I saw on a friend’s blog that there was a circus coming to town and thought that it would be so much fun to take the kids. So I talked to Kyle about it and we decided to invite Debby and Jeff along for the fun. However I did not tell the kids WHERE we were going. Only that we were going somewhere. 🙂
We decided to go to dinner first, so that the kids wouldn’t be hungry through the show and constantly asking for us to buy snacks. So we went to a Carls Jr on the way and let the kids get their wiggles out on the play place. We haven’t actually gone to a play place in a really long time so they all had a blast.
Chloe was a little too short to get up there by herself, but Ethan (and I think sometimes Jeremy) helped push her up to the next level so she could go down the slides. Then it was off to the circus!
We got there early because the tickets told us to do so, and we wanted to make sure we could find the place and find parking, and still get good seats. I guess the previous show got out late though and so as we were getting there, people began pouring out of the doors. So we went inside and waited for our turn to be admitted. Once we were finally inside we could just sit wherever we wanted to, so we found some seats and got situated.
While we waited for the show to start they had a small petting zoo, where you could feed and pet some Llamas, and they had some ponies to ride, and they had a bounce house, and they were giving elephant rides. However each of these things cost extra money, of which I had brought none, so we just stayed in our seats and waited for the show to start.
Jeff bought a large bag of cotton candy to share with the kids. So they munched on this while we waited.
We weren’t actually allowed to take pictures of the show. I understand ‘no flash photography’, since that can be very distracting to the performers and to the people sitting around you. But NO photography whatsoever??? What’s wrong with me taking pictures with my flash off??? Whatever, I was a good girl and didn’t take any pictures of the show. But we saw a couple of guys ride a motorcycle in a ball shaped cage. They each took a turn by themselves, and then they both went in together. Looking at Ethan and Jeremy’s faces they really liked that. There was a pretty showgirl that juggled this spinning thing on a long string, and she would throw it up into the air and catch it. She did drop it once. Then she went on with juggling two of them and then three. There was a couple that roller skated on a circle platform and they did tricks, some of which kind of reminded me of figure skating. We watched a clown with a car do an act. The kids really liked the clown act where there was a lion in a cave. Actually it was a small dog dressed as a lion, but it was still pretty funny. There were also some musician clowns. I think Dinah really liked the elephant act. The boxing kangaroo I thought was kind of sad. The kangaroo just didn’t seem happy, and the small box that they kept it in before and after it’s part just seemed cruel to me. There was also an act where they put a girl into a cage (one half of the cage was covered) and they covered the whole cage, and spun it around a few times, and when they took the cloth off, the girl had turned into a tiger! Obviously it’s just a trick but the kids were talking about that one for awhile, wondering how they had done that. 🙂 It made me kind of sad though that they didn’t actually use the animals in the show (aside from the boxing kangaroo and the elephants). I’m sure they could have had the tiger do tricks. Or have the girls dance and do tricks as the ponies ran around the ring or something. The ponies were just there to collect money before and after the show and at intermission. Yes there was an intermission! The show was only supposed to be an hour and a half long. They started late (probably due to the pre-show money collecting) then there was an intermission! The kids had a really good time though. Obviously, I was kind of expecting more. Yes, these performers were talented at what they do, but they were also just silly tricks. It was after all, just a small one ring circus and for the kids first circus experience I think they had a great time. Maybe someday we’ll see what a different circus has to offer, but I’m very happy that we were able to take our kiddos to this one. 🙂