Mardi Gras

I'm not sure if I have just never paid attention or what, but until last year I had no idea that Bolivar had its own Mardi Gras parade.  So this year I was on it, and we found out the date and the girls got to experience their 1st Mardi Gras parade, and probably their 1st parade ever (unless it is Mardi Gras, I'm not really one to seek out local parades!)  We had no idea what to expect, Michael figured there would be maybe 4 floats, I figured it would just be a bunch of people in backs of pickup trucks, not real floats, but we were both pleasantly surprised.  Day started off with terrible rain and thunderstorms and the parade was delayed, but once it got going it was a blast.  There were lots of floats and there were some pickups, some ATVs, some boats, but also some proper Mardi Gras style floats.  It was no Bacchus in New Orleans, but it was Bolivar style and it was perfect.  Does kind of make me want to got to New Orleans again sooner than later!

 I didn't make the girls anything for Valentines because I opted to make Mardi Gras dresses.  They turned out pretty cute, although I need to remember that the pillow case dress style does have the tendency to make it look like your kid is wearing a pillow case, so I might opt for a different style next time.  The picture of Addy below is after climbing around in the car and standing in the misting rain for the parade, so it looks a little worn, and it is.  And the pic of above is of a smiling Ella, which she is most of the time, just not when the camera is out, so I was excited we got this one!

 Thank goodness for big cars with lots of room to climb around in.  We were probably a little past the 1/2 way mark in the parade route, so we had a bit of a wait before the action started.  Lots of climbing in the car, standing in the misting rain...I was freezing, but the girls were fine and Ella didn't want to wear a jacket for the longest time.  And be sure to check out the jackets they have on, the good parents we are forgot their real jackets at home, but after a fun trip to the Big Store, they both had new Crystal Beach hoodies.  And new rain boots - I need to start sending Michael to the store, I buy way too much, not completely necessary, stuff when I go there.  But I figure I'm just supporting the local economy!  

Neither girl knew what to expect, and this was all happening during prime Ella nap time, so for a number of reasons it was a comical outing.  Addy had 1,001 questions, and Ella was just wondering what in the world we were doing.  This pic was when the parade was just about to us, and the girls are looking down at what is coming.  

 This was early in the parade, notice the progression of beads through the next few pics.  

 This pic clearly depicts Ella's general confusion and curiosity about the whole event!  I thought that she'd freak out when we started putting the beads on her, but I think that the combination of her being tired and not knowing what was happening worked in our favor this time.  Most of those we picked up and put on her, but she got into it for a while and was grabbing the beads off the ground and putting them on herself.  This is where her playing in Addy's jewelry box paid off- she knew what to do with a necklace and how to get it over her head all by herself!

 Michael and the girls at the end of the parade.  Clearly there were way more than 4 floats in order for us to get all these beads. 

 Addy and all her loot! 

 This was taken less than 5 minutes after we got back in the car - she was zonked! 

Here is Ms. A modeling ALL of the beads we got, once we got home.  Probably weigh about 1/2 as much as she does!  Fortunately Addy had the idea to take beads to her friends at school, but unless we give each kid a dozen, we are going to have a lot of beads around the house...anyone want some Mardi Gras beads??!!

Happy Valentines Day

I made the mistake of trying to take pictures after a day at school, before dinner, so the whole tired/hungry kid combo was not working in my favor when trying to take cute Valentines pics.  But here is what we got!

 Valentines was a mini-Christmas this year!  Here is Addy putting together a puzzle from Aunt Dottie and Uncle Fred - it was a huge hit.  And thanks to Granddad and Meme for the heart socks! 

 Note, Ella is happy and smiling while standing (she won't sit!) at the table eating her snack.  More importantly, check out her cute tights!

Michael brought home a flower for each of his girls!  Addy and I loved ours and Ella liked hers so much that she broke the stem, and shortly after this picture was taken she smushed the entire thing (smart daddy anticipated this and opted for the $1 carnation for the little girls!)

Goodbye Garden Bathroom

This post makes me super happy - we started demolishing our master bathroom and are looking forward to a 20th century-worthy bathroom, good-bye 1980s.  Obviously will share the end result, but here is just a sneak peek of weekend 1.

Here is the "before" picture - it was functional, but the flowers are just not our style.  And it had white tile and white grout on the floor (at least it was white at some point), I'm sorry, but whoever thought that was a good idea, clearly didn't have it installed in their own house. 

 Goodbye flowers.  Addy was the one that labeled it the garden bathroom and thought that it was silly that we were having to shower with all the flowers.   I certainly don't disagree with her!

This was at the end of day 1...we have many more days ahead, but we certainly miss having our bathroom, so we have serious motivation to keep the ball rollin'.  Fortunately we have a 3rd bath so all 4 of us aren't sharing a bathroom. Unfortunately the extra bath has the tiniest bath/shower ever and no ventilation and no windows - we may be all sharing the same bath before this is all over!

Dress Up

We've been super busy recently, just not with picture/blog-worthy activities.  But when looking through the pics in the camera this afternoon, I had a few and realized there was definitely a common theme - Ella playing dress up.  She is a bundle of entertainment these days!  One of her new words is "Barbie" and today she put on some of the dress up shoes and was walking around calling them her "Barbie shoes".  Here are some of her recent dress up adventures

 This pic is from Tyler Swann's pirate themed birthday party.  Ella had just woken up and I'm not sure she actually realized there was something on her head.  She sat there for ages.  On the other hand, Michael quickly took the stick-on beard off after the pic.  

 I guess you could say they were playing dress up in their laundry baskets.  They had a blast playing in these until Ella got stuck again.  

Another theme is Ella not ever looking at the camera, so I have a bunch of strange profile shots!

After disappearing in Addy's room for a while and being super quiet, Ella walked out decked out in nearly every bracelet we have, and a few necklaces.  Shortly after this pic, she took it all off and threw it all on the floor.  One of Ella's favorite past times is playing in Addy's jewelry box, so I can't tell you how often we pickup jewelry off the floor!