“But what if it isn’t?” Eve kept asking? “Oh baby, just you wait,” I kept replying. And wait we did. Until the day finally arrived and we went to the circus! The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus. THE circus! And oh, what a show! I happen to love circuses and I was bummed that we didn’t make it last year, so this year I bought tickets early so there’d be no excuses!
We arrived an hour before the show so we could visit the pre-show scene. They had some animals out for viewing, performers out signing autographs and putting temporary tatoos on people. Kids could try on circus costumes, walk a (very low) tight rope, etc. I thought the kids would enjoy all of that, but instead we ended up planted in front of a clown show, which they LOVED! They are both pretty partial to slap-stick humor. The very definition of a clown.
Following you’ll find a serious of blurry photos taken in the dark from our excellent seats. I didn’t want to be too close because then you can’t see the whole scene, but too far and you can’t tell what’s going on. I think we could have been a smidgen closer to center, but otherwise the seats were perfect! The photos are blurry but I’m going to post them anyway because they make me happy. :)
At the pre-show, this was going on in center ring…
… but we were captivated by the clowns sliding off tables. :)
The opening parade.
Suddenly they turned the lights out and everyone was glowing!
This is a very blurry picture, but can you tell they are black and white horses? Eve called them “cow horses.” She pointed and yelled, “Look Mom, cow horses!!”
The Strong Man tossed around a phone pole like it was nothing. Then two lovely ladies sat in swings on the end and he tossed them around as well. Eve was not impressed. (She was on my lap, hence all the Eve quotes.) She shrugged and said, “Anyone can lift a phone pole.” She cracks me up! Upon further discussion, in the quiet after the show, it turns out she thought I said “foam pole” and was therefore not impressed. Anyone can lift a foam pole! :)
These guys were AWESOME. In this picture there are two guys jumping over two other guys on the high wire.
Standing on shoulders. The guys on the bottom walked all the way across and back with the other guys on their shoulders.
For the finale two guys rode bikes, with a bar across their shoulders and a lady sitting on the chair. They stopped in the middle and she stood on the chair!! I did notice she was wearing a wire for this part of the act. It was pretty amazing!
“The Twin Turbines of Steel!” These guys were jump roping and turning flips as these huge metal rings spun around. The guy on the left lost his balance just as I snapped this picture. He recovered though, and didn’t fall! Thankfully.
Intermission.
We returned from intermission to find the tiger act set up!
The elephants were fun. Lex was surprised at how small they were. :) He asked if they were babies. I guess he had something much bigger pictured in his head. I assured him they were perfectly normal sized elephants.
These are the most awesome shoes ever!! The program calls them bouncy stilts. I’ve actually seen them before in toy catalogs. The glorified version of “moon shoes” that we had as kids. They are amazingly cool though! Fun Fact: While on bouncy stilts, an acrobat can jump up to 16 feet high!
Eve was very tired at the end. We stopped for pizza and she ate dinner like this for awhile.
I’m pretty proud of how the whole day went. Sometimes things all seem to work out well. Both kids did amazingly well. We met Amanda and Rachel there and the six of us had a great time. The show was just long enough. The kids were getting worn out by the end, right as the show came to a close. I think they are at a great age for it. A year or two ago and it would have been too much (too loud, too busy, too long) but now it was just right for them. We stopped at a pizza place on the way back to the car, had some dinner, then had a quiet ride home (thanks to Mrs. Piggle Wiggle on Audible!)
