The Circus

We took the boys to the circus yesterday.  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was at Bridgestone Arena (where the Nashville Predators play hockey).  I got seats in the 3rd row of the second level that weren't too ridiculously expensive.

In "preparation", we watched Madagascar 3 again (the animals join a circus in this one).  The boys were refreshed on some of the things that happen at a circus.  Carter most wanted to see a trapeze performance.

We got to Bridgestone almost an hour before the show was supposed to start because it was advertised that you can come meet performers and animals on the floor.  It was super crowded though and after a few minutes he headed to our seats instead.

The boys waited really patiently for the show to start.  They were REALLY excited.

Other than always wanting snacks, the boys were mesmerized (for awhile, at least - including intermission, the show was 2 hours and 15 minutes).

The boys were really excited to see the elephants.

One of the first performances was with the horses.

And then there were some tight rope motorcycle riders while the tiger and lion performance got set up.

These guys were pretty entertaining.  I'm sure all the "scary" moments were staged but it was still a little frightening thinking about what could happen if one of the tigers or lions decided they'd had enough!

Next were some girls in these clam-shell balls ...

and ones that did a performance hanging from their hair.

This is what Rylan thought of those performances ...

There were a lot of martial arts performances.  Carter liked this "trick" because it was like Vitaly the tiger in Madagascar 3 when he jumps through a tiny ring on fire.

Rylan continued to sleep through intermission but woke up right in time for the show to start again.

The trapeze was the first thing after intermission.  Carter was excited about it, but unfortunately they didn't do much.

Elephants!!!

Today Carter said his favorite part of the circus was these guys - "the motorcycles in the big cage".

The version of the circus we saw was called Dragons.  The theme was carried out throughout the show and at the end, a giant dragon came out.

After intermission, a bunch of kids came back with these flags.  Carter begged Brian for one so they now have these "weapons" - they are constantly used as swords at home :)

The boys did awesome and really seemed to enjoy the show!