A Snowy Day at the Circus!

We have been stuck inside for what seems like forever, and this was yet another snowy, cold day. Instead of bundling up and playing in the snow, we bundled up and headed to the circus! This was our first time at the circus & it was such a fun experience! We had free tickets for the kids, so we thought it would be a fairly inexpensive thing to do...uhhh, we thought wrong! After elephant rides, a picture with a black bear, coloring books, corn dogs, a funnel cake, & a light-up sword...we were out nearly $100. EEK! Oh, well...you only live once, right?!

My favorite part of the whole day was Madison saying "Daddy can do that!" with every daring circus act she saw! She loves her Daddy and holds him in very high regard! I just agreed with her and said, "Yep, I'm sure Daddy could ride a motorcycle across a tightrope and spin it around and around! Hahaha! Jonah was not exactly an angel at the circus. It was right in the middle of his naptime and he just wasn't too into it. The poor men sitting in the seats in front of me and Brian had to lean forward the whole time, because Jonah kept kicking them. I felt so bad! Mackenzie was very entertained by the whole thing and wanted to take video's with Brian's phone the entire time! (Who's kid is that?!) This was a much-needed fun family day together!

 

They all wanted to take a friend along for the ride!

Mackenzie was so excited to see the big oil man at the Tulsa Fairgrounds and insisted I take a picture of him.

Elephant ride!

We saw an older gentleman from our church who is part of the Shriners, and he gave the kids these light up spinners!

This is sometimes what you get when you ask a random person to take your picture! I'll take it though!

The girls thought it was very fun to have the clowns sign their books.

Of course the girls thought these ponies were just the cutest!

We ran into our friend, Emma!

See the lady in the black shirt? She wasn't very nice about us taking this picture of Mackenzie by the tiger. Oh, well!

One of the craziest things I've ever seen...this lady was hanging from her hair. I still think this had to be some kind of illusion. I mean, really?!

The elephant act was my fav!

Yes, we paid like $12 to take a picture with this bear!

Jonah loved his light up sword!

Way past naptime!

Madison was just SURE Daddy could do this!

This was another one of the craziest things I've ever seen! This man shot all the way across the arena from a cannon. Insane!

Pony

Madison's "Pony" really is like the 6th member of our family. I know that sounds crazy, but if anything happened to Pony, we would all be very sad! She has been Madison's constant companion since the Christmas before she turned two. Little did we know, looking at this cute little pony with pretty hair, just how special she would be! Madison loves the fact that G-Ma & Pa got Pony for her. Since she was very little, Madison has always done this thing where she sucks on air basically, with her tongue. It's like she has a pacifier, but there's no pacifier. Well, Pony's hair went hand in hand with that...twirling and sucking at the same time was just very soothing and comforting to Madison I guess. I still catch her doing it at times now and she's almost 6! That's the main reason Pony's hair is so very beautiful these days! I have tried and tried to work on Pony's hair, but I'm afraid it is beyond repair! Regardless, we think she is beautiful & her hair is a sure sign that she is very loved! Pony has been there with Madison literally every day. They are inseparable! When Madison leaves in the mornings for school, she makes sure that I will look after Pony while she is gone. One day I asked Madison if she would share Pony with her little girls when she has babies someday and she thought about it for a second and said, "Well, maybe I'll share but she's still mine!" Hahaha! I know the day will come when Madison will outgrow her constant infatuation with Pony (that will be a very sad day), but she will always, always be special to her! And, thanks to Toy Story, I can safely say that I will never put Pony up in the attic...she will always have a place in our house. After all, I wouldn't want her to ever feel abandoned by her little girl!

Baby Chicks!

 A few weeks ago, Madison hopped into the van at pickup and said, "Mommy, I get to bring home a baby chick on the next school day!" Hmm...well, that was news to me! I was pretty certain that she had misunderstood, but she was very adamant that she did indeed get to take a baby chick home with her. I texted Ms. Alessandro just to make sure we weren't gaining a new pet, and she quickly confirmed that no, we wouldn't be taking a baby chick home with us. Madison was a bit disappointed, but once the eggs and incubator arrived in her classroom, she was over it! She was counting down the days until the chicks hatched & guess what...they were "born" on February 25th...they share a birthday with G-Ma, which made the whole thing that much more exciting! =0) A few days later, the kids got to hold a baby chick before they went to live at a local farm.

I had to throw in this picture of Mackenzie from two years ago when she was in E3 and they had baby chicks! She looks so little!

Go Sparks!

Here are some pic's from Madison's last few games of the season in February. She learned so much and really gained a lot of confidence. We are so proud of her! I don't think we ever won a game, but considering we were a team of Kindergarten girls and we played mainly 1st & 2nd graders and boys, I think we did exceptionally well! At the end of the day, the girls had fun and that's all that mattered!

She even started getting aggressive and going after the ball! Brian may have told her he would give her a quarter every time she touched the ball during the game, just as extra incentive!

She had many visitors over the course of her seasons, including Grandma Baldwin, G-Ma, Poppa & Louise, Uncle Clint & Aunt Abigail & Carver, Aunt Barbara, and the Easterwood's!

After their last game we all went to Braum's for ice cream!

This was at the end of the year pizza party at the church. She was so excited about getting a trophy and couldn't wait to show it to Mackenzie...there was definitely some rubbing it in going on!

Madison & Joslin are good friends!