Cirque Italia

I subscribe to all kinds of "deal" alerts. Most, I have no recollection of signing up for and they generally get deleted without being read. Every once in a while, I will open up a Groupon or Travel Zoo e-mail. Especially Travel Zoo because they describe vacations I like to pretend I am seriously considering.

Last week, I opened a Travel Zoo e-mail to see an event in Waldorf. Generally, everything is in DC and beyond, so I was pretty excited. It was Cirque Italia. I thought it sounded like an outstanding way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I made a Facebook post to alert local friends of this awesome deal, and our favorite family across the street said they would like to join us. This was perfect, because I had been looking for a fun outing to take them on as a way of saying thanks for our awesome weekend in West Virginia.

We bought tickets for the Saturday afternoon show. They have a tent they bring from city to city and it was set up in the Regency Stadium parking lot. The kids were super excited. We didn't know exactly what to expect, so we tried to limit their expectations, we especially wanted them to know there would be no animals present.

The show was super fun. We are big fans of America's Got Talent and the older kids remarked that they felt like they were watching a live show. There were lots of interesting stunts. Luke was the only one who didn't really have fun. He was mad because we didn't buy them any food or light up toys. We had told the kids that the treat was going to the show and then dinner after, so the older kids knew not to ask for anything. Of course, Luke doesn't have the same self-control. He really wanted some popcorn or cotton candy or something, anything! I am not a fan of buying food at events like that. One, it's overpriced and it adds up quick with 4 kids. Two, it's distracting. I want them (and me!) to be able to focus on the show. Three, in this particular case, everyone had a good snack before we went and I told them we were going to Cafe Rio after so I didn't want them to be full of junk food right before dinner.

Luke did enjoy some of it. They had silly entertainment while they were setting up between acts. One skit involved two silly characters dancing to snipets from a variety of songs (Gangam Style, YMCA, Macarena, Single Ladies, etc.). Luke got up and danced in the aisle and had a great time. Another time, they ran around shooting each other, and the audience, with water guns. Luke loved that! There was a trampoline number he was entertained by and he was happier the second half than the first. The rest of us enjoyed pretty much everything. There were a few acts that they could have eliminated in my opinion, mostly due to redundancy, and Thomas thought the pace was a little off (i.e. big exciting dangerous stunts followed by slow music and a girl dancing with ribbons) but overall we thought it was great. We would definitely go again.

One with the tent in the background.

Inside waiting patiently for the show to start. It was a small, circular arena. We had great seats near the front.

I loved the guy spinning this prism. It looked all lasery, which unfortuantely didn't translate in the pictures.

One of the "slow" acts.

This guy was my favorite. I don't know what it's called, but we referred to it as the wheel of death in our conversations after.

An amazing hand balancer.

This seemed to be our faces during a lot of the show. But, this particular picture was taken while we watched the act below.

He did successfully balance on all those tubes.

After the show, everyone came out with a banner announcing their country of origin. It was pretty cool, there were lots of different countries represented.

We didn't get pictures of all the acts, but I think that is a good sample. There was a juggler Jack loved and Kara really enjoyed a tight rope walker. There were roller skaters and I am sure I am forgetting a lot of others.

The show lasted about two hours and then we headed to dinner. We always have fun with the Wills family, so it was nice to have a night out with them. And, I finally got to try the shrimp tacos. They were good and I can't wait until our local Cafe Rio opens! We got home right after bedtime and proclaimed the day a huge success!