The Greatest Show on Earth!!

My mom and I took the girls to the Ringling Brothers & Barnum Bailey (or whatever that name is) on Thursday night. I haven't been since I was like 10 years old -- and it was such a magical night for me at that age! I wanted the girls to experience that magical night. My mom loves the circus too .... so she came along for a great night. If you arrive 90 minutes before the show, you can see all the circus animals. I didn't realize how many pictures I took of the elephants until I downloaded them ... I think I like the elephants the best? LOL There was the smallest elephant that really looked like a baby, but he was 6 years old, and the other bigger elephants were 39 years old! WHOA! Anyways, saw the zebras (didn't remember seeing them during the circus though), horses, white tigers ... and I think that's it.

Then we went inside the arena and went to the floor where all the performers were on hand to do demonstrations, etc. There were these two clowns, I'll call them Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum ... who were just short men (thinking about it ... almost ALL the performers were short .. HMMM?), who in an odd way looked similar to each other. I'm wearing this hospital sticker on me, not realizing I have it on (see the picture w/ me and the girls in front of the sign). These two clowns come up to me and basically wanting my sticker -- so I gave it to them. Tweedle Dee put it on and they went around telling everybody to look at this sticker and pointing at his vest. ::rolling eyes:: Oh well .. guess you had to be there. Anways, got a picture of those guys ....

I was just shocked at the prices that's going for a stupid flashlight that will most likely die or get stepped on the minute you leave the arena == $20!! I bought the girls a $10 snow cone (GASP!) each, but it did come in a reusable water bottle. Katie got blue (see her blue teeth), Maddie got red. WORD OF CAUTION!! Do NOT give these to your kids if picture day is the next day!! (yep, Friday was picture day at school, and lo and behold, Maddie had a red mustache I could not get off and Katie had blue spots on her cheeks and her nose).

Anyways ... circus started, and we were just in AWE of it all! The audience wasn't just kids ... there were couples there without kids! Wow! Never thought of going w/o kids! Guess one will always be a kid at heart? Anyways, we saw 7 motorcycles in that small ball thing, 7 elephants that I thought was SO COOL! (they danced! They sat on footstools that made them look like they were sitting on the toilet! They held each other's tail! They DID IT ALL!) Then the 6 white tigers, then the little cats (Maddie just couldn't get enough of these cats and clapped her hands frantically!), then the dogs (Heard the "I want a dog now!"), then the horses & the guys who rode the horses. Oh, the Chinese acrobats (cool too), the girl who sat in a hoop in the middle of the air (I was so nervous for her until I saw the invisible strings holding her up in case she fell), oh, the flying trapeze guys .. also short people. Where do they find these short people with weird talents??

The girls said they had the best time of their life (OK, so did I!) -- it truly was a magical night to remember for the Nelson (and Grandma Debbie) girls! It also was The GREATEST Show on Earth! Totally lives up to its name!

Here's a great picture of Great Grandma Dee w/ the girls the day before she left for Florida. :)