You don't know Mardi Gras like I know Mardi Gras...

Today is Mardi Gras Day, stands for "fat Tuesday" in French. Most of the people I know have never lived in New Orleans...so their concept of Mardi Gras is brought to them by the media...booze and breasts...well thats not the Mardi Gras I know. And just like most of us can attest from other forums in life, the media just doesn't accurately depict things as they are. Yes there is booze and yes some women flash themselves to get stuff from the floats, but in the 10 years of going to Mardi Gras parades growing up, I never saw it once! There are spots designated for families and most of the partygoers don't go there...here is a quote I found:

Kids don't belong in the French Quarter or on Canal Street during Mardi Gras. So take the family to St. Charles Avenue between First Street and Napoleon Avenue. Here the parade goers are all families. Many bring their ladders with kiddie seats attached to the top. The atmosphere is good, clean family fun.

My mom says kids usually dress up, I don't remember this, but here are my brother Ryan and I all dressed up for Mardi Gras...we look a little unhappy here...
Parades went on for weeks leading up to Mardi Gras Day, (the day before Ash Wednesday). The point was to have a party and eat and have fun the day before Catholics started their fast for lent. Of course I didn't know about this growing up becaues we weren't Catholic and didn't participate in lent. I just knew we got 3 days off of school the week of Mardi Gras. My family had friends who even started their own "krewe" calle the Krewe of Little Rascals. (click on the link and enter the website and you will see our family friends, the Spittlers as the Captains). That parade happened in the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. When I was 5, my brother Ryan and I got to ride on the float and throw beads and cups and toys off to people in the crowds. (below I am climbing up the ladder onto my float...in the tiger costume)It was called "little rascals" because it was all about the kids. Kids were the main participants on the floats. Each krewe also has a King and Queen and in this case, it was also children. A funny story about us riding on the float is I dumped all my stuff out to people in the first 5 minutes and my brother was very meticulous and only threw out a little at a time. The story goes that he generously shared with me the rest of the parade...thank you, Rybe!

The picture below, my dad looking at the camera, and my little brother, Russell with the handsome collar on the bottom.

Anyway...I have fond memories as a child sitting on top of a homemade ladder box seat. In the above picture my dad is holding me (heart drawn on my forehead) in front of our family ladder filled with blankets. We were up high enough that the people on the floats could see us and we could sit above the crowd. There are sections in New Orleans that catered more to the family crowd and thats where we would go. My grandparents would often fly in from Utah each February/March to join us in the Mardi Gras festivites...it was a family affair! Below picture myself and Russell seated in the ladder next to....Bert and Ernie????King Cakes are yummy memory, and each year in school we would have a king cake every friday and whoever got the "baby" would bring the king cake the next week to school. That lasted 6-8 weeks or so. The New Era church magazine for youth even came out to document our Mutual group that went together to show it was also a family place. Can't seem to locate those pictures, but ah well. Here is a list of "krewes" or parades that occur throughout the season.

This is not a good picture, but shows us going through out "loot" after the parades are over.

We stopped in New Orleans on our trip to Florida last year...click here to see picts of us eating beignets and such. Last year for Mardi Gras we got a king cake to share in the tradition with my children, and I ordered one again this year. I am so happy that I live close enough that some bakeries actually make them! Here we are eating the yumminess.

I made up this new tradition to stick a flag in the spot where we guess the baby is hidden. That ends up being our slice. The boys thought that was fun:)

Look who got the baby!