Cole Bros. Circus

When the kids came home from school last week with free circus tickets, I got excited to take them to the Cole Bros. Circus that came to town this weekend. I knew it wouldn't be anything spectacular, but the trained animals and the people who work hard at their acrobatic acts always impress. So, after school today, we headed off to the early show starting at 4:30pm at Zephyr Field. Our sweet neighbor, Caroline, agreed to accompany me to help with the kids.
When we arrived, they were offering elephant rides in front of the big top. Carston and Peyton were so excited that I couldn't resist letting them ride even though the price was outrageous.
Here they are enjoying a ride on one of the circus elephants:

Their ride consisted of one turn about this small enclosure set up in the parking lot, but....

they couldn't have been happier with the ride.

You can see it was a beautiful day to be outside.

Jackson was nervous to ride until Carston and Peyton were done. Then he decided he would like a ride as well. By that point the circus was starting, so he never got that ride....maybe next time.

Benjamin gravitated to the area where the elephants were enclosed. He kept pointing and saying "elephant" with his sweet little toddler accent. The circus held his attention just as well as these elephants did at the entrance.

I had the kids line up against the tent as we headed inside. Wow, was it dirty! The stands had the same level of cleanliness which made me feel like I should have brought blankets to sit on.

Just my boys!
(minus the littlest one due in three months who is kicking me in the ribs right now)

Grant was clapping with excitement and Benjamin was not enjoying being held back from getting to the show.

I have a lot of fun with my best friends! We were excited for the show to begin.

I brought our dinner with us (sandwiches, juice boxes and fruit). We ate while we watched. Grant could hardly eat because he was so enthralled by most of the acts we saw.

The twins enjoyed their meal.

Afterwards, Peyton favored all of us in the stands with her own acrobatic act. It was so cute. She honestly worked up a sweat twisting around the railing in the middle of the stairs. You can see in some of the pictures that she is watching the act and trying to follow what they are doing. I have got to get her into dance and gymnastics. She loved that part of the circus!

My little acrobat!

Carston's favorite act was the elephants. The last circus we attended had tigers, so we were hoping this one would too. We were sad to find out that this circus didn't have anything more dangerous than camels. Luckily, Carston has loved elephants since he was really little and before the more ferocious animals took his attention, elephants were his favorite.

The elephants were my favorite as well.

This cannon was extremely loud as the man exploded out of it, but it wasn't anything spectacular. I kept wondering what made the man shot from this cannon choose this job. What kind of child sits around when they are little and thinks that they would like to be shot out of a cannon at the circus when they grow up. There must be a serious thrill attached or a love of deafeningly loud noises and landing in safety nets.

Jackson was enjoying the trained camels (you can't see them very well in the background). One might not guess that he was having fun by the pained look on his face. I think I take too many pictures and he can hardly make himself smile for them sometimes.

Benjamin was mesmerized for most of the circus. I was surprised by how much attention he was paying to everything going on. If you're wondering what on earth he is eating in this picture, it is an apple slice.

On our way out of the circus, I had to get a picture of Caroline with the kids (all of whom were begging for a treat from the concessions stands, which I didn't want to buy). So, we went out for ice cream afterwards and came home exhausted and sticky.
We had a great time at the circus!