a night at the circus

Ryan's mom is here visiting for a short week, and since she just had a birthday a week and a half ago, we took her out to celebrate while she was here in St Louis with us. We kicked the evening off with a birthday cake here (dessert first! big treat!!) that Savannah and I made. Savannah was most excited about that.
We followed up dessert with a dinner out at Savannah's favorite restaurant... Max & Erma's, of course.
After dinner we went to see St. Louis' version of Cirque du Soleil, their own Circus Flora. It was so awesome! Well, not as awesome as the absolutely amazing Cirque du Soleil shows we've seen, but it was a good local substitute! Something I think we'll try to go see each year as long as we live here. The kids loved it... it was mostly the typical cirque type show with amazing acrobatics, gymnastics, high wire walking, and amazing talent all around (if you aren't familiar with Cirque du Soleil, it's the original troupe that reinvented the circus... a non-animal circus with just amazing unique performances telling a story accompanied by continuous live music. It's just gorgeous. And jaw dropping. And I can't recommend the show enough). But sprinkled in the St. Louis company of Circus Flora there were some animals as well... lots of ponies and horses as parts of acts showcasing their training, acrobats riding/standing/doing flips and tricks off barebacked horses, even an act with goats performing! Besides Savannah falling asleep halfway through the show (more on that later) both the kids absolutely had a blast. It kept their attention the whole time (well, except for Savannah's sleeping... so I guess it kept Sawyer's attention the whole time!) and they were excited to see the next great thing come into the ring!
Sawyer was thrilled with the big red tent in the first place!


















Here are just a couple more pics before the show started...