The Greatest Show on Earth

On Thursday night we took Mia to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Arena. Thanks to Aunt Sue, we got free tickets for the circus and were invited to the pre-party. We ate hot dogs, chips, cookies, fruit etc. and got free beach balls and red clown noses. Here we are with our silly noses. The show didn't end until after 10:00 p.m. Mia lastest the entire time which surprised us. Of course, she fell asleep on the way home and slept in the next morning. We had a great time watching the show and her reactions to the animals and performances.

Here's Mia with one of the dancers who climbs up the rope and twirls around above you. Mia made her hat and had the performer sign her beach ball. This was part of the party.....some of the performers came around and took pictures with the kids and autographed beach balls and programs.

WHERE'S RYAN??? Ryan didn't want to go down to the floor for the pre-show party. He stayed in his seat and watched from upstairs so, we took a picture of him from the floor. (He's the in the 5th row from the bottom, 6th seat from your right).

As part of the pre-show party, we were allowed a half hour before the show started to go down to the floor and interact with the circus performers. We watched the clowns juggle and dance, other performers do acrobats through tiny rings, and an elephant came out and danced. Here's Mia ready to shake the clowns hand who danced and entertained the crowd. Mia shook her booty and waved her hands in the air as he did.....it was funny! And, the best part was that she said she was no longer afraid of clowns....she didn't want to go near them when we first got to the Arena. We'll see what happens when we go to the Shriners Circus in November.

Here's Mia ready for Act 2 wearing her top hat she got with a bag of cotton candy during intermission.

Dance Rehearsal

These are the girls rehearsing to "I have a Dolly". As you can see in the picture, Mia, Kaitlin and Hannah danced, some of the other girls took care of their babies and Abagail constantly looked for her mom. Needless to say, we were all laughing. They were too funny and cute!

Here's Mia and her friends on stage rehearsing "On the Good Ship Lollipop" for their recital tomorrow. Everyone danced, some off key but we didn't have anyone crying...yeah! Mia performed! I hope she does the same at the recital.

New fan!

After a year of having this fan stored in our sunroom, it finally got installed this weekend thanks to a great bunch of guys.....John, Ronnie and Tony....who I used to work with at LSU. I wish I took a picture of them about 30 feet up in the air on an extension ladder taking the ugly broken fan down and installing this one but, I didn't. :(

The dancing girls

Here's Mia and her dance class friends. Hannah was too shy to dance and didn't make it into the ballet costume....she's still in her tap costume admiring her trophy.

Dance trophy - so proud

Mia received her 1st year dance trophy on Saturday after performing her tap and ballet recital dances for mom and dad. She did a great job on her dances!

Dance preview

This is Mia dancing to "I have a Dolly". This will be her second dance at the recital in her ballet costume.

Pre-dance show / trophy week

On Saturday Mia had her trophy week at the dance studio. This was the day that we finally had the chance to preview her dances for the review and to see what she has learned her first year of dance. The first dance was in her tap costume and they danced to "On the Good Ship Lollipop".

At the zoo

On Thursday, Mia and I went to the zoo. It was very hot and humid until the rain came. We were lucky enough to be on the train when the rain shower passed so we didn't get wet too much. Her favorite place at the zoo was the petting zoo. We were excited when we found a mug in the gift shop that said "Mia". She's used that mug everyday since we bought it.

A day with friends!

This is Mia at 6:30 p.m.-----out for the night!

Mike Louise, Carroll, & Michelle Howard invited us over to swim and play today. Kevin, Kristin, Kaitlin & Kameron (the "K" family) were also invited. Mia and her friends played for over 5 hours in the pool swimming, jumping, playing basketball, sliding into the pool, playing freezbie etc. We all had such a great time together! Mike BBQ'd hamburgers and hotdogs and Louise made a spiked lemonade that was awesome! The dad's shooting hoops.

Play jousting with each other.

Kevin (a.ka. Ms. Kevin - as Mia calls him), Mia and Kameron

Mia & Kameron

"The Queen's of the Throne" Kaitlin, Michelle and Mia

Mia's first cast

Here's Mia making her first cast. We went to Wally World (a.k.a. Wal-Mart) and they had a casting competition for kids. Even though she wasn't old enough to enter, they let her make a few casts.