Mardi Gras Weekend

This past Friday, my mom, Tatum, and I headed down to New Orleans to meet up with my dad and brother to go to some Mardi Gras parades. As soon as we got down to New Orleans, we got ready and headed to our first parade. We would show up an hour or 2 early before the parade so we could back up my car and still see the parade. Here are LOTS of pictures from our weekend.

These first ones are of Tatum hanging out in the back of my car before the parade started...

Uncle Matt was being a great actor and pretending like Tatum was choking him. However, if you look close, Tatum isn't even holding on to the necklace...lol

My mom and dad before the parade even started. Yes my mom has beads already because we picked them up off the ground when we parked. We didn't learn til Monday when we were headed out of town that the "locals" only want the beads that are caught in the air. Apparently once they hit the ground they are no good. I guess that just means more for us that are not locals, eh?
And these things were everywhere......yes a port-a-potty(is that how you spell it?)
After waiting about 2-3 hours (yes HOURS) the parade finally started...
Next is a sign with the theme of the parade...

These people on some of these floats were strapped into these huge things and they could barely move or throw beads. They did look beautiful though.



After the parade, we finally got back to the hotel and got Tatum to be at 10:30pm instead of her normal 7:30-8:00 bedtime. I just KNEW she would sleep at least til 8 or 9, but nope, she was up at 7am. So as soon as she made the first sound, her Uncle Matt grabbed her up and put her in bed with him(but only after I changed her diaper). They were both out with in minutes. How sweet (and funny) is this picture...

Being in a hotel room with a baby means you have to adapt sometimes. So, my mom brought this chair so that Tatum could eat. Instead of bringing the big chair from the table to put her little chair in, I decided to just put her in the middle of the bed. Also, on a side note, this hotel had a special room for babies called the "Teddie Bear Room" that was kid friendly. They had a pack-n-play so we didnt have to bring our own as well as a little chair that Tatum absolutely loved. I hate that I didn't get a picture of it. Anyway, that is why there are teddie bears on the bedspread.


After we would get beads, we would try to organize them to transport back. Tatum LOVED helping us with this task. She kept putting them on herself. You can see as the pictures go on that she has more and more beads.

Here are a few pictures from when we went out to eat on Saturday. This first picture is the face that Uncle Matt taught her to do. It is so funny cause she only does it when he is around and she makes this noise to go along with it.

And she also loves her Gap hat she got for Christmas.

Here are pictures from our second night of parades...There were lots more people at the parade on Saturday...
Tatum decided she was tired of waiting on the parade to start, so she wanted to drive herself home...
However, once the parade started, she changed her mind cause she wanted to get new goodies...

Here is a pic of me and Tatum with a float in the background. Look at the people with their arms up trying to catch some beads.
Tatum took a break mid-parade to refuel with some grapes...
Next is my bro Matt posing and being silly...Notice the amount of beads...

My parents...
My dad holding Tatum...
The second night, my parents made some new friends. The man and woman in the background were from Novo Scotia (Canada). This was their first Mardi Gras and we made sure they got lots of beads. My mom even gave up some big beads to the couple.
This was later on in the parade. Uncle Matt and Tatum were watching the parade. Notice the HUGE beads that Matt got. He EARNED those beads from a lady on one of the floats. She waited for Matt to come over and get those beads. I am not sure what he did to get those beads, but I guess it was his charm that was radiant that day?
Here are just my mom's beads from one night...

Tatum was trying to charm the big beads away from her Uncle Matt. She tried to get them off his neck, but it didn't work.



As you can tell, we had a BLAST!! The more beads we got, the more I wanted to get. I guess I am just too competitive sometimes. I am not sure what we are going to do with all of these beads we got. Tatum scored tons of beads and stuffed animals.(I was told from an experienced Mardi Gras parade goer that I needed to "pimp my child" and we would get more goodies, I think we did pretty good. I am still planning to take a picture of everything she got over the weekend so I can post it.

Anyone wanna go back with us next year???