The Circus Is For Everyone?

We took the beebs to the Reynolds Fall Festival a couple of weeks ago, yes we are that family that travels to various small towns for the local festivities, and decided that it was the best of the summer. This may be the smallest town we visit and the festival was the most enjoyable. We missed it last year for whatever reason and were sceptical to go this year as everything is "free". First of all, yeah right. How can they throw an entire town wide festival and most everything be free? Second of all, if everything is free, then how much fun could it really be? Well, I stand corrected! Most everything WAS free. And to our surprise it was quite fun! The hit of the day for the boys was obviously the circus. As you will see they had a ball and we were very lucky to get out and go home when we did. The ugly side of Adam was not far from surfacing as he had be going and going ALLLL day. The thing is, I am not very fond of the circus. There are several excellent reasons for this. 1. I am such an animal lover that I can not stand to see any sort of animal caged and made to do silly tricks. Now that isn't to say that they may live better than I do, just saying, I don't like it. 2. The circuses I remember going to as a child and young adult were very large and seemed very glamorous. The one we saw in Reynolds was very small. Only an older couple, a 16 year old daughter, 15 year old son, 12 year old daughter, 4 year old son, and a little 1 maybe 2 year old daughter. Now, this may be the mother in me coming out, but the only thing I could think of as I was watching this family "perform" was how sad of a childhood these kids have. The old man did pretty much nothing (and he LOOKED old, may not have been) and his "lovely" Russian wife seemed to be quite busy scooping pony and elephant dung and then making cotton candy with what I can only assume to be her dirty hands as I saw no sink or hand sanitizer! Lovely. Where do they sleep? Eat? Bathe (if they do, it didn't look like any of them were very clean)? Go to school? They are together ALL of the time? What about friends? See I took to the net to see what others thought and to my dismay, I was in the minority with my thinking. Many people thought this nomadic lifestyle was great for kids. Family are your friends, your teachers, and on and on. OK. I guess I am old fashioned in thinking a home usually stays in one place, kids go to school to learn, church to worship, and friends have their own space. Hope my kids aren't too deprived and can grow up to be normal human beings!

So, CHEERS to Reynolds! And CHEERS to child labor the circus!

 

Daddy and Adam rode an elephant for the first time. They had such a blast and those smiles will stick with me forever. I can remember riding an elephant with my brother and sister when we were little. I can't remember if we were in Knoxville or Atlanta, but I know we were visiting our grandparents. I remember sitting in the back with Car in the front and Bud in the middle (I was still the biggest at this point so we were pretty young). Even though I was in the back I could still feel his big ears flapping my little legs. Or maybe I was in the middle, can't remember. I can still hear Carly's squeals and Adam's "huh-huhs" as he kept flapping faster as the squeals got louder. I miss those days with my siblings and can only hope that my babies stick together like us 3 Krintz kids did.

The kids area at the festival was great. They had several bouncey death traps houses, a tiny ferris wheel and this trampoline thing. Dad and Adam took to the trampoline and what fun it was to watch. Adam jumped as high as he could being so light, and Daddy showed off doing flips.

The ponies are always a favorite with Adam, as you can see he is quite the little cowboy, too. We weren't surprised when Jacer got on a pony and seemed to be in heaven! His little face was so sweet touching the pony for the first time and then she started to walk! Priceless~

The cartoonist was even free and we took home a great caricature of our little family. The day was a complete success and fun for us all. We love these days of our lives and so wish they would slow down a bit!