Circus Day
/Our Forced Family Fun Fridays continued with as much effort as I could muster each week. Sometimes that wasn’t much.
On Good Friday I brought back our traditional “Chocolate Dipping Day” but I did most of the work myself.
The following week we had a tea party with fancy treats and appropriate attire. Afterwards, I had a zoom meeting with a student so I broke my dress-down day streak.
Then I planned a “Spa Day” but I got busy and it ended up becoming “Spa Night” instead. I gave the girls haircuts and they did face masks and painted nails on their own. A few of them soaked in the bathtub.
Clearly, I was losing ambition. I took a walk with my 8yo and we discussed the weekly theme- debating between “Carnival” and “Circus”. The “party planning committee” was officially formed. I get a lot of big ideas, but this kid is a more persistent and took things to another level.
Some of the kids tried an Art Hub for Kids video to draw Dumbo. We guessed how many candy circus peanuts were in a jar (I might have rigged that) and did a roll a clown game. I just pulled up the instructions on my phone for everyone to see, but there is a printable version available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
We planned a special menu - mini corn dogs, peanuts, animal crackers, and chocolate covered marshmallow dumbbells.
Then we had some circus performances. I taped a string to the kitchen floor so that we could pretend to walk the tight rope. I pulled off a “scorpion” from my cheerleading days (it hurt, but I did it!)
The party planning committee made costumes for our circus animals…
…and also the dog. It is just a 12” strip of tulle folded in half, with a line of stitching sewn 1/2” from the fold. I inserted a scrap piece of 3/8” elastic and sewed the ends together to make a loop. Lady looked adorable, but miserable.
The girls planned a jumping show, using an old picture frame and my wreath, but it turns out that Lady is too old to learn new tricks.
Finally, some of the girls performed an acrobatic trapeze routine on the swing set while I begged them not to hurt themselves! They wore feathered boas that a friend had given us, so the accessories alone made the show fabulous.
After this Forced Family Fun Friday, others begged to be let into the exclusive party planning committee, but we refused to share our secrets.
