EandAMACD: First Mardi Gras

We took our sweet girl on her first "real" road trip down to New Orleans to see our friends the Galjours for the first weekend of Mardi Gras. WHAT? you ask- a baby at Mardi Gras??? Three babies actually people- and they were awesome.

Friday morning we set out just in time for her mid morning nap. She was a trooper in the car! She slept pretty much all the way down and all the way back with an hour stop for lunch both ways. Could not ask for more. She did NOT sleep as well in in the pack and play, at the hotel in the same room with her mommy and Daddy...but I'll take quiet in the car any day.

We got to town about 4:30 and over to the Galjours house about 6. They made us some yummy gumbo and had bought a king cake for our visit...and some yummy Abita beer. The kiddos got acuainted over a bag of Mardi Gras beads that Gaston so graciously shared while the adults did some catching up! We last hung out with them the weekend we found out we were pregnant with Emily. It was so fun watching the kiddos play. Gaston was SUPER sweet with Emily. He kept hugging her and touching her little face- while his mommy kept reminding him to be gentle b/c she is so little!! I told her Em is used to playing with boys at daycare. She seemed to really enjoy playing with the boys. And she loved the beads!

Saturday we all got Emily ready in her spiffy new shirt Mrs Kelly had made her the night before and off we went. We tried to go have lunch at the River Shack- a local place by the river. Did. not. work. out. They were packed and the service was really slow - so we moved on to Frankie and Johnny's. Emily got her first look- not taste of a muffelatta. It was as big as her head!!! We were going to hit one of the afternoon parades but all three kiddos sacked out in the car so we headed back to the Galjours to chill til the next one. We bundled up the kiddos and headed out to the Sparta and Pygmalion parades. It was COLD! Emily seemed to be tired and only lasted in the stroller with Olliver until about 8. We took her home and after some protest, she passed out.

Sunday was going to be a long day. We had grandstand tickets for two parades. the Krewe of Carrolton and the King Arthur. It was a beautiful day if a little chilly. We all got dressed accordingly. I put Em in fleece pants and a long sleeved onsie under her cute Mardi Gras longall, hat and coat- and sun hat! She seemed toasty. Even though she had no clue what was going on- she seemed to enjoy looking at everything. All the people, the floats. The marching bands, the beads. The kids were bead MAGNETS! I've never seen that many beads in one place except on a float! We only had three minor incidents. Twice Emily took a strand of beads to the face that her Daddy or I didn't intercept- and I got a whole bag of beads to the forehead at one point!! They were throwing bags of beads and stuffed animals at the kids. It was crazy. After 5 hours- (yes these kids were troopers!) of parades, we were done and headed to dinner. One of my favorite restaurants back home in Louisiana was Superior Grill- a FANTASTIC mexican place. There are only 4 of them and I go every chance I have to get near one. Dinner was sooo yummy and we were so tired. We called it an early nights Said our goodbyes to the sweet and always fun Galjours. Promised to come back again. Made them promise to come for Italian Fest this summer. Went back to the hotel and crashed.

We had a fantastic time with our friends and our sweet child was a road warrior!

A few from my phone-