The Funny Flower Circus

Last Friday Taylor and her preschool class put on a circus performance for all the parents to come and watch. I can’t express enough how impressed I am with our first year of preschool, and I know all of that praise lies with her teacher, Miss Kim. She is creative, loving and oh-so-patient with the gaggle of three and four year olds she cares for everyday, and I feel very lucky that she and Taylor were paired together for my daughter’s first schooling experience. She has set the bar very, very high. And I would be super sad to say goodbye to her at the end of this month when Taylor graduates from her class, but I am looking forward to three years down the road when Luke will be old enough to enjoy all of her imaginative teachings.

But back to the circus. At the beginning of the week, Taylor and all her classmates chose different acts to put on for the big performance. And when I picked her up that Monday, Miss Kim expressed to me that she really wanted Taylor to have more than one part in the circus, but that my daughter had her mind set on just being a Prancing Pony.

Yep. That’s my stubborn four year old. She gets that from her father. And after reading through the note and then talking with Taylor and remembering the few times we had been to the circus together, I got her interested in also being both an Acrobat and a Tightrope Walker. Mostly because both of those roles also required sparkly costumes. And after letting Miss Kim know that she wanted to expand her role in Funny Flower Circus, she spent the rest of the week practicing all her acts. We even got into the circus spirit at home, and Chris set up a practice tightrope for her to perfect her skills.

And when Friday morning came, she sprang out of bed and announced in her excited-voice, TODAY! Today is CIRCUS DAY! And we packed a plethora of costumes and other shiny clothes in a bag and I dropped my little star off at school. And after spending the morning with my little man, Luke and I headed back to NAP to watch the performance. And, as expected, it was the cutest thing you’d ever seen.

It was so creative, and the kids were having so much fun and were so proud of themselves. And I was so proud of them too, and especially of Taylor. After each performance she would give a big, dramatic bow, and then look up for me and give me a giant, face-splitting smile that showed me how happy she was. And I’m pretty sure my face mirrored hers. It truly was the Greatest Show on Earth.