The aftermath

We did hustle a bit for the twenty or more stuffed animals and twenty thousand beads. Now we will send the animals away and donate the beads to a charity who will re-sell them so the krewes can buy them and throw them to us again next year, at which time we'll donate the beads... Anyway, this is not even all of the loot and thanks, but no thanks, to Aunt Sally and Dick who left most of their beads here, too! (Just kidding, Sally. Thanks for the tips about composting although being eco-conscious seems quite at odds with the loads of plastic junk Mardi Gras seems to center on.)

A big help!

Things are getting better all the time. Shalom got herself dressed, which is less unusual than the fact that she dressed Dahlia! Shalom took off her sister's pajamas and put on the shorts (it's actually a skort) and socks (Dahlia had the shirt on under her jammies). Shalom picked out the matching tie-dye socks for the two of them--thanks Grandma D! I guess there is no better motivation for Shalom to do this than having mom take two hours to get ready to leave the house after a week-end with four guests, six parades, and maybe more drinks...

Mardi Gras day

We only had to walk ten minutes to the parade route on Napoleon to see Rex roll on Tuesday. We brought our chairs for once which was a good thing since Shalom and Dahlia were getting pretty tired of the craziness: observe Shalom covering her ears with the cups as the band goes by. They actually sat for most of the parade which was just as well because my back was starting to kill me after carrying them around for the various parades. I would have taken more pictures of the floats this week, but somehow every time I tried to take a picture someone threw beads into my face. Hmmm. Shalom is wearing one of the more interesting beads we got on Mardi Gras day.

Danneel Park

What weather! It has been sunny and in the 70's the past few days. I broke down and watered the garden since it's barely rained this past week. We live a few blocks from this wonderful oak-canopied playground at the corner of Octavia and St. Charles. While we play the streetcar rolls past every few minutes. The equipment and turf at Danneel Park is actually very old--not quite as old as the park itself which was designated as a public park more than a hundred years ago. In June, however, the playground will be totally rebuilt. Yeah! Unfortunately, there are very few playgrounds here in New Orleans relative to Chicago. We chose our house so we could be within walking distance of one of them.

Silly girl

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Shalom painted her own face. The girls had fun with the all the beads we caught. Shalom was a natural at begging "Throw me something!" Too bad I didn't "accidentally" drop the candy necklace a little girl gave her. We've already seen five or so parades and Mardi Gras day is still a week away! The bead necklaces disappear onto our porch railing each night so we can get the choking hazards away from Dahlia.

Our new house...

...for those of you who haven't visited yet, come on down!

Getting cuter every day!

Shalom picked out her outfit--not bad! (this time)