Circus

I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the circus when I heard they were 'coming to town'. Bradley was really excited, but once again got a little scared when it started because it was kind of loud, so he ended up plugging his ears the whole time.I know it's just a defensive mechanism and he just holds his fingers there just in case it gets too loud, he doesn't ACTUALLY plug his ears. He can still hear us talking and he would still laugh at the clowns and got excited when the animals came out. It was funny though, we've never seen any clowns or talked about clowns but I was telling him about them before we went and right away he said "I don't like clowns, I don't want to see them" - not sure what image he had in his head that made him afraid but to this day he says his favorite part was when the silly clown burped :) great - that's what we take away from this experience :) Gracie LOVED it at first, she was swaying to the music and clapping almost nonstop for the first half - then she was done! By that time it was bed time and there was a lot to take in, so it was a little difficult keeping her still and happy the second half (pacifier to the rescue!), but it was a lot of fun.One thing really bothered me though - when we arrived we saw PETA protestors and I knew right away they were there saying that the animals were being mistreated - which I hadn't even thought about before. It really bothered me because I am a big supporter of PETA. The day after I was reading up on circuses and why PETA was there, and I sure hope what I was reading wasn't the case! From what I saw, the animals seemed to be very happy, healthy, and love the people in the circus. There was no cowering, or being whipped to preform tricks - but who knows what goes on behind the curtains. I can say from what I read, not knowing for sure what's true, just to be on the safe side I will probably NOT be buying tickets to another circus with animals - which is too bad because that was my favorite part :(