The StoryBook Circus

Family treat time - we went to the circus and had an absolute fabulous time!
We needed it, after a very emotionally draining week with a major family crisis - it was so great to sit back and laugh and gasp and ohh and ahhh. Jess and I discovered we both just could not look a the guy who thought he would try to swing right out of the big top - he was insanity to watch - so fast - so high - I felt sick watching. The circus people are sooo talented and so scarily weirdly flexible!!! They can do things that seem to completely defeat laws of gravity and bend their bodies into shapes that defy the human skeleton!This clown was awesome - Jessica asked him if Leo could take her picture with him and he grabbed her and Josefs hands and took them right down into the ring and in front of the the big circus door - it was so cool!
My niece turned 21 last week - hows that for making one feel old!! She's all grown up and left home. I made her an altered canvas - I need to take another photo of the finished product but this key was the centerpiece for it. We went to Leo's brothers house for a bbq tea to celebrate and it was a great night - warm and happy atmosphere.

Jessica had a really bad day at school last week - she has had a very harsh lesson in life and peer pressure. A friend of hers stole a few of her daddy's smokes and took them to school - a group of them were caught behind the church pretending to be grown up and so cool! The smokes weren't lit or anything - they were play acting - but it was still a pretty serious thing for 7 year old girls.
Jessica was so upset - she told us she knew it was wrong to be there but her 'friends' had told her that they wouldn't be her 'friends' anymore. One of the little girls is pure trouble and we have been quietly discouraging them playing, I realise some people think this is wrong of me - but I just don't want my kid playing with a little girl who is allowed to walk around the streets by herself (my kids arent even allowed to go down the street to the park alone), she steals, lies and if Jess doesn't do what she says will actively try to make the other kids in the class not like Jess. It sucks that 7 year olds girls are subjected to the same peer pressure I watched Ashleigh go through at 13 - 14. Jess has been pretty subdued the last few days, and doesn't want to go to school anymore. I'm a bit worried because Jess takes knocks badly and recovers slowly. The girl she considers her best friend plays with the little girl we discourage - so its separating Jess and D. Its easy to say make new friends - but D and Jess have been best friends since kindergarten.
I may look in to homeschooling yet! :(
On a positive note - the schools approach was fabulous - they had the children sit around and discuss the dangers of smoking and what to do if you feel threatened or pressured by a 'friend'. And my sweet little son told Jess that if she was worried at school she should find him and he will help her - it still makes me teary when I think of him standing up for her like this!
I have been reading some bedtime stories to Jessica - I grew up reading Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories and found a set that is very similar but the themes have been updated to be a little more relevant for kids of today. There are stories that deal with making good decisions, setting boundaries, handling peer pressure, dealing with fear, when someone is making fun of you, forgiveness, honesty, accepting personal differences and so on. We have begun reading a story each night and then talking about what we have read.
Its good because we are sharing time together as well as hopefully installing in Jess some pretty good ideals.