A Friend for Cecil and a Circus Adventure

You know how some weekends are slow and relaxing and others are crazy busy? Well this was yet another crazy busy one. I told the hubby that I'm looking forward to cool weather so everything can slow down. The boys worked on the deck and finished it up (for the most part). The decking is all down, the only thing left to do is the stairs. It is so wonderful to have a deck on the back of the house and have all that usable "living" space. A place to eat or just relax with the kids. When it's all done I'll add pictures. Sean did a beautiful job with it, he should be proud of that accomplishment.

While they were busy deck building, the kids and I went on a little road trip to pick up a new member of the family. The animal family that is. Some friends of the family, that I've known since I was a tiny kid, had leopard tortoises. I always enjoyed going over to their house to see their cats and tortoises. It might be where my fascination with tortoises came from. They had two that they acquired back in 1985. A few weeks ago they contacted me to see if I was interested in adopting their remaining male, as the female had passed away a few years back. Of course I was interested!

Turns out their male is nearly the same size as Cecil, my leopard tortoise. And after a little internet research I've deducted that Cecil is in fact a "Cecilia". So their male might have a little more fun in the company of my female. I went and picked up the new one on Saturday. They are getting along wonderfully together. Where there is one you will always find the other. I think Cecil is just as happy to have another tortoise her size as he is. Thank you Phil and Linda!

"Guy" is the handsome lighter colored one and nearly 30 years old. Cecil is the darker one and 9 years old. Girls are bigger than boys in the tortoise world.

This weekend the circus came to town. I must admit that I am not a circus person. I don't like creepy clowns, hot circus tents and preforming animals. Maybe I'm strange. I was going to let it come and go without taking the kids until I started thinking about it more. I, as a parent, have to expose these kids to things that I don't necessarily like. Things like circuses. So we bought tickets and went to the circus. I'll be the first to admit that it wasn't so bad. In fact it was a nice little circus. Was it hot in that tent? You betcha. But the kids seemed to have a good time and the clowns weren't at all creepy. I'm sure we'll go to the circus again next year if they come back.

Strangest act of the night? The woman dangling from the ceiling by nothing more than her hair. Ouch!