"Gettin' Our Cirque On"

I'm afraid we may have greatly altered our kids idea of the circus.  When the day comes that Drew's class will talk about the circus, the kids and teacher will probably talk about things like tents, elephants, clowns, trapeze artists, and popcorn.
Drew will surely cock his head to the side and ask about the singers, costumes, and storyline.  If they are asked to draw a picture of the circus, his blue and yellow tent will stand out amidst all of the red and white ones.   Of course I'm kidding, but his idea of the circus for now the French Canadian type.
We took the kids to see Cirque du Soleil's "Totem" on opening night Friday.

Photo courtesy of TBWA\Busted on Flickr

I know what you are thinking... "you did what!?!  You took a 2 year old and a 3 year old to Cirque du Soleil!?!"

And my answer is YES.  Yes we did.  And they LOVED it.
We couldn't have been happier with their behavior.... especially considering show time was 8:00.
I know, I know!  We were very - how can put this nicely? - brave, but we are so glad we did it because they were perfect and they loved it.
I had "prepped" Drew by showing him an example of what he'd be seeing because I didn't want him to be disappointed that there weren't going to be clowns and elephants.  Colin and I buy the DVD's of the shows that we've seen, so I played one for Drew.  I was a bit concerned when we were watching and Drew asked me if we were going to "the scary circus."  Apparently the music in one of the scenes scared him a bit.  Oops.  But all was good and he was still excited.  So excited that he danced around on his tippy toes in place when I told him that we were going to go in a tent that was bigger than our house.

Photo courtesy of RiaPereira (uninspired) on Flickr

Here is where I would like to note that Cirque was stupendous about having young children.  They accommodated all of our needs.  They even had these little booster seats for the kids that I was quite jealous of.  They were just big cushions... I would have loved one, but I'm not sure those behind me would have appreciated that too much.
We got there with little time to spare.  We figured the less time we hung around waiting for the show to begin, the better.  It was great that we basically walked in and then the show started with no down time in between.
The show was beautiful!  Of course.  We were all in awe the entire time.  I absolutely love these performances.  We didn't hear a peep out of Emma all night.  She just stared on wide-eyed and snuggling in her blanket (since it was bed time and all).
Drew, on the other hand, ooohed and aaaahed the whole time.  He was amazed by the things he saw.  There were some loud and intense moments, but he just nestled into my side and stayed brave and enjoyed the show.

Photo courtesy of Eva Blue on Flickr

We had some fun family time during intermission.  We first went to the shops, but it was way too crowded, so we ended up spending most of intermission outside enjoying the fresh air.

The girls enjoyed spending time together and smiling for Daddy's camera

And the boys were silly as usual

A good time was had by all. The kids were out before we even got out of the parking lot (which by the way was only 5 minutes after we got in our car thanks to a not-so-well-known back exit). Drew still talks about his favorite "scary" circus and the parts that he loves.
We will definitely plan it again the next time Cirque comes to town.

(Cirque Album)