Circus!

Monday night, J & I took the girls to the circus in Huntsville. They've only been to one circus in their lifetime, including Bethany, which was a tiny Italian circus that came to town a few months ago. And while they thought that one was great since they didn't have anything to compare it to, they saw the real deal (not Barnum & Baileys, but close) this time and were amazed! I have the best memories of going to the circus when I was young, and besides it being a little more expensive and performers wearing a lot less clothing, not much has changed!

Everyone was running to get there as fast as we possibly could...

Except Cate, of course. She's always on her own schedule and is such a slow poke! She was taking her dear, sweet time and enjoying everything around her...

Bethany and Towns were about to die to get inside, so I gave her a lift to speed things up...

Wish it wasn't so blurry!!
The girls as we were going in...

Once we were inside, they absolutely could not wait for it to start!

Can you tell that they're just a little bit excited??

Yours truly wasn't very smart when I chose seats in front of this...

Because for the 30 minutes we were waiting for the show to begin, the younger two were dying to ride!
But they ended up getting these light-up flashing wands...

Which were a small fortune, and in the end I think they would have opted for the elephants instead. We're trying to teach them that they can't have everything, and to just be thankful that we had the opportunity to go the circus. That went over like a lead balloon!
Anyway, on with the show...
We saw lions

Tigers

Bears

And bedazzled elephants (according to B) since they had such sparkly jewelry (according to Towns)

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks it's hysterical that both Bethany and Towns said 'oh look, they're holding hands'...

On the way home we played the 'if you were in the circus, what would you be' game. Jonathan would have been the guy doing flips on the BMX bike and one of the 3 guys on a motorcycle inside the steel cage ball. Bethany would be the girl who climbs and flips her way up the rope hanging from the ceiling. Towns wants to be the one who does handstands on top of the chairs stacked 30 feet in the air. I wanted to be the girl on the elephant. And we decided that Cate would be the lion tamer. It's a toss up as to who would be taming who, though!!

We Love Weekends!

Did anyone else make the most of the gorgeous weather over the weekend?? We were outside the entire time, which completely spoiled us because we're so ready for fall! And to top it all off, it was 55 degrees this morning when Bethany left for school...it just puts me in the best mood!

Bethany had cheer pictures Saturday morning and the practice afterwards, so when she was done we all headed to play.

We did a little of this...



And B worked on her back handspring...


She did it once by herself without realizing it...she'll have it down in no time!
The younger two caught on to what B was doing and had to have a shot at it...


My husband is absolutely the most fun and crazy person I know...




And I love it!



Sunday afternoon after church, we spent a couple of hours at the park by the river where we got pretty excited about seeing a ton of these...

And J played with the girls while B and I got a little sun and read a magazine...

It doesn't get much better than that!
Oh, and last night B planned a pj party while we watched the Miss Universe pageant. She made the cutest invitations, slaved in the kitchen making cupcakes, fixed popcorn with M&Ms (our fave), and even had gift bags for her guests. Towns got purple nail polish and I got new earrings! Thanks for the fun night, B!

Just keep your phone close by for when the agents of those contestants call us for our advice. We were full of it, right?! And Spencer called for you. He said he heard that you had some feedback on Heidi's performance. I told him you had some new moves for her. HA!

Meet the Raiders

Last night we went to Meet the Raiders at the high school which totally took me back to the good old days in Andy! It was like a big pep rally...and I do love a good pep rally! I tried not to embarrass Bethany by stalking her with the camera, but I couldn't help it! All the moms in the stands with me had their huge cameras too, so I think we looked more like the paparazzi on the red carpet than fans there to cheer on the Raiders!

Here she is waiting to be introduced...

And mid-toe touch once they called her name...

Now that's talent...a super toe touch and a big smile on your face at the same time!
Great job, B!

One more round of pictures before I get back to my computer work...
Towns asked me if she could borrow my camera Monday afternoon to take pictures of Cate. And here's what she needed it for...

We had just made brownies and the pan I'd originally poured the batter in was too big, so I gave the girls a spoon and let them have at what was left after I switched it all around. I was busy doing something else because I knew that that much chocolate would keep them entertained for at least a minute or two. Towns wasn't overly interested in it (shocker), but Cate obviously was!
She was pretty serious about getting all she could before she got caught...

