10/15/16: Circus Extreme Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey

We have been going to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus for years.  This year we were able to go to Circus Extreme at the TD Garden and got to take a VIP Backstage Tour which was awesome!  The kids loved it and were pointing out what they saw during the show.  Here they are with a beautiful horse from the show backstage.

We started on the Pre-Show floor.  At every circus there is an hour long pre-show where you can see some of the acts up close.  We always enjoy the pre-show.  This is free with the purchase of your ticket and I suggest you take advantage of it.

First stop on our backstage tour was costuming.  The show has over 400 costumes that they use.  Many of the costumes have a lot of weight to them.

For example this jacket that Lauren is wearing weighs 16 pounds!  We also found out that the Ringmaster's outfit costs about $15,000!

The kids especially liked this amazing mermaid costume.  It was totally gorgeous and so detailed.

They especially liked getting in to some of the vehicles used in the show.  Here is Lauren in the vehicle that rides around with the Ringmaster on top of it.

They were also in this cool motorcycle.

Here we are in another one of the vehicles from the show.

We also got to see the sound board.  Evan even got to control the music for a little bit during the pre-show. 

Here is Evan controlling the music.

Then we got to go to the show.

Here is Lauren clowning around.

I find these shows always amazing.  There are so many fantastic acts with such talented performers.

The production value is always high and I see how much goes in to it now based off the backstage tour.

Here is the vehicle we were in backstage.

The camels were pretty cool and the performers did all kinds of flips on them.

I love the high wire act.  We learned that they practice backstage on a wire close to the ground to determine if they can do the high wire in the show.  They were fantastic.

The person flying out of the cannon always amazes me.

Here are the mermaid costumes.  They were up in the rings.

The tigers are always amazing.  The guy that leads them always cracks me up.

What a fantastic show and it is still in town.  You can see the full schedule here.  https://www.ringling.com/tickets-schedules/

Disclosure:  I was provided with four tickets to Circus Extreme including the backstage tour.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

10/31/15: Marvel Universe Live Excitement and Marvel Characters

We love to go to live shows with the kids and the other night we got to go to Marvel Universe Live! at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, NH. This is a new show by Feld Entertainment that brings together the most Marvel characters in the same production. There was excitement, good guys, bad guys, lots of cool stunts and motorcycles!

The projections were pretty cool to begin to tell the story. The kids were entralled from the start of the show.

At the beginning Thor smashes the Cosmic Cube to ensure they don't get in to the wrong hands.

Loki has other plans.  To defeat Loki, Marvel’s greatest Super Heroes must band together and trek across the globe to retrieve the Cosmic Cube fractals and unite them.

Capturing the good guys.

Woo hoo! Iron Man! He is my favorite.

Captain Marvel flying through the air.

Captain America on a motorcycle. There are lots of motorcycle stunts.

All the Marvel characters meet to figure out a plan how to find the fractals. They get put in small groups and go off to find them.

The action is awesome and kept the kids entertained through the whole show. There was so much going on and such great stunts and cool special effects.

Doctor Aldrich Killian is actually on fire!

Here is Iron Man, Captain Marvel and Hawkeye.

There were some really cool motorcycle stunts. This is Wolverine and Bruce Banner (Hulk). They did flips and lots of ramp work.

Here you can see the Statue of Liberty when they went to battle to get a fractal in New York.

There were ramps inside the Statue of Liberty and here you can see Spider-Man hanging down.

The Marvel characters fought on the ramps inside the statue and on top of the statue.

Another bad guy Red Skull holding on to one of the fractals.

The motorcycle tricks were awesome.

They went up the ramp and then jumped to those platforms on the motorcycles.

There were lots of kids in the audience dressed up like their favorite characters, it was super cute.

Oh dear, Loki has Spider-Man!

Now he has Wolverine!

Don't worry though Hulk is coming to save the day!

We couldn't wait for Hulk to grow! So awesome.

You will have to check out the show to see how it ends! I highly suggest going to see it. It is fun for the whole family.

Find them online here: http://www.marveluniverselive.com/

Go here for tour tickets: http://www.marveluniverselive.com/tours-tickets

Disclosure:  I was provided with four tickets to the show for review purposes. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.