Kids love them, parents save months for them.

My husband and I took our three kids to the circus over the weekend. Last year, my son had to be carried out wailing, tucked under my arm and stiff as a board. He was mad he couldn’t have more toys. With that firmly burned into my memory, we all had a little talk before we even set foot under the big top. Each child could choose only one toy. It worked amazingly well. I think that’s the first time something’s gone according to plan.

What I hadn’t anticipated was dealing with their snow cones. Each child got a snow cone in a circus cup. Three kids, three snow cones, $31. What a bargain!

The two oldest ones did pretty well navigating theirs. But my three-year-old just couldn’t break through the icy crust with the flimsy, plastic spoon. I was waiting for the snowy softball to go flying over the heads of the people in front of us. The dang thing was perched precariously on top of the horses head cup. It looked like a golf ball sitting on a tee!

Did the people selling those overpriced slush balls really think a child could successfully eat it? I ended up spooning little bits and feeding it to her. But I had to hold the cup near the ground because pieces of ice would fly off as I chipped away at its icy exterior. So there I am, in the dark of the circus, holding a snow cone barely off the floor, spoon feeding my daughter and trying to shield the people around me from the ice spray.

Carys only ate about 1/3 of the cone. I ended up finishing it because she wanted to take the cup home and I didn’t want to spill the slush in the bottom of it. My husband finished my son’s.

The circus was over, the lights came up and my husband and I made it through without one tantrum from the kids. We turned to smile at each other and that’s when I saw it. My husband's lips, teeth and tongue were a deep shade of blue! He said it matched mine perfectly. All that food coloring co-mingled at the bottom of the cup to form a nearly permanent shade of indigo!

Somehow, the kids managed to avoid the discoloration. Is that called Kid Karma?

Lynda is the mom of three and co-host of 101.5 WRAL-FM's Bill and Lynda morning show. She appears here on Go Ask Mom every Thursday.