Saturday, June 27, 2009

CIRCUS CAMP '09: Week One, Pie Day

Photos courtesy of The LaMarra Family

Last Thursday morning we had all 31 students sit down and watch Laurel & Hardy's Battle of the Century and the Greg DeSanto's Ringling Bakery Gag to get the kids ready to head out into the courtyard and discover the simple beauty and joy of throwing, and being hit by, a big foam shell filled with shaving cream.

In years past I've always used cans of shaving cream for Pie Day but ended up with 10 - 20 spent cans at the end. In an effort to make Circus Camp more environmentally conscious, this year I decided to grab two 5 gallon buckets, some shaving soap (generously donated to us by the Williams Shaving Soap people) and my best cordless drill and whip the soap up circus-style.

What did I learn?

1) Mixing soap in two alternating buckets still does not yield the same results as a single, standard-size garbage can. Next week we use a garbage can. We may have soap left over but we won't need to spend a much time mixing.

2) Even the very top-of-the-line cordless drill, plugged in, won't do this job as well as a plug-in. Next week I take the other drill.

3) Kids L O V E Pie Day!


Teach... your children well...



"Hoopla!!!"



Shane was unsure about throwing so I taught him how
to slap my hand so that I hit myself with it.


And he was perfectly delighted with the result.



Everyone got to throw one, all but the youngest two got hit and one very
lucky little girl received the slosh bucket over the head, Nickelodeon-style.




And a grand time was had by all!


Now someone get the First-of-Mays in here with brooms and sawdust ; )


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If it's as hot where you are as it's where I am, I'd add some ice to the water along with the soap. If you pre-soak the grated soap abit in the cold water, it should whip up faster.

You can never have soap left over...that's a clown sin I think. The lucky last kid gets just abit more on them for the blow-off.

We show the kids in our circus camp the squirting hat bit also. Nice for the ones who are not ready for the face throws.

-Greg

Pat Cashin said...

Excellent tips from the master himself.

Thank you!!!

Anonymous said...

What I wouldn't have given to have such an opportunity when I was a kid! (Or now even, lol.)

Unknown said...

I have some williams shaving soap and a bucket. I would like to make some foam. How many bars of soap and how much water per 5 gallon bucket?