Mardi Gras 2012

What an adventure.  Good, bad and ugly... There were a total of 23 parades that passed through our neighborhood.  23 over the course of 12 days.  That's a LOT of parades.  That's a lot of tourists, road blocks, drunken mayhem, beads and other assorted adventures!

Overall, the kids had a good time.  They collected blinky things, beads, cups, doubloons, trinkets, shoes, a coconut, stuffed animals, swords and goodness knows what else!  By the end of the parades, even Wren knew to stand up and wave her hands in the air hoping to catch something!  We met a lot of nice folks and there were a bunch of teenagers and other strangers who were super nice to the kids.  There were also a fair share of drunken middle aged folks who would eagerly elbow Atticus out of the way to catch whatever was flying towards us - but thankfully we weren't totally over run by those guys/gals.  Atticus even tried to woo a young college aged student out of her big fancy beads -- he almost succeeded, but ultimately he gave them back to her.  :)

There are a bunch of cool sites that tell you the history of Mardi Gras, detail the different krewes and talk about their throws etc.  Here are some of the best ones I visited this year with the exception of really cool link that I can't find (boo):

Mardi Gras New Orleans

NOLA.com

Rex

Arthur Hardy

While there are still a few pictures to rescue from Greg's phone (we didn't have the actual camera with us) here are a few other shots collected from random sources!

At intermission (standing just off to the side of the open bar - ha!!)  The boys from the left: Chris Grieco, James Schuelke, Greg Baden and Jonathan Wolfson.

After the majority of the folks had left the Rex Ball, we got the chance to go on stage.

The ladies, sitting where the debutantes had been earlier - Leigh Schuelke, Kendall Wolfson and myself.

The EBC crew with the exception of Chris's fiancee Barbara who couldn't attend.

Here's the family out at Orpheus on Lundi Gras (Monday night).  Because of the flash, it's hard to tell, but the funky headband that Atticus is wearing actually lights up.  :)

This is a bit long, but it was a cool night time float!  The kids loved the choo choo!

                         Atticus all lit up.  :) (Well, half of him anyways!)

                          Some of the loot all piled up on the sofa chair.

                   I don't even remember which parad this was from!  Oy!!