Ladies & Gentlemen, Children of all ages...

Eli, Stephen, Kymber, and Benito

Grandpa and Grandma

Seven super-fast motorcycles in one super-small cage

Tigers doing tricks, or "suffering" as the animal rights protesters told us

The flying trapeze -- I seriously want to try this someday

Elephants falling in line
(and speaking of elephantine, their poop was pretty impressive)

Grandpa got us a family photo with tigers and all

Eli and his greatest drink on earth

About a week before Father's Day I happened to hear Stephen telling his parents how he'd never been to the circus, one of the many things he missed out on as the oldest of five kids. (Of course his sisters tell things a little differently since they seem to remember Stephen taking gymnastics and other kiddie classes that they never got to do.) Well, his youngest sister, Kymber, was in the room and said she'd never been to the circus, either, which gave me an idea. Eureka! Finally, a father's day gift that wasn't as boring and practical as the usual work pants or new shoes.

Once Bennett caught wind of the fact that we were going to the circus, you can imagine how broken a record he was: "When do we go to the circus?" "Is it today?" "How many days until the circus?" I wondered if he'd be disappointed when the elephants didn't jump off a tower and fly, since I'm pretty sure his only frame of reference for a circus was Dumbo. We did find a pretty cool circus book at the library, though, which B. asked to read several times a day.

Anyway, the big day arrived and after meeting up with Grandma, Grandpa, and Kymber, we were off to the circus. We mingled with the clowns, jugglers, and elephants for a few minutes before the show and then headed off to our seats. As loud and raucous as the show was, Eli still managed to conk out in Stephen's lap about thirty minutes in and sleep through most of the action. Bennett was literally on the edge of his seat, riveted by all the stunts and amazing physical feats. He told Kymber his favorite part was the motorcycles. No surprise there. I would have to agree, although I also really loved the more traditional parts of the circus like the animals, the clowns, the trapeze and other acrobats/contortionists. I wasn't so sure about the ringmaster and his flashy back-up singers waging war against the head clown and all his clown buddies. It was a little too Jets vs. Sharks for me, especially once they started singing "Rev it up!" "No, Pump it up!" Overall, however, it really was a great show that kept at least one of our kids and all of us adults entertained.