An Evening at the Circus

Last month we went to the circus! 

It was Wringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey so it was a good one. It was one of their smaller traveling circuses, not one of the big ones that go to the major cities around the country. The last Wringling Bros./B&B circus we went to was over a decade ago at Madison Square Garden in New York City and that was a big one!

This was a one-ring circus instead of a three-ring circus, but it was still very good. 

(That's what you get when you live in Iowa! Ha ha.)

The elephants are always my favorite. The show started and began with them.

While I'm glad that Wringling Bros./B&B will be phasing them out in the coming years due to animals rights concerns, the show won't be the same without them. Elephants are powerful, gentle giants who are so smart and it's neat that we can see them and what they're capable of in their circus acts. But it's even more good that they'll be able to live a more peaceful, natural, non-circus life. So I'm cool with it. :-) 

We had good seats right on the floor. The only thing that would have been better would have been sitting in the first row instead of the second row.

This act was cool! These two guys stood on the backs of running horses and did flips and jumps and other seemingly impossible stunts.  

He's about to do a backward flip onto the back of the other horse! Holy cow! I mean, holy horse. 

(Please allow me to indulge in the corniness that comes so easily to me!)

This was a really neat act where these two super-strong guys tossed these two ladies back and forth through the air. There was only one fall, which is why that big long trampoline is down there at the bottom.

I don't have many good pictures of it, but the dog show was one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

This dude and dudette were super strong and flexible and they had exceptionally good balance.

This was cool too. This contraption went around and around up high and down low with these two men running and flipping around in it, hamster-style. (Don't you just love my descriptive commentary?)

 There were other good acts too, with motorcycles in globes and Harlem Globetrotter-type guys on unicycles, but my pictures of those weren't that good. 

And finally, as I mentioned previously, they saved the best for last--the elephants!

 

Taking a well-deserved bow.

And then the grand finale! 

That man in the front was the ringmaster.

It was a good show ("the greatest show on earth," actually!). We all enjoyed our evening at the circus!

A Rose from My Dad

Last night my dad arrived from Utah for a quick visit before he continues on his road trip to Massachusetts next week to spend Thanksgiving with the rest of my family and stay at our Cape house. (I'm jealous!)

When my dad came to visit a few months ago he brought me this yellow rose. There's something about fathers giving things to their daughters like this that is so sweet, whether they're little girls, teenagers, or grown women. Thanks, Dad.

Doesn't it look like the rose and the greenery behind it are engaged in a graceful arabesque together?  

I kept thinking that whenever I'd look at it.

Parent/grandparent visits are nice for other reasons too.

This is my last post before Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your feast!

(I found this cute illustration on Pinterest last year, printed it out, and framed it in a pretty gold 5x7 frame. It's one of my favorite Thanksgiving decorations and I made it myself! Sort of.)

Bloomsbury Farm 2015

We spent a fun Saturday at Bloomsbury Farm in October. We've gone there every fall since we moved here, so it was our sixth visit, and the boys always have so much fun. Like last year, Abe (the boys' shared best friend) came with us too.

Maybe next fall I'll do a post where I line up this annual picture, from 2010, when Sam was a baby and John was a kindergartener, to 2016, when John will be in his final year of elementary school before moving on to junior high(!!).

 

The haunted house was in this white building. It's always a favorite of John's and Abe's, but it's a little too grotesque for my taste. I like spooky, but not when it's overly bloody and gross.

 

Sam and I, waiting for the boys to emerge from the haunted house.

John likes to do American Ninja Warrior training on that tire playground in the background.

 

It was a fine fall day. Chilly, but nice.

Playing in the corn bin and getting buried in corn is always fun!

Spiders in the web.

 Silly boys at lunchtime. The boys just love Abe, can you tell?

 We made our way through the giant corn maze fairly quickly, thanks to Peter's navigational skills. I was constantly a little bit on edge while we were in there, worried that we would lose the kids (John kept running way ahead or into the corn and wouldn't listen, so he earned himself a time-out when we got out) and I was worried that Peter would get too far ahead and I'd get lost and be on my own, which wouldn't be good, because my sense of direction is bad!

This was the pretty view from a lookout bridge in the middle of the maze.

Another pretty view, this one from when we were done with the maze. I think I took this when I was sitting with John during his time-out. Ha!

 Sam and the Giant Pumpkin.

The boys played on the Jumping Pillow for about 45 minutes and would have played on it longer if we hadn't said it was time to go.

Feeding an elevated goat.

 Abe asked me to take this cute picture.

One of Sam's favorite places wherever we go is the gift shop.

"Can we go to the gift shop?"

We usually save that for last so that I can use it as incentive for them to behave. 

Obviously that incentive doesn't work well for John, but it does for Sam!

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It was another fun day at Bloomsbury Farm!