Mardi Gras -Day 2

On Sunday, we went uptown to a few parades before we had to drive home. My childhood friend, Annie (Jananne's daughter), lives in an apartment on the street where two of the parades line up. She was kind enough to let us hang out at her apartment. We walked down her street to the parade route for the first parade, Okeanos.
On the parade route, the man standing next to us gave Jack a pack of poppers. (You know, those little white things that you throw on the ground.) Well, Jack tried throwing a few of them, but he had a hard time throwing them with enough force to make them explode. So, he decided he was more interested in trying to open them and see what was on the inside.
When we went back to Annie's apartment between the parades, we realized we could enjoy the second parade, Mid-City, just as much from her front porch. The riders were not supposed to start throwing until they turned onto the official parade route, but they just couldn't resist the precious 2 1/2 year old yelling, "Throw me something, mister!" It was a completely different experience from Endymion, but it was just as much fun! Annie even had a pot of red beans and rice for us to enjoy before we had to hit the road. It would have been fun to stick around for the remaining parades that day, but unfortunately, MSU doesn't recognize Mardi Gras. (Can you believe that?!)

Mardi Gras -Day 1

We went to NOLA for the weekend to soak up a little Carnival time. We stayed with close friends, Leah and Aaron Lagraize. They have two boys, Avery, 5 and Eli, 1 1/2. We always have fun with them, and I knew it would be more fun to do Mardi Gras with them than alone.
For those who have never experienced Mardi Gras, I will do my best to explain some of the pictures. (For those NOLA natives, you can probably skip the narrative and just enjoy the pics.)
On Saturday, one of the "super-krewes" (big parades), called Endymion, rolls around 4:15. You have to get out to the route early Saturday morning (or some even camp out Friday night) to get a spot. It gets really crowded, but it is a super fun parade with really extravagant floats. (It is fun to see them lit up as it starts to get dark.) Aaron and Brent ventured out around 9 a.m. to meet some other friends and claim a spot. Leah and I showed up around 11:00 with the boys. We spent the day snacking, running around, and making trips to a friend's uncle's house (i.e., bathroom).
Lots of people with small children build seats on top of ladders so that the kids can have a good view of the parade (and it also helps keep them contained in the crowds without having to hold them for 3+ hours.) I vividly remembering NOT liking sitting in the ladder when I was a child. It was too high, and I did not feel safe. So, naturally, I assumed my son wouldn't like it either. The first time we sat him in the ladder, he asked to get down immediately. But, after watching Avery and another friend's son, Nicholas, sit in it, we talked him into trying it again. From that point on, he decided that it was a pretty sweet way to watch the parade. Jack, Avery, and Nicholas each had a bag to collect all of their "throws" (the beads, toys, cups, etc thrown from the floats). I'm not sure any of them actually caught anything, but they were excellent targets for the riders. (Three cute little boys in a ladder are hard to resist.) The adults surrounding them caught plenty to fill their bags!

My mom and our close family friend (the owner of the ladder I sat, or didn't sit, in as a child), Jananne, joined us midway through the day.

In the pictures below, you'll see Jack and his friends clapping to the bands. Then, you'll see Jack's reaction after the first float passed and he didn't catch anything. (The first "float"-if you can call it that- wasn't really part of the krewe. It was a horse drawn carriage with a few people on it. They threw a few beads, but not very many. We had made such a big fuss about yell and catching things, that when the float continued passed us and none of us caught anything, Jack immediately broke down in tears. I'm pretty sure we caught something on every float after that.)

Kid Rock was the celebrity grand marshall.

REO Speedwagon was the special guest.

Mardi Gras video

We went to NOLA this weekend for Mardi Gras. I'll post more details and pics later, but for now, here is a short video of Jack at Mid-City. (I'm testing a new video camera. Hopefully, if this works, there will be more video posts in the future.)

From the long, lost blogger

As many of you have noticed (and not failed to mention), I have fallen behind on my blogging. January was busy, but not as busy with blogging as we all might have liked. So, I took some time today to get caught up. There are 5 new posts (not including this one). You might want to start at the bottom and read up, if you're interested in a chronological sequence. (And, I posted my first video on the "It's a beautiful day" post...enjoy!)

Playground

It was another beautiful day in Starkville today, so we went to the park with Emily.

Imagination Movers

Yesterday we went to see the Imagination Movers in Birmingham. (For those who may be unfamiliar, the "Movers" are a group from New Orleans who have a show on the Disney Channel that comes on right after Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We are big fans of the Movers.) Jack tends to be kind of shy around new people and things and is usually afraid of "characters." (Loyal blog followers may remember Clifford the Big Red Dog and Santa Claus.) We were pleased that he wasn't afraid of the Movers. We got close up encounters during the show with 3 of the 4 guys. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough (and neither is my camera) to catch good pics of all of them in action. But, fortunately, they stayed around afterward for pictures and autographs. In the group picture, Jack is getting Smitty to autograph a guitar pick and the set list that we got from the show. (For those of you who are familiar with the Movers, the guy in red was their extra drummer, Farmer Kyle. Rich was too busy interacting with the kids, singing and playing guitar to be the only drummer.)

"Mover Rich" (just AFTER he tried to shake Jack's hand. Again, my trigger finger wasn't fast enough!)

"Mover Scott" (just BEFORE giving Jack a high-five. My camera wasn't fast enough to get that picture, too.)

It's a beautiful day...

Last weekend the weather was gorgeous. We spent a little time playing in our backyard, and then decided that maybe we should go to the playground. Jack went over to Brent, who was playing the guitar, and he started to sing. He sang the sweetest little song, but of course, by the time I got the camera, he started to lose interest in performing. But, the song went something like this, "It's a beautiful day out there. It's a wonderful day, out on the playground. It's a beautiful day."

King Cake, Barrel Racing & Basketball

Grandmommy came to visit for MLK weekend, and she brought KING CAKE from Lafayette. It was delicious! Jack found the baby! That weekend, he also went to see barrel racing with Daddy and a basketball game with Emily.

Visiting friends

The weekend before school started we went to Jackson to visit some friends, the Meyer family. Jack enjoyed playing with Merrin and Will. Will is just 2 weeks younger than Jack, so it was a great fit. Here they are playing on the airmattress. Below is a picture of Jack going to sleep in Merrin's roller skates. (After we put him to bed, Brent went in to check on him and he had put on and fallen asleep in the skates. I couldn't resist taking a picture; of course, that woke him up! Oops!) The bottom picture is one that Brent would probably prefer I not post, but here I go. Jack enjoyed dressing up like a "fairy" with Merrin.