The circus is in town!

Last night my neighbor called me just after 6 p.m. and said she had free tickets to the circus, which started at 7:30. I had already put on a sweatshirt and sweat pants and had decided to have frozen pizza for dinner and just laze around the house all evening, until we all turned in early to get a good night's sleep.  I REALLY didn't want to go to the circus.  But Josh and I talked briefly and knew the kids would love it, so we decided to go.  I was pretty grumpy about it at first - I complained about the parking.  I complained about having to stand out in the cold to get in.  I complained because I knew we were going to have a horrible seat and see nothing.  I complained about the smell of animal poop.  But all of a sudden, I remembered times when my parents would take us places when I was a kid.  My mother was always the unwilling participant.  She wanted everyone to know that things would have been easier and/or more enjoyable if we had just stayed home.  I remember how I just wanted to have fun and mom made me feel that my fun was a burden to her.  So, I quickly decided that the complaining needed to end.  If I don't want my kids to grumble when I want them to do something I want them to do, then I shouldn't grumble about things they want to do.  When we were about 3 yards from the door, after standing outside for over 20 minutes, we realized we could have went right in, since we had free tickets!  It almost made me laugh.  We ended up getting great seats - right in the middle between the two entertainment rings on the third and fourth rows.  I had only been to the circus one time. It was when we went to the Ringley Bro. Circus in Pittsburgh for an elementary school trip and we were so far up we were practically hitting our heads on the ceiling!  So this was pretty unexpected to be so close to the action. I lived in a small town and my parents didn't have a lot of money.  I am not even sure if the circus even came to town where I lived, but we certainly never went, if it did.  The acts were all impressive (even though I couldn't help feeling sorry for the animals who are forced out of their natural habitats to do tricks for us).  I became as enthralled in the acts as the kids.  In fact, I think I was even more so, since Elias kept asking me every 5 minutes when intermission would come so he could get his face painted.  I thought it was hilarious that we were sitting watching lions and tigers jump through rings of fire and people doing acts of incredible bravado and all Elias wanted was to get his face painted, which he could get done so many other places.  He wanted his face painted even more than riding the elephant.  So we paid the $7 (yes, I said it, $7 per child) to get the kids faces painted.  They were both thrilled, for about 20 minutes until it started to itch and come off on their hands.  They also insisted they wanted cotton candy (and every other ware that the concession workers were toting around!) and when they got it, neither of them liked it.  Elias said it tasted like fuzz.  So I ended up eating most of the pink myself and feeling pretty sick from it afterward.  How did I eat that stuff as a kid?  In the end, we spent exactly $20 for a night of fun and next time the circus comes to town, I will not be an unwilling participant. It reminds me of the credit card commercial: face paint that lasted about an hour: $14, cotton candy that the kids didn't like: $6, seeing the kids eyes get wide with amazement and their faces light up with joy: Priceless.We got home at 11 p.m. and we were hoping the kids might sleep in a little this morning.  And they did - They were up around 7:20, instead of their usual 7 a.m.!  Is it nap time yet?