The Greatest Show on Earth

We went to the circus today, and I'm just gonna hit the highlights because frankly, I'm exhausted.

You would have thought I had personally walked the tight rope, jumped through the ring of fire, rode on an elephant's trunk or twirled hundreds of feet above a concrete slab floor by my hair (how do they do that?) but no, I just watched... and it was exhausting. But extremely entertaining.

Maybe the reason I'm exhausted is because I took Trace to the potty 5 (yes, count them 1,2,3,4,5) times during the show. We went 4 times BEFORE intermission. I've learned you never tell a potty training toddler "no" and there is a very short window between verbally expressing the need to go and actually going... so, you better scoop and run. And that's just what I did... 5 times!

Luckily, we made it every time and luckily I had the good sense to have paid the extra 5 bucks to get gold circle tickets right across from the women's bathroom rather than the cheap seats in the nose bleeds... could you imagine?

Jimmy somehow got out of this glorious task, because we all know women's bathrooms are much cleaner than men's and he's still not mastered the "do NOT touch anything" concept. Ewww!

After about the 2nd trip, we made the third stall from the back our "preferred" stall and continued to use that one for the duration of the show. I just assumed, he'd already collected all the germs from that one, how many more could there be?

You would have thought one of us would have taken that away from him! Apparently, carbonated beverages (which he had only had small sips of before today) go right through him! Who knew?

Beautiful animals... not sure how I feel about that. Someone said PETA was outside the arena protesting while the circus was going on.


This honestly terrified me. You wouldn't believe how high they were. Most of these stunts should have been pre-empted with... Don't try this at home kids.
Seven dollars for this box of popcorn. Seriously... I took Trace to Target the other day and we got a huge bag of popcorn, a cherry Icee and cup of ice water for $2.50. Someone needs to tell the Ringling Brothers we are in an economic crisis!

We had a great time. Trace did really well, despite the "mini meltdown" in the parking lot on the way to the car. If anyone was driving down Houston Street about 4:30, they would have thought the circus had an after show outside Gate 2. After a sleepover at the grandparents last night, daylight savings time change, nursery duty at church this morning, and no nap... he was done.

After we got home, Jimmy got a text from a friend of his that sat 2 sections over from us with his wife and 2 kids. It said... I just spent $126 at the circus and as we were driving home, I asked my 4 year old what his favorite part of the circus was. He said, "the monkeys". (I'm quoting here) There were no *$@& monkeys!

I thought that was hilarious! Oh... a child's imagination :)