Circus Fun

The Allen Family went to the circus tonight. Truly, I wonder if I've ever really grown up. I think that I'm reliving my childhood through my kids. I'm using my children as an excuse to enjoy every single kiddie activity that I can. I LOVE the circus and I was so excited when I heard it was coming to town. I immediately started making plans for us to go and trying to convince Maura that the circus was fun and the clowns wouldn't hurt her. She currently has a pathological fear of clowns that I'll probably have to expend many therapy dollars on since I was the one who brought her into clown paradise in the first place. We've managed to get her psyched about the circus by talking it up all week. When we woke her up from her nap this afternoon, she was ready to go...mostly for cotton candy.
Me and the kids waiting patiently for the circus to begin. As you can see, Maura snagged some cotton candy on the way in. It truly was the reason that she even wanted to come to the circus. I'm not 100% sure that she even knew what cotton candy was, but she was ready to come and find out!
Preparing for that first bite of cotton candy. She couldn't stop smiling!
Going in for the big bite!

Mmm, that's some good stuff. She managed to eat most of the bag by herself and she was truly sticky by the end of it, but she LOVED it!!
Funny clown!! I did indeed dress him in a clown costume. It was just too good of an opportunity to pass up! We had been given a clown costume as a hand me down and since he isn't going to be a clown for Halloween, he won't wear it otherwise. Brent forgot the hat that goes with the costume, but he was still the cutest clown there.
Daddy and his little clown baby! Tristan was so fascinated by all the glow sticks and wands that all the kids had. He didn't know where to look first.
Maura got a red balloon, and between the balloon and the cotton candy, the night was complete for her. Really, we could have left just after Brent bought her that balloon and she would have been completely happy. I was terrified that the balloon would escape and we'd have a catastrophe on our hands!
Maura's first glimpse of the circus action. She was really interested in the tigers, which were the first act.

The kind man next to me volunteered to take a family picture of us. This is as good as it gets, folks!
Maura had good reason to be mesmerized by the tigers! They were jumping through hoops of fire!
They even had a tiger who could walk a tightrope. Very cool.
The high flying trapeze performers. I know I'll have to sing many verses of "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" for Maura in the next few days.
Two guys juggling fire. One was WAY better than the other--the guy on the left kept dropping his fire!

Tristan actually managed to fall dead asleep during the circus. It's amazing because the music was LOUD and there were people clapping all around us. I guess when you're the second child, you just get used to noise! He slept until the clown car backfired LOUDLY!
Maura loved the dog and pony act, especially when the little dog rode on the pony's back.
My sweet little clown. I could just eat him up!
"Mommy is hilarious!!" He's giving great big belly laughs these days.
One of the grand finale acts, the Elephant. All the kids screamed and clapped when he appeared. Consequently, this is the only act that Maura talked about when she came home. When asked what she liked most about the circus, she answered, "The balloon, the cotton candy and the elephant." Perhaps she was a bit young for the circus, but we really had a fun night together.