Another fabulous day! I hope that you’re all having fun playing outside!
Yesterday, I spent an exhausting morning at nursery school because I was the official class picture day helper.  I remember that once, before I had children, I went along to a birthday party with my sister and niece and I couldn’t believe how tired I was just from hanging out in the same room with a large group of young children. I mean, I wasn’t even in charge of any of them and I was like, can we all take a nap now? I don’t know how those teachers do it. Anyway, folks brought siblings and it was a half day for the elementary school. I was very excited, because, Dan, our photographer, is way better than the elementary school photographer. He gets the children to smile natural smiles because they’re having so much fun. Goofy faces for the babies, mild potty humor for the big kids.  So I ran over and snatched M up at dismissal time and brought her back so that I could get a sisters shot. I can’t wait to see them.
We went to get new spring outfits at Old Navy for the pictures, so the girls were happy. Although now, what with the sunniness and the new tops and all, J suddenly thinks that it’s, like, summertime. She bounced out of the house this morning wearing a spaghetti strap shirt and a teensy cardigan sweater. So that when I caught up with her two minutes later with the winter coat, she was shivering and complaining that the car was cold. I’ve been thinking, actually, that this is one of many aspects of what I call the darker side of spring. . . so you might hear more on that later.
But enough about me! What the heck else is going on, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is coming at the beginning of May. As usual, the Opening Night tickets for Thursday, May 6th at 7 pm have extra-cheap tickets for $12. There’s also a 20% savings on selected tickets if you purchase by March 21 and use the discount code Z4554. We’ve gone to the circus with the girls once and they really loved it. If you do decide to go, remember to arrive early, because you can walk all the way down and interact with some clowns and animals, which starts about an hour prior to the show. Of course, this becomes a mob scene 15 or 20 minutes before showtime, so it might be a good idea to arrive really early to check out the pre-show, then mill around randomly once it gets closer to showtime. There’s a ton of (expensive) stuff that they’re selling at concession stands, too, so if you want to eliminate possible drama, you might want to decide ahead of time and prep the kids, as in: “We’ll all share one snack” or “You can pick one toy” or “Do you want to bring any money from your piggy bank, because I’ve spent my circus money on tickets.”  Am I scaring you off? Really, I don’t mean to–we just like to set the expectation level really low before an event like this. I mean, no child ever starts sobbing or throws a tantrum because you decided to buy them something extra, right?  It’s really a very fun time. I tried to find our own adorable photos, but the lighting was tough on W. So the good ones show my children watching, slack-jawed, against a dark background which could easily be anywhere.
