The Greatest Show on Earth (and warthogs)

The circus is coming to town! The circus is coming! I really am that excited about it. When Austin was a little kid, he was obsessed with animals and elephants in particular. He had a collection of these hard, plastic animals that he played with. Well, come to think of it, he didn't actually play with them so much as he categorized them. Gray ones, white ones, green ones... Or maybe small ones, medium ones, big ones... Or perhaps, animals with 4 legs, with 2 legs, with no legs... He'd categorize and line them up, then he'd change them around and line them up in a different way.

In fact, thinking of those plastic animals reminds of the one year Austin asked for a warthog for Christmas. That's all he wanted, a toy warthog. He wrote to Santa and asked him for just that one thing. I looked high and low for a warthog. This was way back before I owned a computer so I couldn't just browse the net, not that the thought had even occurred to me at the time.

We used to have these neat learning-type toy stores around here that sold the plastic animals and I drove to every one of them in search of a toy warthog. I couldn't find one anywhere.

I asked Austin, "Are you sure you want a warthog? How about some nice Legos? Or some Matchbox cars? Wouldn't you like a set of art supplies? Or a car? Or a house? Or a million dollars? Anything but a warthog???"

I called the Brookfield Zoo, Lincoln Park Zoo, The Milwaukee Zoo. I figured if any of them said they had a warthog, I'd take a road trip, pay admission for the day and buy the stinking toy. No one had a warthog. Finally, I found one at the San Diego Zoo. The person on the other end of the phone thought it was the strangest request she'd ever heard. "We don't ship items from our gift stores," she informed me. After I regaled her with my warthog saga, she said she would personally ship it to me. Thanks to her, Austin was one happy kid come Christmas morning when he found a plastic warthog in his stocking.

Wow, did I digress! As I was saying, Austin was obsessed with elephants back in the day. He watched Dumbo so many times, the tape broke. So when the circus came to town, we took him there for his 4th birthday. I can still see the look on his face as he beheld all the wonder and magic of the "greatest show on earth".

We haven't been back since. Guess where we're going for his 15th birthday? That's right! I'm really excited about Ringling Bros. latest show, Zing Zang Zoom because it combines magic with the circus and looks like tons of fun!

And for my readers, I have a coupon code for you! Use the code - MOM to get a 4 pack of tickets (good for Monday-Friday matinee shows) for only $44! This code is also good for $4 off Friday and weekend shows. You can get additional tickets for $11.

Opening night is November 5th at 7:00pm at the AllState Arena in Rosemont

and

November 18th at 7:00pm at The United Center in Chicago

But that's not it! I have a 4 pack of tickets for opening night at The United Center to give away to one lucky family! Leave me a comment and I'll pick a random winner on Friday! Please make sure you're available for the 7:00pm show on November 18th in Chicago before leaving me a comment. And the coupon code is good for everyone interested in shows at either location!

*I was given free tickets to the circus in exchange for my post, but my opinions are entirely my own.