Trail of Circus Peanuts

Well actually it was a trail of veggie straws.  Have you ever had those?
One thing that always makes me feel like a circus is taking my sweet crew into any retail establishment.

 The trip in costco wasn't much of a circus this time.  It started once we were through the checkout lines.  We decided to eat there despite the unhealthy choices.  I was tired and sick and it was cheap.  GREAT!  So we bought a pizza, they forgot to cook it.  As we waited, and waited, and waited the kiddos got hungry.  We pulled out the bag of extremely nutritious veggie straws that the little performers had asked us for.  We broke it open and they feasted.  Even the baby was shoving them in by the handfuls.  So as the wait continues I decide to load the car.  My hot hubby wants to take the pizza home.  He stays with the boys I take Little Acrobat to the car and load the trunk.     As I am loading the car the opened bag dumps over and spills some veggie straws onto the pavement.  I keep stepping on them, hearing them crunch under my feet.  I am just curious if any one has noticed what is happening.  As I go to put the cart away I see some that haven't fallen out yet.  I'll get them in a minute I think.  Nope, the cart shakes them through the cracks one by one until I have left a trail from our car to the cart rack.  Humiliating.  Only Daniel's old boss is standing at his car near the cart rack.   I don't think he has noticed us, the crunching noises, or the multicolored trail.  So Hot Hubby now emerges from store with boys.  Balancing a very large stack of plates all wrapped up and piled high.  Apparently they were out of pizza boxes.  Seriously!  Then Monkey in the Middle drops the drink he is supposed to carry for his daddy in front of the store.  Ughhhhh.

That's not all.
Once we get home The Ringmaster is carrying the bag of veggie straws in by one side and it rips down the middle covering our deck.  ;)  Apparently we are not meant to buy bulk veggie straws.  The boys go pick them up outside, but never finish the job.  We promptly forget about it and tuck them in bed.  This morning we remembered the straws.  Not one is sight!  Greasy little paw prints everywhere.  Well I kinda think there is a raccoon or two out there with a little indigestion today.

Circus Cancelled Due to Cold

So I have a summer cold.  I firmly believe those should not exist.  I think summer colds are extremely unfair and would like to use the most venomous language against them.  That being said I confess I am not a good sick person.  So I have accomplished nothing this week except pinning tons of things on pinterest while my littlest naps.  My older children have seen more movies than I approve of because I also had an appointment with my Retina specialist this week.  That means that on the day I felt the worst my eyes were dilated and I couldn't read anything for hours.  I have been told that blue eyes stay dilated longer and that larger eyes will dilate faster and stay longer as well.  That's me.  My Monkey in the Middle told everyone yesterday that "Mommy can't see today"  Last night in the middle of his prayers his head popped up and he said "Mommy can you see now?"  He said a thank you for that.

So I cancelled the circus, but the performers did not listen and kept up their antics.  Oh it's so hard to be patient when you feel fine.  I think I deserve chocolate for staying patient while feeling terrible.  Oh wait I didn't and I had chocolate ice cream anyways.   Until tomorrow.

The Show Must Go On!

My Littlest Circus Member

 Well I tried my best to capture a picture I had seen on Pinterest.  I'll have a link to that picture and a brief tutorial of how I made the romper on my other blog AReneePhotography.  It's part of my "Nailed It or Failed It" challenge.  More on that over there.  Anyways here is a roughly edited pic of my attempt at this glamorous picture.  Done rather quickly in my oh so fancy living room studio ;) with a somewhat unwilling participant.  I can't tell you how much fun I'm having with this little acrobat.

Monkey in the Middle

So I thought I would highlight my middle child today.  He is and always has been a monkey. My ringleader son has a healthy dose of caution.  My monkey in the middle son has always been a monkey compared to my firstborn.  Now their little sister is fast becoming an acrobat.  I'll have to snap some pictures of her talents sometime.  For now I have this blurry picture of my middle son, because I was snapping it as I was running out the door telling him to get down.  For some reason this looks much more dangerous in real life.  We usually have two swings up and they asked to hook up the rings.  Sure I thought they would use the rings like rings, not like swings.  So please excuse the terrible photo I didn't slow down to grab a second. See my oldest son.  Much closer to the ground.  This is a perfect example of their personalities.

8 ring circus

We had a circus of a party to celebrate my firstborns birthday.  He had 20 of his closest friends (all siblings from 3 families)  come swim with him.  That many kids in a pool jumping, splashing, doing tricks, had a little of the circus air about it.  That's what made it so fun!

The party colors were orange and blue.  For his favorite football team.  Not mine.  He long ago chose his Dad's side when it came to football teams.  

The morning of his actual birthday we made cinnamon swirl pancakes from The Idea Room.  They were delicious.  I highly recommend them.  We used our favorite whole wheat recipe for the pancakes and added her cinnamon swirl.  

I'm so blessed by God to have my first circus star be this little boy/little man.  He is a wonderful child, helpful with his other siblings, thoughtful, energetic, and determined.
Here is a baby picture of him.  And a somewhat recent picture of him now.

What to do when it rains at your Circus!

Well it's been raining here at our circus for days! At least 3 straight. We haven't had rain in so long. This rain was much needed, but it definitely left me with some stir crazy monkeys. Our house is relatively small and divided into several rooms. There is no room to run and that is just what my little monkeys were doing. So I turned to pinterest for some of the ideas I had pinned. I wanted to make homemade GAK. Remember that stuff? Well I didn't have any borax handy. I have never actually bought borax and all sorts of stuff I want to make uses borax. Well I went to the prior to pinterest part of my brain and remembered something my 5th grade S.P.A.C.E. teacher taught us. (Don't ask me what that stood for I just know I was in it.) Anyways I quickly whipped up some Magic Mud. It provided hours of fun with only two ingredients. Here's the recipe.

Magic Mud

cornstarch

water

food coloring (optional)

Put cornstarch in a bowl and add water small amounts at a time. Sorry I have no measurements (it was fifth grade people). You want to wet all of the cornstarch, but not let it get runny. The "magic" of this stuff is that it is a liquid until you squeeze it and then it will harden under pressure. Once you stop putting pressure on it, it will ooze through your fingers.

That's it.

Hope your circus animals enjoy this as much as I do. It kept mine busy for at least 2 hours.

Below is a video of them and some pictures of the mud. Sorry I only had my phone to take pictures with.  

P.S.  Note on the trash bag in this video.  That's what happens when you ask the kids to take out the trash.  They take it out and no further.

Welcome to Blogland

Hi, Well I titled this blog Someday It's a Circus and here's why. I have a hot hubby,3 wonderful children, one Houdini of a dog and someday it's just a circus. I was in a store and the cashier asked me how we were doing. Well at that moment I was ripping open food I hadn't even paid for yet and giving to the 11 month old, telling the other two to keep their hands off all the tempting child level goodies, and trying to swipe my card through the machine. I looked at her and said it feels like we are a circus and everyone is watching. She smiled and said "But who doesn't love the circus!" Which she followed up by saying that really, my kids where being great and I seemed to be handling it well. (I can't tell you how nice that was to hear.) Well her comment has stuck with me and made me smile again and again. I realized that I do love this Circus that is my life. My kids are fun! It's such a privilege to get to raise them. They sometimes act like monkeys, or clowns, trapeze artists, ringmasters or ringleaders. But who doesn't love a circus. So when you visit this Circus of a blog I hoped to show you snippets of life and projects we have going on here.