Circus!!

Last night, we brought the kids to the circus for the first time. We were all pretty excited because we didn't know what to expect (neither Chris nor I had been to the circus since we were very young). The show was scheduled to start at 7pm and we had great seats, so we got there a little bit early to check everything out. Before the show and during intermission, you could ride an elephant, a camel or a little horse, plus they had pictures with the clowns in their clown-car and also inflatable Moonwalks for the kids to jump in. We didn't get there early enough to actually do any of those things because the lines were very long, but certainly know to come extra early next year. (Caleb watched all the rides with a longing expression, but surprisingly enough, if given a choice, he wanted to jump in the Moonwalk rather than ride on any of the animals.)

Since the line for people wanting to buy tickets to get into the circus was so long, they ended up delaying the start-time of the performance to 7:30pm. That would have been all well and good but Hannah is not very good at waiting patiently. She was squirming and fussing for the whole 30 minutes and Chris and I were worried that we would have to leave even before the show started. As it turns out, once the lights went down and the spot-light pointed at the different acts, Hannah was pretty intrigued and ended up getting very tired and relaxed. It also helped that the girl next to us (she was about 12-years old or so) was infatuated with Hannah and started talking and tickling her. She even shared some cotton candy with Hannah during the performance because Hannah wanted the girls' cotton candy instead of her brother's (even though they looked exactly the same). We ended up leaving during intermission because it was already 9pm at that point. Both kids were past their bedtimes and it really showed. Despite the fall-backs, we are pumped to go to the circus again next year because the acts were very impressive!!

On a side note: I wish you could have seen Caleb's face throughout the entire performance. He was really in awe! When some of the trapeze artists came out and were stacking metal chairs on a pedestal and doing handstands on them, Caleb said to me "Mom, that's kind of dangerous." I assured him that he would NOT be trying any of these things at home and luckily, he agreed. As we were walking to the car later, I asked him what his favorite act was. He thought about it, then decided that it was the "hula-hoop one". Not sure if he was really impressed with the hula-hoop act or if it was the gorgeous women twirling the hula-hoops that caught his attention, but yes, it was a very impressive act for sure!

Of course, my little camera pooped out on me ONCE AGAIN!! We checked the battery before we left and it said it was fine, but once we turned it on in the arena, it only had enough juice to take 4 pictures---and not even good ones!!! (I was pretty livid, as you can imagine.)
This is the only decent picture I got at the circus:



Here is Caleb with his treasures once we got home:



For the record, all the souvenirs at the circus were WAY less expensive than anything at the other shows we've been to (i.e. Sesame Street Live, etc.). I'm talking, HALF the price and much cooler than the spinney Elmo things that we've gotten in the past. Yes, that is a light-up laser gun and light-up butterfly that Caleb got and no....he didn't get them to share with his sister. :p
Hannah did finally get ahold of the butterfly toy but when you'd ask her "Where's the butterfly?", she'd look up in the air instead of at the toy---as if there was a butterfly flying around above her. :)


I also just thought this was a cute one of her and Daddy looking up at the huge balloon....

All in all, we are so happy that we decided to go and this is sure to be an annual event in our house. :)