!
Her face looks so sweet too, considering she is a {stinky} elephant, of course.

I didn't get good pictures of all of the performers but there were some pretty talented kids performing.
The finale was this young strapping man who could balance like a super-star! I couldn't even climb up on a stack of glasses like that if they were flat on the floor, let alone balance it on a cylinder.
I can not imagine how many hours of practice this takes but it was pretty cool to watch.
Once we got home, the kids had to put their new {overpriced} 'prizes' to good use.
Grant's weapon toy of choice was a 'light saver.'
And Audrey chose a musical light up orb wand thingy. Oh before the circus we made a 'quick' stop at Target to pick up a couple things and she just had to have a pink batting helmet, just like her brother's red one. I figured I might as well go along with the request so she doesn't get bonked in the head when Grant is practicing his batting for t-ball this summer.
Plus it doubles as a sparing help quite nicely!
A couple more ninja poses and it was time for bed after a long and fun-filled day.
Speaking of bed time...I'm off to catch some much needed zzzzz's. Nighty-night!

Behind (Easter Edition)

A little behind on getting my Easter pics up...sorry!
On Saturday, we headed up to Duke's parents house to hang out, spend the night and celebrate Easter day with his entire family. The kids made sure to bring long their Easter baskets and the Easter bunny made sure to find them at Grandma and Grandpa's and stuffed their baskets full!
The kids were up much too late on Saturday night and up much too early on Sunday morning, and Audrey was up throughout the night with a low grade fever so needless to say, Mama was a bit tired on Sunday.
But that didn't stop us from having a fun day with family and enjoying wayyyyy too much food.
(This is our 6 1/2 year old niece, Emily...don't you love her 4 missing front teeth and the messy bed-head!?)
Audrey did sneak in a little late morning nap before the rest of the crew arrived for the big Easter meal.
I couldn't resist her adorable little sleepy self.
While Audrey was sleeping, Grant helped Grandpa clean weeds off the beach and then helped Grandma with a little last minute clean-up.
For some reason, I missed the rest of the inside action but made sure to grab my camera for the big Easter egg hunt.
This is where more of the 'behind' theme comes from. The kids were off and running so fast, hunting for their eggs, that almost all of the pictures I got were from behind.
Okay, I did manage to get a few from the front, but Audrey was so into the hunt that she would not stop to flash me a smile or pose for me in her adorable little outfit.
She was inspecting her egg to make sure that it was one of 'her' eggs with a smiley face on it.
Grant had sports ball eggs to find.
And Emily's were metallic ones.
This picture cracks me up...when taking it I didn't even notice Audrey in the background trying to reach one of her eggs!
What a mean Mommy! I probably should have made sure that hers were a little more on her level, huh?!!
Each kid had 8 eggs filled with change to find but poor Emily only found 7 of hers and I am terrible at remembering where I hide them so I wasn't much of a help.
Sorry for so many pics, but I just couldn't help myself with the kids all dressed up and the water looking so blue.
I also couldn't get enough of that silly little toothless smile either.
These next four are the only posed shots I could get the kids to stand still for.
The kids were stuck in 'cheese' mode so I didn't bet much for natural smiles but I still think a few of these are pretty cute.
Since saying 'cheese' wasn't working so well, I told them to smile like I had just said something really funny.
My, does Grant follow directions well!!!!! Just call him Chuckles!
The rest of the pictures are for your viewing enjoyment as it is getting late, I am tired and this will shock those of you who know me...I am simply running out of things to say on this post! Ha! So there you have it!! Look on...