the circus came to town!

Last Tuesday we went to the Carl Busch Circus in Darmstadt with the Carley family. We sat in the first row and had a lot of fun! We were DIRECTLY below the guy in the trapeze act that catches the other acrobats... under the net... where a few acrobats fell and we got to see their faces when they let go of the bar (Rob thinks that look was concentration- I think it was fear.)

Anyway, neither Rob nor Charlotte had ever been to a circus before. Charlotte loved the elephants and "lions"-- there were no lions, only tigers. There was even a little baby tiger that really was quite adorable. Rob thinks this circus is better than the "big" ones where you expect all of the acts to go just fine... this one had real potential for people getting hurt. Rob and I both agree that we think it would have been better without the animal acts though- they aren't as exciting as the human acts and we just kinda felt sad for the animals the whole time.

Yay for the European style clown though- way less scary and more genuinely entertaining! He didn't wear a wig and had on similar clothes to the other performers and did neat juggling and audience participation gags.

Here are a few shots--

Charlotte's favorite thing about the circus.

This guy looks about the right size.

I don't think Michael and Charlotte blinked once during the trapeze act. Rob tried to get a picture of the acrobats... but it was hard being directly below the net and he wanted them to be facing us, since the women were in THONGS and we didn't really want a bum shot. ;)

Oh, one last random shot- Charlotte and her new friend Sammy playing "nap time" at playgroup on Thursday. I think Max is there as the chaperone.