Happy Mardi Gras!

I decided to go to Metairie instead of downtown because I was a little intimidated about managing Carly in those huge crowds all by myself. Little did I know that THOUSANDS of people were going to be in Metairie. It was a completely different vibe than uptown - there were no police barriers, so people walked right up to the floats to get their stuff. So different!
Funny Carly! Also funny, is the lady in the background who kept mean-mugging us for encroaching on her space. She was quite unfriendly! But the teenagers who joined their group later were the nicest people we saw all day. They'd catch stuff and give the small beads to Carly.
Cheeeese! Really, don't I get the best backgrounds?
Carly wasn't sure what this thing was - we still haven't figured it out - but she was pretty excited about it! Especially while double fisting a full-sized (woohoo!) teddybear and these Moon Pies that Metairie seems to love so much!
If you go downtown, you get to see Chewbaca. If you go to the suburbs, you get Al Roker, the local news guy. =)
HAHAHA! Carly, giving a superdirty look to the group of people who just came and stood RIGHT in front of us. There were five-year old twin boys whose parents would put them on their shoulders for each float (but we had the teenagers on ladders, so it wasn't such a huge deal that we were totally blocked from the action!) and each time their shoes would come thisclose to Carly's face. She was NOT EXCITED about that.
And...she's holding The Most Random Parade Toy...a dark-haired Barbie from the LSU float, who apparently is a stripper, given the fact that her jacket has no closure.
Waving at the flower float
You can tell Carly likes a toy when she trades in whatever she'd been holding. You can tell it's a REALLY good toy when she gets out a cup to put it in.
The fave of the day - a snake! Ssssss!