It’s been a good week at the circus. Nothing incredibly note worthy, but fun times all around… thought I’d share a few pictures from our week. I love summer… seriously love it. Love the long daylight hours… love the freedom… even love the hot summer sun.  How about you? What are some of your highlights from the week?

The kids and I started reading the Chronicles of Narnia a few weeks ago. I finished reading them The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe and we’re now onto Prince Caspian . The truth is, I’ve never read these books before, so I am just as interested and captivated as my oldest son is. The other day during quiet time the oldest two kids started walking back and forth between their separate areas… eventually they asked if they could play quietly together and I let them as long as they stayed quiet.

While looking through pictures recently, I stumbled across a few which truly captured life at the circus in its essence. Exhibit A: taken in December of 2010 Here they are working on the pine wood derby car for Cub Scouts. Notice how everyone, even the baby, is in on the action? Noticed the leotard? My girls wear leotards every.single.day…. even though gymnastics is only twice a week, I can guarantee you those leotards are on more often than that.

As Scott and I worked to put together the scrapbook and video collage for our son’s 1st birthday, we looked at lots and lots of pictures and video clips. As we did, one reoccurring theme, was brought to mind. This boy is adored by his siblings. He really has been from day 1. And by day 1, I mean, the day Scott and I told them about the baby in my belly.

Ya know that feeling you get when you look at your kids and you just wanna freeze time? You don’t want them to grow up, not one bit, so you just try your best to hold on to the moments while you can. Well, we figured out a way to freeze time here at the circus…just a little… Our littlest crew member turned one earlier this month. Not sure how that year flew by so fast.

I have a little header on my right side bar that says “One Year Ago” though it will actually list posts from this date either 1, 2, or 3 yrs ago. (Can you believe Life At The Circus is over 3 yrs old?)  Every now and then I will see blog title under One Year Ago and it will catch my eye. I think that tab alone is the motivation for me to keep blogging lately.

Last week after telling my kids the Bible story of baby Moses, I decided to offer a little application for them. I pointed out how neat it was that God took care of Moses as a baby by allowing the princess to find him. I even told how amazing it was that his own mother was allowed to take care of him before he went to live at the palace. After discussing how Moses grew up in the Egyptian palace, I pointed out how God used that later in his life when Moses led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt.

I was so glad Scott had the camera handy to snap this shot of our oldest daughter trying to use the view finder at the zoo the other day. Too short to see through the peep holes? No problem, I’ll just hoist myself up there with my own 2 arms and take a closer look. Yea…at 5 she’s already stronger than her mom. No way I could do a chin up, and hold it!

One of the many reasons why life is easier this time around is that my older three kids are much more self sufficient. When we need to head out the door, I can instruct the kids to get their shoes on, go to the van and buckle up. A few minutes later the baby and I arrive at the van. I buckle him in, do a quick seatbelt check on the big kids and we hit the road.

They say having kids changes things. And they are right, it does. I remember so vividly after our first son was born. My heart had grown at least triple in size. As I held him in my arms, it was love, pure love at first sight. But, in addition to that, my love for Scott, had quadrupled as well. I never felt more supported, more cared for, more in awe, than I did that first night after becoming parents.