Mardi Gras 2014

 This Mardi Gras season was super fun!

We celebrated twelfth night by taking down all the Christmas decorations...



 ...putting up the Mardi Gras ones...



and by making a homemade king cake!



We woke up to the start of carnival with a little visit from the Kings!



This year's carnival celebration was super fun because Trey was old enough to go to the parades, so we headed to NOLA for the first weekend of Mardi Gras and packed as much fun as we possibly could into three days.

Day 1: Friday:

We left New Roads after breakfast and made it to NOLA in time to check into the hotel and walk to the Quarter for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Louisiana Pizza Kitchen.

The girls had eggplant wraps, Jim had pizza and Trey mooched off our plates. I had some delicious spiked lemonade and it was so good I even took one to-go. (A "Go cup" is just one of the many things I miss about my home state!)

After lunch, we walked around the French Market and let Trey run around on Quinn's leash. Hey, don't hate- it was perfect- he could run around without getting into any trouble (like running into the street) or snatched by a french quarter-dwelling critter. Eventually, Trey got sleepy so we went back to the room so he could nap.

After his nap, we headed uptown and actually were able to park just a few blocks from the parade route. We claimed our little area and waited for the parades (on the neutral ground side of course).



We had front row spots and were able to catch both  the Krewe of Oshun and Cleopatra.

We ate dinner out there while we watched the parades and had a really good time.

Trey LOVED the horses and the marching bands. I was afraid the drums would be too loud for him but the louder the better- he wasn't afraid at all.

Trey passed out in the car on the way home so we put him down in his crib and passed out ourselves as we were super tired and knew we had a big day ahead of us.

Day 2: 

We woke up early and had breakfast at Stella's. We let Trey run around Jackson Square a bit until he got tired and ready to go down for his morning nap so we took him back to the room so he could nap and we could get ready.

Once Trey was awake, we headed uptown and set up on Napoleon (near food and potties and people with a sound system...all clutch things to have close-by!)

Mike, and the Tolers, Herrings and Moncerets met up with us.









We had a blast watching the Krewe of Pontchartrain, Choctaw and Freret.



We brought the strollers and the wagon and pretty much just rotated the kids around between the two all day.

We were close enough to the start of the route that we walked down to see Grammy, Peet, David and Neil before their ride. Dellie and Trey got to get on the float for a few pictures before they rolled!

Trey was SO excited when he saw Grammy and Peet. He couldn't stop smiling!

We had a fantastic day with gorgeous weather!



Papa kept us in a steady supply of Bloody Mary's (and Virgin Mary's for Les).

 and the kids had SO much fun watching the parades.

By the end, Trey was even putting his little arms up to catch throws!





Trey had his first moon pie and I think you can tell what he thought of it in the photo below :)

We worked on "throw me somethin' mista" but I think that will have to wait til next year ;)

Trey fell asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel so we all took a nap then met everyone for supper at Rivers' Edge (where we had the WORSE service ever!!!) We have been there plenty times but our waiter was super rude. We ended up having to talk to the manager about him :(

Day 3:

We woke up early and headed to Morning Call in City Park for some "Babies and Beignets" photos with Cristie from Christie Froom Photography. They came out SO GOOD! Will be posting them all very soon...

We headed back to New Roads to drop off Grammy and Peetie, had lunch, then got on the road back to Texas. 

It was a long weekend but we had the BEST time. Trey was also so good all weekend and slept most of the way back home to Texas.

We spent our evening eating moon pies (HEHE!) and going through our loot!

The second weekend of Mardi Gras we went to the Kemah parade.

High-five dude! :)

When the parade was over, Dellie asked "that's it?" Yep, it was that small! :)

The kiddos got a pretty good haul considering the size of the parade...

After the parade, we headed over to the Boardwalk to ride some rides. Trey had his first carousel ride and loved it. He cried when we had to get off.



Quinn was a little scared so he rode on the bench on his Mommy's lap.



After the carousel ride, we rode the train "choo choo!!" around Kemah.





 After the rides, we ate lunch at Bubba Gump where Quinn kept feeding Trey- sha!



We headed down to play a couple games on our way out.



 Adelle won one of the hardest games out there- the ring toss!

Daddy had to work so he met us out there when he was done at work.

When we got home and went through all of Trey's loot, we noticed we had caught a bead from Krewe D'Etat from NOLA which our cousin David rides in! Small world...

Mardi Gras Day, we both had to work, but I cooked us up some YUMMY Shrimp and Grits.

We ended our night with some zydeco dancing in the kitchen- what a great way to end my favorite holiday.

We went to early mass on Ash Wednesday and got our ashes. Apparently it is exhausting being Catholic as Trey fell asleep in the car on the way home from church. :)

Happy Mardi Gras yall! Hope you all had a great season...Here's to a prayer-filled Lent for us all.