Mardi Gras 2012

We couldn't live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana without going down to New Orleans and experiencing good old Mardi Gras. Our friends Kip and Sarah were kind enough to invite us to stay at Sarah's parents house Monday night and show us the ropes on catching beads :) We managed to make it to 3 parades Monday afternoon/night and 1 parade Tuesday morning. I am so glad Ben had a few days off from class and teaching. Down here they have a Mardi Gras break, how awesome is that!

Below is Evelyn's first experience sitting forward in her stroller. I have to admit I have just been lazy preferred to leave her in her infant car seat. After this smile

I guess it's time for a change, about time mom!

I couldn't believe how many beads managed to make it into the trees! These are all beads from previous days and parades.

If you are a regular and you have kids, this apparently is the thing to have. People will make this for their kids to sit in during the parades so they can catch beads better. Insane right?!

Below was Monday afternoon. As you can see it was fairly calm and not too crowded.

Now this is Tuesday afternoon, much different don't you think? This was also closer to the beginning of the parade route. Speaking of parade route...there was this awesome app for our phone that tracked the parade so you could see what block it was currently at.

This is Evelyn's first spoil of Mardi Gras. The lady in the parade pointed to Evelyn and wanted her to have it.

Can you believe all the beads we caught after just one parade?! Evelyn is wearing all of Ben's beads (well minus 2 beads that were given to her).

Ben sporting his lovely bead collection.

The McBrides joined us as well as some of our other friends that we didn't get pictures of. Now that I think of it, we should have taken a fun group picture. Dang.

See these lady's beads? Yah...we were jealous. Ben and I were both hoping to catch some like this. They don't throw too many out though.

Below is from Tuesday afternoon but Monday night was definitely our favorite. We were enjoying ourselves so much we didn't get any pictures. Sorry!

Evelyn was so exhausted Tuesday that she crashed during the parade. I felt so bad that we went home shortly after.

Evelyn with all the spoils. This was all mainly from Monday's parades.

Insane I know! Overall we had a great time! I wasn't sure what to expect since you hear so many different things about Mardi Gras, but with the right people and the right location on the parade route you will have a blast!