Circus!

Tonight we went to the Arab Shrine Circus.  

We have never been before, so this was a big deal for us.

 I'm pretty sure Rob and I enjoyed it as much as the kids did!  

It was WONDERFUL!  

We are BIG into spending money on experiences, so we did go all out for this one!  Elephant and camel rides were a MUST, and well worth it too, it was so great to see the kid's faces having such a good time! 

Faith's new found love of horses made it impossible to leave without a pony ride!  The Shetland Pony in the show captured her attention from the moment it came trotting out.

We went an hour early, actually, that was when the doors opened, it was great to get there early, there wasn't quite the crowd yet, and we visited pretty much everything going on before the circus even started.  I HIGHLY recommend that!  Lines can be such a hard thing to understand for little ones!

Air brush tattoos!  Grace and Ethan thought this was coolest thing that they had ever seen!

Grace got a lion's head.

Ethan got a viper.












Faith got a lion's head like her big sister.

Face painting!  I have to admit that it took some restraint on my part to not have my face painted too!

Zachary, the leopard!

Faith, the beautiful butterfly!

One of my favorite moments of the evening was when, in the dark, while changing acts, the acrobats were swinging, getting warmed up, and Zach said, "Look, Mommy, chimps!".  The family behind us and in front of us laughed out loud! 

Faith and Zach LOVED "Mater" from Cars!  The motorcycle way above the ring was the boy's favorite of the night.  We were all in awe of the elephant that could stand on a ball!  There is so much to see at the circus, we could have gone two or three times, just to take it all in!  I'm so glad we could do this with the kids!  It was such a wonderful time of smiles, laughing and memory-making experiences last a long time!

Washing faces before bed was such a sad time, but like the good kids they are, all of them sugar crashed into their beds, and not 10 minutes after, all were fast asleep!  

It's Raining It's Pouring!

When it started to rain today, Faith went and got her rain boots!  She loves her froggy rain boots!  While I love a sunny day, I have to say, on a day when I really didn't have to go anywhere, the rain was really a great excuse to hang out at the house with Faith and Zach and get in some reading to the kids, snuggling, looking out the window, watching the rain, and even some dancing!

They LOVE to dance!  We played Just Dance for Kids on the Wii, and I was worn out WAY faster than them, of course!  We have played it before a few times, and I forgot what a great time it was, so I think it may have to be a more regular occurrence! 

What are we reading lately?  The kids and I are reading Ranger Rick and Highlights Jr.  Our next door neighbor got us the Highlight's subscriptions and it's been so fun!  I have always wanted to get those, I just loved to read them in the doctor's office as a kid, and I'll admit it, I've been know to do the hidden puzzles even as an adult! 

I am reading, in my spare stolen moments, the Hunger Games trilogy.  I'm ready for the third, Mockingjay, and I don't have it yet, so I'm waiting (in agony) to finish it now!  Grace and I are GREATLY anticipating the release of the movie, The Hunger Games now.

I'm also VERY grateful to our neighbor for a new Magic School Bus movie today, I got a whole hour and fifteen minutes to myself!  Almost unheard of!  It was really nice to get a couple things done uninterrupted!  Thank you Jim!

The next rainy day, if you don't have to run all over, or go out at all, just call the day for rain, and have some fun inside instead!