Circus ... and more

The circus was in town last weekend. We are so lucky, we received tickets from my Aunt who happens to work for a local TV station. She's got the hook-up ;) We arrived early to let the kids walk around and look at all the attractions. The entire arena was filled with activities any child would beg to participate in ... but of course they all come at a cost. The only free thing in the entire place was shaking hands with the clowns and getting a sticker that read, "I hugged a clown today." We spent lots of time with the clowns.

Group shot: (The cute young gal is my sister)


Chelsea signing excited. She was pretty excited.




I did give in to the face painting booth, how could I resist a total face painting, Spiderman look alike? Logan loved it at first but 20 minutes later wanted to go to the bathroom to wash it off. Thank God I spent $5 on that! I convinced him to leave it on to show Grandpa Eric.



Daddy took Chelsea to ride the miniature ponies. Even more pricey at $6 a ride. She rode the pony for an entire 2 minutes, three revolutions. We did the calculations, and they were making roughly $500 per hour. Not much compared to the $1800 they're bringing in an hour for elephant rides! I did leave the circus a little sad for those animals. The poor horses didn't have much room at all, and all they do is walk in circles over and over attached to metal rodes. I won't get started on all of this though.

After the attractions, we finally took our seats and waited for the circus to begin. A half an hour late, they began with a song. I think it may have been the national anthem, but I'm really not sure. Why? Well, because as soon as everyone stood up, Ryan gasped, "oh crap!" I look down to find his coat attached to the butt of my jeans by some body's old discarded bubble gum. Nice. Unfortunately this is typical for some of the less than civilized citizens of our city. Again, don't get me started.

Picking a strangers gum off of my pants made me want to vomit. It was disgusting. As I was trying to disconnect my butt from Ryan's coat, Logan was jabbing me in the side complaining he couldn't see. He was trying to hop over the seat which was making the gum situation much worse, so I finally had to put his little bottom in line. I popped him ... er ... gave him a little love pat and firmly told him to hush. Ryan was mad that I scolded him in public, but this was an emergency.

So that's how the circus started. I'm still pissed about our clothes. I'm still unsuccessfully attempting to remove the gum. My mother in law sent me a list of gum remedies, but so far I haven't had much luck. I'm going to keep trying though as this is my only pair of jeans!!!

The kids loved the circus. Chelsea sat still most of the time (mostly because she had a box of popcorn in her lap). We stuck it out until the end, even through the screaming toddler sitting behind us. Seriously people, don't let your child SCREAM directly into the ears of people in front of you for ten minutes. There is a point when you just have to remove them from the situation. if you're reading this blog, please remember to leave the building when your child is having a fit. LEAVE. I suspect most people reading this are people who already know this unspoken rule of common courtesy.

We ended our weekend with a delicious cheesecake made my Ryan's mom. She's an amazing cook and she brought it over to celebrate my new job, and Logan and Ryan's good grades ;) The two pounds I lost the previous week were back on in two days. Fortunately I caught Chelsea's stomach virus the past two days and I think I'll break even for the week. Who knew that could be a good thing?!