The Circus!

On Friday I overheard some of the parents at work talking about their weekend plans and quite a few mentioned going to the circus.  When I saw an ad for it a while back I immediately thought Tyler would love it (dragon themed), but didn't make any real plans to take them.  I decided, on Friday, that it would be a really fun thing to do with them on Saturday or Sunday afternoon while Lance was working and started looking at tickets.  Then, Lance decided that he would really like to go too which eliminated Saturday and Sunday as options and left us with Friday night (7:00 show).  We debated it because the kids are usually in bed by 8:00 and we didn't know how they would do staying up so much later than usual, but ultimately decided to go if we could find affordable tickets.  I looked on Craigslist and found much cheaper tickets so I picked the kids up from school Friday and told them we had a big surprise for them.  We didn't tell them until we got in to the arena what we were doing there (weren't quite sure the tickets were going to be legitimate) and the kids were ridiculously excited once we told them what we were going to see.  To be fair, though, they were also excited to be in the same building where the "hockey players skate on ice" and where they have a "really long" escalator.

It was a great show, but yet again just a bit too long.  Not only too long for my children who are on the younger side of Friday night attendees, but also seemingly for everyone around us.  It started at 7:00 and ended at 9:30 with a 15 minute intermission.  Katie was enthralled the entire time, but Tyler was kind of over it and would have been happy to leave at intermission (at 9:00).  He did perk up, though, when he saw the big dragon at the end and he said that was his favorite so I am glad we stayed.  Katie said the trapeze was her favorite and the "soldiers" (not really sure what she is talking about, but I think she is referring to the martial arts act with swords).  Tyler cracked up at the clowns every time, and said that they were all so funny, but he really like the elephants and tigers too.  On the way home he asked Lance if he could be anything he wanted to be when he got big and we said of course, and he said that if he isn't an "animal doctor  at the zoo" he wants to teach tigers and lions at the circus :).

When we got home Friday night we realized that we didn't have any pull-ups in the house for nighttime.  So, we hoped that the later bedtime would keep them dry and vowed to purchase some more on Saturday.  But, they woke up dry and very excited to have slept in underwear!  We tried it again Saturday and Sunday and they were successful (even if it may be because they go to the bathroom incessantly from bedtime until about 9:00), so I guess we are officially back to working on nighttime potty training!  On Sunday they both woke up a bit late and we didn't get out the door for "breakfast" until almost 10:00 am so we opted to look for a brunch option.  We didn't find anything that sounded kid-friendly enough, and were kind of in the mood for more lunchtime fare anyway so we went to Chuy's instead.  The kids enjoyed the food but were very confused about why we didn't have breakfast (they had a banana and poptart before we left so they actually did have breakfast but were choosing to not acknowledge it as such).  So, we told them it was crazy, mixed up Sunday Fun Day and that we were having lunch for breakfast and breakfast for dinner.  Our breakfast dinner was great, and Katie has become an excellent kitchen helper (can crack eggs pretty well now and she iced the cinnamon rolls) so it was a great way to end the weekend!  Not much in store this week, but we have birthday parties the next two weekends and we are still hoping to make it to Gatlinburg sometime soon - if only it would SNOW!