Mardi Gras Madness *or* Apparently All We Do Is Eat And Go To Parades

***There are LOTS of photos and LOTS of stories! I wish you could be here! This is SO FUN!***

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Carly, dancing in some gravel, with what is left of her (literally) footlong corndog. Everyone we passed said something, either about the fact that her superhealthy lunch was as long as her legs, or about the stripey falling-down knee socks that she insisted on wearing, or the fact that she was singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider at the very top of her lungs. There is never a dull moment!

The world is Carly's stage. We stopped at the first corner we found with streetsigns on both sides so we could tell Paul where to find us, and look at that, right behind us was a schwanky hotel with a little step on the front. Carly spent about half an hour there dancing and looking at her reflection in the doors.
It was a BEAUTIFUL day!!! And...the bead tree...this is what happens to the cheapo boring beads that no one wants. They become decallations.
Okay, and it was MADNESS! We got adopted by a lady I'll call Mardi Gras Marie, who asked that her photo not be taken, and it's a good thing she let us hang out, because there wasn't a bare spot of police barricade for the entire length of the parade route! Mardi Gras Marie and her husband spend the night and plan on staying right there until Tuesday! WOW.
It was such a great atmosphere, too. The lady on the other side of us showed Carly the ladybug that had landed on her glove and then she passed it off to her.
And this is a beignet! It's like a doughnut, but not in a circle, and chewier...still fried and instead of glaze there was about half a cup of powdered sugar on each one. Yummmm. It's so great to be pregnant right now.
Carly and Mardi Gras Marie's daughter comparing battle scars. Carly fell down and skinned her knee before we left the house. Everyone she met had to see the booboo and express appropriate concern. My little drama queen. =)

The sparkly man! As usual, Carly was confused about the picture taking part, but this guy was SO nice! He came back later, half-lit and asked her if she was being good. She said, "Yes, Sparkly Man" and he said, "Well, that's good! Because I'm not!" and flitted away.
No, no, no...they're PLASTIC...no, not that kind of plastic...the street vendors came by between parades and they were out of control!
Look at that sweet big brother. This was the cutest thing.
Read carefully.
The Marine Corps Band! This would have probably been a more appropriate and respectful video without my color commentary, but Carly was sitting on my shoulders with her hands placed right over my eyes!

This one is for my Aggie friends. The boys looked great! =)
Um okay and this woman was NOT cute. She kept pretending to flip up her poor baby girl's shirt, but the sweet little girl kept pulling it down.
Carly got the money-plush, the LSU tiger! From another float, she got a little flower with a tiny tiger stuck to it. The big one was the mommy and the little one was the baby. They hugged and were inseparable for the rest of the day.
These dragons were so crazy! They were whipping around - scared Carly.
And then! Stillman College! Broke. It. DOWN.

The cymbal section was out of control!

Grammy would be so proud. While the college band played some more, Carly pulled out the sword she'd been given (it hit me straight in the nose!) and started playing it while she watched the clarinets play!
Then she caught this cup! We haven't done the final inventory, but I think we came home with a dozen cups from various floats. See her red little booboo? Poor baby.
As promised: Chewbaca! The rowdy college kids behind us kept making the wookie sound and he was laughing.
Hello from a Jedi. Sorry the pictures stink - it was really pretty cool. =)
No comment.

My little scavenger. She reached through the bars and picked up all the beads she could reach.
Paul was starving by the end of the second parade, so we stopped in for a quick little appetizer before we went to fight traffic. Carly's saying "Wow that's a BIG FISH!" about what I think is the best of the fifteen plushies she scored.
See? In the first krewe, folks kept tossing stuff to us. Lucky for me, the Ladybug Lady had an extra HUGE bag and one of the floats tossed us an empty bag. Among the Things That Would Have Been Good To Know: bring lots of storage for the stuff, along with: bring a chair and bring water!
I don't know how she still had energy. It was 4:30 and we'd been downtown for more than five hours, but she still broke into song and dance.
Here's the video: