The circus came to town! It wasn't a three ring circus and there weren't elephants or tigers jumping through rings of fire BUT there were some things that really entertained the kids :) (and some things that made Kevin and I look at each other and laugh!). It took Arden a little while to warm up to the whole show and she never made friends with the clown (but really, clowns are strange) but she had a great time and eventually they told her to back-up from the main stage!
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| {The Big Top} |
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| {Arden: "I think I like this so you get a half clap."... notice her pretzel mouth!} |
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| {Don't leave me Dad!} |
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| {The jugglers...it was a Father Son duo!} |
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| {One of the main attractions! This horse was so tame...he even let people - Moms - from the audience ride him and stand on his back! Then at intermission you could ride him for one spin around the ring for $5. He made his money that day!} |
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| {See this isn't so bad!} |
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| {And this is where she decided she had no more fears. She sat on the ring with her sippy cup and snack cup. She thought she owned the place!} |
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| {Maybe Arden's favorite act - the Dogs! There was a trio of women who had Poodles that followed them around in matching costumes. I lost count of all of the costume changes for the women and the dogs but there were Hula dogs, Patriotic dogs, Can-Can dogs, Mardi-gras dogs and Batman dogs. Really, there were all of those and then some!} |
On Saturday we went to "Chester Days"... Chester is a small, super cute town about 10 minutes from Mendham. We weren't sure what to expect, and to be honest I think we missed most of the activities, but it was sort of like a scene from a movie! You know, the movies that are about small towns and every year on the same weekend they have a festival and the whole town goes and almost lives for it...it was that type of scene (something that we would for sure in the South! But of course the South would have crafts and LOTS of things to buy that were carved out of wood). We did see an "old tyme" baseball game (well the uniforms were throw backs...way back!) and a band. We tried to wait in line for food but after standing in a LONG line for about 10 minutes it started to sprinkle so we decided we didn't really have to eat the Chester Days food. Plus, everyone else had brought lawn chairs and blankets for picnics and we didn't have any of that so we decided to stroll through Chester, eat at the local Deli and look at antique stores.
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| {The "old tyme" baseball game! The uniforms seemed like originals!} |
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| {The Band} |
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| {Kevin really wanted Arden's picture with the bear...notice she didn't care AT.ALL.} |
All-in-all it was a great weekend. I know that I may sound as if I am picking on the Mendham Circus (and we received fair warning that it wasn't Barnum & Bailey's) but I want to say that Mendham is a fabulous place to live. It is small and quaint and sort of a suburb of a suburb but Kevin and I were just talking this past weekend about how lucky we feel to have found this house and this town. It has really made our transition so much easier and has already given us so many great memories...like the circus ;)!
Lots of thoughts and prayers going out to everyone in Joplin. I don't personally know anyone that lives there but have passed through there several times and knowing it is so close to NWA my heart goes out to all of those that lost so much in the terrible storm.
Hugs,
Hillary
