Round 'Em Up

Ah, what a day! The sun, wind, and cowboys were out in full force, as well as a few clowns, for it's rodeo time in Houston. Like last year, I helped supervise the fun for a few little munchkins. For the purpose of this story, let's call these munchkins (l to r in the photo) Charles, Bill, and Mary.

Starting at the farm animal petting zoo, the kids were super glued to me, especially Mary. Everyone was excited about petting the animals when we were outside the pen, but as soon as the gate shut behind us, the reality sunk in that we were all in closed quarters with real live animals. Yikes! The deer kept trying to eat my skirt, and one very curious goat was absolutely convinced that we were long lost relatives. That silly goat insisted imploringly that we stop for a chat and cup of coffee. My poor young friends had no recollection whatsoever of being a relative (or even mere acquaintance) of the goat. The terror in their eyes grew at the goat's increasing persistence. We politely declined the goat's offer, and literally inched our way en masse out of the pen.

Next came the pig races. Charles did not want to see pigs fly, I mean, pigs race around a little track. First, a wee piglet swam across a water trough. So cute! Then, four little pigs came squealing out of a pen, lined up in marked lanes, put on their colorful racing vests, and were off! We had each picked our favorite pig based on vest colors. "Your pig won," Charles said incredulously, "That was fun!"

After many more adventures, we went on a quest to find long promised ice cream. That's when we bumped into these clowns. They graciously posed while I took a photo. Then the darnedest thing happened...the man clown pulled out his own camera, and asked if he could pose with me! That was a first! When I got home and told Reese, he said, "Can ya' blame him?" Aw, thank you, Reese.

On the bus ride back to school, Mary said that her favorite thing was watching the pig races. Despite the terror at the time, Charles said that he liked petting the goat. (!) Whether he remembers or not, little Bill's favorite thing was using the free hand sanitizer at various stations around the rodeo, but he said he liked our (impromptu) game of duck duck goose after eating ice cream. My favorite part?...holding hands with three new friends.