She's trying to turn the pan around thinking she'll get more from the other side...

Please notice the batter in her hair! I let it go on for far too long and once she was covered from head to toe I had to get control of myself and snap back into mom mode. I took it away from her to clean her up, which didn't make for a happy baby...

Bless her heart! What kind of mom takes a picture like that of her devastated child?? Me! The mom who secretly wishes it was me who had a face full of chocolate and could get away with licking a pan like that!!

Cattle Bling

Bethany started taking a gymnastics/cheer class this week to help her with tumbling, and since the class is an hour long I had to get the girls out of there to prevent a major scene. I was crazy enough to think we could wait there until B's class was over. Within 5 minutes of the class starting, Cate had bolted out of the parents waiting area and was underneath the parallel bars...as these Olympic looking girls were doing their routines. Not good. So I grabbed her to take her away as she's kicking and screaming 'nastics, nastics, nastics'. She was dead set that she should be involved in 'nastics' just like the rest of 'em! So we went straight to the car to find something to do until B's class was over. There's really nothing around the gym so I started down a little country road and spotted a stock yard. There are very few, if any, people I know who would think of a stock yard as entertainment, but the girls love animals so I knew it was golden. I pulled up to show them this...

And here's the conversation that followed...

Towns: Mommy! I never knew cows played dress up!
Me: What??
Towns: Well they're wearing earrings, so those have got to be the fanciest cows I've ever seen!
Me: unable to speak because I'm laughing so hard

Halloween, Here We Come!

Remember the other day when I told you how Towns was having a fit to paint fall pumpkin decorations? Well I let the girls have at it the next day and now we're well on our way to ringing in a new season...2 months early! For some reason, they are all obsessed with decorating and getting into any holiday that comes our way. I can't imagine where they get it from!

They were very much excited about having a project...



And were in total concentration...



It was great entertainment for at least an hour, which is why I didn't ruin it and tell them that we won't be hanging pumpkins in August. Towns asks me at least ten times a day why we haven't decorated the house yet. That girl, that girl!

After the craft session, they enjoyed snacks and curly straws...


While I didn't so much enjoy cleaning their mess...

I've learned with these clowns that the bigger the mess, the more fun they have, so I just roll with it! Maybe one day I'll have more than just painting/decorating/baking to talk about...it seems as if that's all we do!

Happy 1st Day of School Party

I think we invented this one, so don't expect it to be coming to a Party City near you!

Towns and I decided last night before bed that we needed to throw Bethany a 'Happy 1st Day of School Party' since she started 8th grade today. Getting a party together at the drop of a hat is old news for Towns since she does it every other day or so around here, so we were up bright and early this morning to get B's new school year kicked off...
We baked school bus cookies (cheesy, I know)...


If you know Cate, you know she ate while we worked. And then she was so kind to offer me her half-eaten cookie...

We blew up balloons and made a sign, and there you have it...

Our 1st annual Happy 1st Day of School Party!
She and her mom went in search of the perfect outfit to start school in and if there was a best dressed on the 1st day of school award, I'm pretty sure she'd win it...

We all hopped in the car and took her to school. The girls were having a fit to go with Jonathan to drop her off, and I ended up going to be on embarrassment patrol! J loves to act crazy to embarrass her. Jonathan? Crazy? I know that's exactly what you're thinking. Not him. Please tell me you can sense the sarcasm? We managed to make it all the way to the front of the drop-off line without any major mis-haps. She got out and we said our goodbyes and then at the last minute J rolled down his window and mine and called her name as she was walking off so she'd turn around. He said 'HURRY, get a picture' and I did. All the while the principal who was standing there was almost falling over because he was laughing so hard. Just for the record, I'm sorry B! Your daddy made me do it! :) But you really look like you should be in one of those 'caught in the act' photos in Us Mag...and that's a compliment! HA!

We hope you had a GREAT first day!

And we can't wait to hear ALL about it!!!
(And maybe you had all 7 classes with cute science boy...a girl can dream, right?)