The Greatest Show on Earth

This morning marked another rite of passage in Miss Ava's life. We took her to see 'The Greatest Show on Earth'... The Circus! At some point last week, I got a phone call from a friend of mine. It went something like this:

Friend: Melissa, I have some tickets to the circus. Would you like to go?
Me: How much are they?

Friend: Oh, they're free. And there are 9 of them. And they are in a luxury box. And you get 2 free parking passes. And you'll have access to the Schiffman's Club. So, do you want them?

Me: Um, Yes!

As soon as we entered the coliseum, my senses were flooded with toys and treats that took me back to my childhood. Snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn, light up toys, glow sticks.... Then I saw the price tag attached to many of these items. $20 for a light up toy. For real? My state of euphoria came crashing down when I realized that this will be the cheapest trip to the circus our family will ever take. Free tickets, free food, free parking, and Ava is not yet old enough to verbalize that she wanted any of the yummy food or entertaining toys. It was a great morning. :)

My apologies if the pictures are hard to see. The flash on my camera insisted on illuminating the heads and seats directly in front of me instead of the action in the 3-Ring show.

There were plenty of lights and moving people to keep everyone's attention, even Ava's.

Just a few of the very well-trained elephants.

I know the tigers are 'tame,' but you couldn't pay me enough to get in a cage with them so they could 'pretend' to growl at me. No thanks.

After being in a semi-dark coliseum for an hour or so, Ava was not so thrilled at having a flash go off just inches from her face.

Ava was however, thrilled to watch the circus from daddy's lap.

Tucker and Jack loved watching the show from their luxury box seats. Their moms enjoyed that the seats had cup holders so that they weren't constantly hearing, "Mom, hold this!"

Matt P (yes, the little man who recently gave Ava her first kiss) was possibly more consumed with his popcorn than the circus.

During intermission, Matt, Ava and I went to check out the "Schiffman's Diamond Club." We were allowed to enjoy the snacks thanks to our (free) luxury box tickets. I thought it would be appropriate to get a picture with the classy, 'Diamond Club' sign in the background and me, inhaling a cinnamon roll in the foreground. Not classy.

Here's the group of clowns (except Matt, who was taking the picture) who enjoyed the circus with us.

All of the excitement wore Ava out. About 20 minutes before the show was over, she fell asleep in daddy's lap. He didn't mind. :) I can't tell you how thankful I was not only for the tickets, but for access to a box. We had a fridge for the kid's drinks, a microwave for popcorn, a floor for the kids to crawl on, room to change diapers and our own BATHROOM. Let's face it, taking little ones to public restrooms in coliseums isn't fun. The private bathroom was a life saver!

Thank you, friend, for passing along the tickets to us. We enjoyed it and appreciate it more than you know!