Now armed with tickets and toys you are brought to another entranceway with a strongman and a contortionist, women in skirts that held cotton candy, people passing the best fried chicken legs not made by me. As you continue into the large room where cocktails are held your jaw drops, a wide smile breaks out and you are now at the circus. Cotton Candy being made in front of you, hot dog carts, a midway, photo booths with funny things to pose behind, animal acts, jugglers, portrait caricaturists, a card reader, more clowns, a balloon sculpture of animals that was over 20 feet high and a Ringmaster cutout of the birthday boy. I cannot remember it all but I will always remember the look on everyone’s faces. Wide eyes, wide smiles.

The adult Hors D’oeruve during this extraordinary cocktail time included shrimp that were ½ pound EACH served in martini glasses, tender lamp chops Provencal, a seafood station that ½ lobster, scallops and lobster bisque, a slider station but my favorite was the child’s height hot dog cart and the child’s height Shirley Temple station.