Livin' It Up In The Warm Weather

Walk around barefoot and shirtless as much as you want while you can because you will not be leaving the house without a hat, gloves, coat rated for -10°F and boots for another 2 months (if you are lucky).

He was playing with is ping pong gun Aunt Sarah gave him from the parade. 

Tucks Party Time!

After the parades Saturday afternoon, we headed back home where I changed and then headed back to the Quarter to meet up with Sarah for her post-parade krewe party at the Marriott hotel. Once de-floated, Sarah and the gang headed to the hotel for food, drink and music and I met up with them. In a non-traditional Mardi Gras krewe ball, it was costume, not ball gown, which was very nice. And comfortable. The riders just wore their parade get ups. It was a good time, with good food and a good band!  

It's Aunt Sarah - The Parading Rock Star!

The fun and exciting thing this year at Mardi Gras was Aunt Sarah riding in the Tucks parade! She, Lizzie and Doug and a few other people they knew, all rode in Tucks together. They were on float 7, passenger side, riders 3, 4 and 5. The Tucks parade is a fun one, full of satire, humor and pure New Orleans good times. So, pretty much perfect fit for Sarah. And I think it was started by alums from Tulane and/or Loyola, so that was fitting as well.

The Ducks of Dixieland were funny. Some of them were at the after party still in costume (and really drunk)

The King of Tucks. Did I mention their theme thing is toilets? Toilets, toilet brushes, plungers...and beer.

We made a sign so they could see where we were! Ben sat up on grandpa's shoulders when they got close.

There they are! Lizzie is the visible one (left arrow) and Sarah was bent down (right arrow), getting the bags she wanted to give me. I ran up to the float so she could give me the throws. She had goodie bags for the boys and a hand decorated toilet brush (way cooler than it sounds. and it was a brand new brush - i hope). The Tucks parade theme was Sporting Events. Float 7 was the Pub Crawl. All the riders (I think she said 36) wore monk robs and beer mug hats. The float was decorated with a 'map' of a typical pub crawl night. 

And then they sped on by and we enjoyed more parade. The Laissez Boys were one of the more awesome things I saw. A group of men, in lounge wear a la Hugh Hefner, in recliners, on motorized scooters. Some had side tables, some had cooler compartments, they had food, scotch, cigars... They were living the life. We found out later that Sarah was hanging out with them as they were loading up the floats and getting lined up for the parade. She was also impressed with their 'livin' the dream' ways.

Here are some pictures of Sarah on the float and the float decorations I stole from Sarah's FB

A Beautiful Day for Parading

Saturday we headed out to the parades in the late morning. It was a perfect day for parading - low 70s and sunny! Sarah's friends Lizzie and Doug had a hotel room on St. Charles that was perfectly located. It was a block from grandpa's work (ie parking spot) and next to Superior Grill (ie big, delicious margaritas). For guests, the hotel puts up your ladders for you in the morning, thus reserving your spot on the parade route. It honestly doesn't get more awesome than that. We gave Lizzie our ladder to add to her own, so it was all set up and waiting for us when we got there. We set up our chairs and waited for the p-rades. 

Of all the excitement and festivities and things to see, Nick just cared about this puddle. 

Checking out the scene from the ladder with grandma

Doing the ladder big boy style

One of the many things the boys caught in the first parade were stuffed animals. They were occupied for the break between the first parade and the grand event - Aunt Sarah's parade!

What About Ben?

And what did Ben do while Nick and I went on our mommy-date, you ask? He took a nap on the couch outside! He must have been pretty tired and knew it and just wanted to relax and have quiet time. And that he did. He slept outside for several hours.

Just Me and You

Friday morning I asked the boys if they wanted to go feed the ducks at the park and go over to the river to watch the big ships. Nick was all for it but Ben wanted nothing to do with it. So just Nick and I went. As we were driving to the park, Nick kept saying, 'Just you and me, mommy!' I think he was excited that he got a mommy-date. We walked around the pond at the park and saw literally thousands of these red beaked ducks. There were also some interesting looking other types of birds and a swan. Nick had fun throwing food at them and yelling at them to come closer. The red beaked ducks were not people ducks (thank god!) so whenever Nick came close, they moved away quickly. After we exhausted our duck food, we headed over to the Fly to watch the river. We only saw one huge barge and one freighter, though. After watching the river for a while, we headed home for nap time!

More Parading Pictures

More pictures from parading Thursday evening. 

Lizzie, Sarah and I in our sock hop costumes

The infamous blinkie sword

Shoe lights from Muses

Ninja Turtle Parading Time

Thursday afternoon we headed uptown to see the parades. There were three parades, including the all female krewe Muses. Grandma put together/made Ninja Turtle costumes for the boys to wear. They worked out perfectly because it was a little chilly that night and we could fit their coats underneath. They got quite a few shout-outs for their cute costumes.

The boys worked on their catching abilities and how to perfect the cute. 

And of course the blinkies...All about the blinkies.

This is the best face, ever! I don't know what was coming our way, but Nick was excited about it!

Nick had quite the haul after only one (out of 3) parades of the evening. He perfected the cute fast. 

Ben hid behind the front lines after a while. His entire Mardi Gras was made in the first 30 minutes. He caught a blinkie sword AND a tomahawk. Game over. He sat and dug in the dirt of the neutral ground most of the evening. Then he started to get cold/tired, so he went back to the car with Grandpa where he didn't stop talking until the rest of us got back to the car.