A Night Out with my Son

The other day Oz's best friend Josh (or I should say his Mom Veronica) invited me and Oz to join them for the opening night of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. 

I was excited to have an evening with just Oz.  I think with him being the middle child he sometimes feels a little overlooked. 

So on Friday night Veronica picked us up and we drove to the circus. 

We had so much fun!  Although, I have to admit that I had to cover my eyes during parts of the high wire act, and during the part where the guy runs around on a wheel... pretty much during anything dangerous.  :-)

The drive home was just as much fun as the circus!  Veronica and I just talked, and laughed the whole way home.  I really enjoyed getting to know her better.  I'm so excited to have found a new friend.

Veronica writes a blog for the website www.akronohiomoms.com.  I really like this website.  If you live in this area you really need to check it out!

Anyway, I wanted to share her blog with you, so I copy and pasted it here. 

Enjoy!

Opening night of Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Fully Charged Circus

March 26, 2011 by Veronica

When I was a little kid, I always loved it when the circus came to town. I was a little scared of the clowns for the longest time. I do not know why, but I surely am glad that I outgrew that. HA!
Last night was the first time our 7 year old had been to a circus. I was keeping my fingers crossed that he would have fun and not be afraid of the clowns like I was. And he wasn’t. What a relief! He was too excited looking around and having fun with his best friend, Austin, and his mom, Becky, who went with us to the circus.

Happy Kids at the Circus

I surely was glad that it didn’t take us too long to find parking when we got there. It cost us $10 for parking, which was reasonable for an event of this scale.
As soon as we entered the building, we were greeted by the many concession stands that lined the walkways. I loved the concession stands when I was a kid myself. There were so many yummy and colorful carnival food sold at the concession stands. We bought a big box of popcorn (it came with a cute big Ringling Bros and Barnum Bailey Hat), a bag of cotton candy, and two cups of snow cones in the cutest Ringling Bros and Bailey cups. Average food price at the stands is $10 each. Yes, it is too easy to overspend, so shop wisely.

Circus concession stand

Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Fully Charged Circus Acts
Of course, the “Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages” announcements still ring throughout the show, but the electrifying show started off with a parade of the circus performers, including four Asian elephants joining the parade.

Circus Elephants Acts

The elephants are the icons of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for the longest time. They even have their own elephant conservatory center in Florida to ensure that the endangered species of the Asian elephants are protected and safe for the future.
Have you seen a human-powered merry-go-round? Ukrainian strongman duo (Dmitry Nadolinkskiy and Ruslan Gilmulin) performed an amazing act of human strength by supporting two telephone pole structure joint by a metal rope with four human riders at the each end and another person standing on top of the structure. Not only that, they were able to spin the whole structure at a pretty good speed at the same time. Each strongman consumes 7,500 calories a day. Wow.

Circus Human Merry-go-round

Clowns performed entertaining act, such as “How many clowns it takes to fix a light bulb show?”

Circus How many does clowns it take to fix a lightbulb?

The performance of the tight rope balancing act was breathtaking, too. A human pyramid on a tight rope. Cycling on a tide rope. Jumping on a tide rope. Yep, you name it. They have it covered.

Circus Tightrope

A human hamster running and jumping on a wheel.
Imagine a human acting like a hamster, jumping and running with daring acts inside and outside of a giant moving wheel?
No circus is complete without animal shows. The tiger show led by Tabayara, the animal trainer surrounded with fierce tigers but obedient and trained like kittens is my favorite part of the show.

Circus tigers tamed like kittens

Crossbow human launcher.
You have probably seen the human cannon ball, but have you seen a human fire arrow? The performer, Brian Miser aka the human fuse, set himself on fire and shoots out from a giant crossbow like an arrow. My son and his friend Austin thought it was the coolest performance.

Circus Human Launcher on Fire

It was an enjoyable experience, whether you’ve been to a circus once or many times.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Fully Charged Circus Finale