The Greatest Show on Earth!

We took Reagan and Avery to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus this morning!!

Reagan sat on John's lap for the first half of the show

She was in awe! Actually, we all were! I had NEVER been to the circus before, other than a tiny little traveling circus that came to River Vale last fall. This was the real deal, and I must say it was impressive!
Avery seemed to enjoy it too ... despite all the noise, she even took a little cat nap through the middle of it :)

This is Diane McTigue with her mother-in-law Connie and her kids, JP and Kaitlyn. Reagan goes to preschool with JP and his mom Diane was nice enough to get us VIP tickets at a discounted rate. Thanks again Diane!! Our 4th row seats really put us in the middle of the action!

Just before intermission, Reagan moved to her own seat. Our seats were on the floor of the arena on risers, so they were individual folding chairs. At one point, I think she was having more fun folding herself into the chair than actually watching the circus!

I was pretty impressed by these elephants. First they all sat down, then laid down, then sat back up in this position. It was crazy to see these enormous animals moving around like dogs would!

John and I both couldn't believe how big these tigers looked from our seats.

Reagan was SO excited to see the clowns. Whenever she talks about the circus clowns, she often confuses us, since it sometimes sounds like she's saying "cows" (she has trouble pronouncing her "L"s). Then we say, "there are no cows at the circus!" and she looks at us like we're crazy. Anyway, I downloaded the pictures and showed them to her and she was SO disappointed. She kept saying, "clowns, clowns, clowns ... I want to see clowns!" I felt like such an idiot. In my opinion, the clowns were the least impressive part of the show, so I didn't bother to take any pictures of them! The above picture is the only one that has a clown in it. I thought I did a good job, since I got pictures of horses, llamas, goats, elephants, tigers, and even a porcupine! But no. My daughter only wanted pictures of clowns. What a lame mom I am! In my defense, I did have Avery on my lap the entire time, so working the camera wasn't the easiest thing.
Reagan and the cotton candy ... TAKE THE POLL about the cost of it! Reagan wearing the souvenir hat the cotton candy came in

John went to get snacks and came back with hot dogs, cotton candy, and Wadda Juice. Reagan said, "I want popcorn!" So he flagged down the popcorn guy and bought this box for $7. She didn't touch the hot dog (which eventually got knocked down onto the floor), but she devoured the popcorn! Papa loves his little girl :)

I was so surprised how long it went ... it started at 10:30 and didn't end until 1:00! All in all, it was such a fun day at the circus and I can't wait to go back next year!