Mardi Gras Madness

Posted by Vulnadia on Feb 27, 2009 at 09:06 AM Sunday morning, I got up early and drove to Natchitoches to pick up a rather large piece of art from a dear friend of mine who doesn't currently have room for it in her new townhouse. I returned home about 1:30ish and hit the ground running trying to make sure that we could make it to the Highland Parade on time as a treat for my eldest...and hopefully the babies too! We got the babies up from their nap, managed to get them all changed into something warm enough to combat their runny noses, and even managed to survive Kai's shoe fit. He refused to wear any pair of shoes except the black and white slide-on tennis shoes of which we could only locate two right feet of.... Bregon looked and looked all around the nursery, under their beds, in their beds and in their laundry hampers (which coincidentally are for their stuffed animals) to no avail. Finally, I managed to locate one left one under a bag in my bedroom. How it got there I shall probably never ever know. But, somehow we managed to get the kids all dressed and even in jackets which they do not normally wear! Then we did a quick unloading of the van and put the carseats and strollers back into place and loaded up the little people. At then end of my driveway, it occurred to me that it was now 2:45 and that we may have missed the parade, so I called my friend who lives very close to the parade route. He wasn't at home, but he was far enough along the route to tell me where it had already passed so that I could judge where we needed to catch it! I decided to head over to Centenary College and park there and use the soccer field as back-up entertainment for the babies should we need it. This was the easiest parade that I have ever attended. There was little to no parade traffic getting there. I drove from my house, took the back way down Alexander, and parked in the Kilpatrick Auditorium parking lot as far up lot as I could get. There was only maybe three cars in the lot with us, what luck! We managed to unload in record time, and started our trek accross campus. I really didn't relish the idea of pushing my two-ton stroller up the huge hill past the sub and shell, so we went by way of the library path past the gazebo. On our way, we ran into a friend of ours who was on his way to the bathroom, so we stopped for a short chat. We could hear the parade coming, so we made it short, then headed up to Centenary Blvd to try and catch the parade. We made it to the front driveway and the entrance sign just as the first police cars were rolling by. My little people IMMEDIATELY when crazy waving to their favorite thing, a "Cop car!" Then it only got BETTER! There were bands, and lots of cars and trucks for them to say "Hi" to. And then the floats came, and along with it, the people who think it is fun to try and take the stuff the float people toss to the little people. Luckily, there were only a few of the grabby needy folk and only one stayed next to us and the guys with her started stopping her from doing her dirty work. The babies got soo many beads that they couldn't stand up and keep their balance very well it was so heavy. They somehow came home with a set of Ty beanie babies, too, and various sundry stuffed animals. And then there were the whistles. They sound rather like rubber duckies getting squished, but are smiley faces with plastic party favor ears that roll out when you blow the whistle part. The babies took turns blowing the two whistles we got over and over and over again until they could blow no more and their cheeks were tired! They also would like for me to say a huge "Thank you" to the lady who called me over and gave me the set of turtles that look like the litlte dude from "Finding Nemo." That made them very very happy. In fact those turtles are sleeping in their cribs right now as we speak! Bregon had his own little experience at the parade. As it turns out, his ex-girlfriend was riding on a float, and saw him in the crowd. We think she still has a thing for him, because while he was bent over picking up stuff thrown to the babies, he got pegged in the derrierre by her. She didn' t use just any beads, either. She had taken the huge set from around her neck and tossed those to him. I tried explaining that I think she was trying to say that she likes him still, but he thinks she was just being mean. But, boys will be boys! We had a great time at the parade. We had no trouble getting back home, either. There was hardly any traffic really, but then again, we did take the back way home!