Weekly Stats

Highlights of the Week:
**Going to our first official Mardi Gras Parade! Not only going, but getting to see my boy march in it!
**Finally making my 5 mile goal.  I ran 5 miles, and now I'm going to have to do it again.
**Lovely weather- down in the 45-55 degrees at night, 70's all week.

Lowlight of the Week:
**Migraines on Monday and Friday.  Bah, I say!


Running Review:
**Monday I did 5 miles with Levi!  We ran the flightline to the back gate and back and it was awesome.
**Tuesday I ran 3.5 with Levi in the early morning.
**Wednesday I ran/walked a slow 3.5 miles with the running group.
**Friday I had a horrid 3.5 miles at the track.
**Saturday a slow (but all running!) 3 miles with the running group.

Bread and Circus! Er, Beads and Mardi Gras

Today was our first official Mardi Gras Parade.  It was a slightly breezy 74 degrees and the sun was shining.  Yeah, I gotta brag when I can.  I was a little concerned about the day.  Joshua was marching with the school band in it.  Somehow, NONE of the other parents wanted to carpool.  Seriously?!  So I had to get him to the beginning of the parade 90 minutes prior, and I had to pick him up at the end. 

I had coordinated for Dan to pick up, and I took Joshua to meet his group.  After getting him uniformed, hemmed, watered, and situated, I took Marian and Callie a half mile down the road and we parked and staked out a nice spot.

Waiting in the shade. 

Nola's finest keeping the peace and keeping the roads safe.  See all the folks getting ready for the parade? 

Here I am in my awesome hat!  Love this hat. 

 Yeah, we got donuts to munch on while we waited.  And waited.  

It really was only an hour or so that we waited, but it felt longer.  The girls were really good for it all.  They were super excited for it, and could not wait for the first floats and beads.  Oh, they wanted those beads!  The floats rolled by and threw stuff.  Lots of stuff.  Random stuff.  Odd stuff.  It seemed like some of the float people had just gone in and purchased everything on clearance after every holiday.  There were foil Christmas gift tags, plastic toys, cups, funky straws, flowers, and the girls each managed to snag a set of devil masks and pitchforks.  They also collected a large variety of beads.  Mostly the cheap beads, but we scored some giant beads and some fancy ones as well.  Must get pictures next time!

The Queen of something.  

"Throw me something, Mister!"

Wait, who is that?!! 

Hey, that blond trumpet player is my boy!  So proud of him.  He did great.

The parade was shorter than I expected (only 45 minutes), and we were at a good spot, so once it was over, I realized I would be able to zoom on down to the end and park before he got there.  So I called Dan, and let him off the hook.  Marian, Callie and I drove to the end, and walked a bit back down the parade route to find a decent spot.  Fewer good spots at this end.  Rowdier crowd too.  The girls didn't mind.  They passed the wait time looking for broken beads to decorate the trees with.  Then we watched the parade go by again. 

This totally made me think of Bread and Circuses. You can barely see the crowd, clamoring for loot.  The adults were worse than the kids.  One guy would whack the sides of floats, shouting for beads. It was crazy.  I was sad that when the bands and cheer squads passed, there was silence, but as soon as a float came by, everyone was screaming for something. I thought after 4.4 miles that the kids walking deserved some cheering on, but I guess no one else did.

 And here, just before the end, I got to see our kids again.  You can't see Joshua here, but I thought the band did a good job.  It was a long, HOT, nearly 5 miles with their instruments.  I thought it a bit ambitious for a first year band, but it went well, and Joshua is ready to go again next week!  He really had a good time and loved the experience.  I'm glad.  I had been worried it would be horrible for the kids, but I'm glad I didn't tell him.  Joshua had a blast.

I didn't get pictures of the girls, because they had a bead-collecting system that made it hard to get pictures.  They would run down a good ways away from me and gallop back alongside the floats holding hands out for beads.  Plus, they were brave enough to walk up to the horseback riders and motorcyclists, who would hand them stuff.  They came home with quite the haul!!  I think we might have made it with no sunburns, so it was a good day.

Its Mardi Gras Season!

Mardi Gras is here!  The first parades rolled a week ago and things are in full swing.  Delaney had a fun assignment for school, to make a shoe box float.  I got some materials and we got to work.  Er, um, some of us got to work.  Some of us glued fuzzy green fabric to the shoe box and asked Delaney what she wanted next.  Delaney giggled and colored a picture.  Some of us glued beads to the float and asked Delaney what she wanted next.  Delaney giggled and counted pompoms.  Some of us glued pom poms on and actually got some help from Delaney!  Some of us made little pipe cleaner people.  Callie distracted Delaney further by deciding they needed to decorate their own masks.  I ended up holding the glue gun while they stuck all sorts of things all sorts of places.  They had a great time.  Delaney's float has no theme, and is pretty random, but that should be perfect for her!

Callie and her awesome mask!   

 Callie and Delaney showing off their masks together.  Lots of creativity here, people.  Lots!

Delaney's final product.  Isn't it glorious?!

And now, to brag.  Joshua is going to be in a Mardi Gras Parade tomorrow!  His school has a band for the first time this year, and they will be marching in the parade.  I got to see them practicing today.  Yikes!  Such a little group of little kids!  Well, middle school kids.  They have a small band, but I am super excited to see them in the parade.  And I hope all my worries are for naught!   (It is 4 1/2 miles of marching with an instrument in full uniform in 70+ degrees.)

Pictures of the parade will be posted after!

Bayou Signet Park

Joshua had one little thing to finish up before he could achieve his "Arrow of Light" for scouts.  His fabulous scout leader used the holiday Monday to meet us at Bayou Signet Park.  We figured it would be a good day to take all the kids out. We'd never been to the park, and it is a state park with a bunch of different things to do.  I thought we'd get some hiking and stuff in.  Sadly, we just hung out at the park and Joshua went off to do his thing.  I'd have liked to have gone hiking on some of their trails, but with a gaggle of girls, it seemed more prudent to just stay at the park, where they had an absolutely marvelous time.  It was a lovely day and it was nice to spend the morning at the park as a family.  Yep, even Dan was there.

We brought Levi with us, but I'm not sure how much fun he had!  We wouldn't let him off the leash, wouldn't let him chase anything, and wouldn't rescue him from Callie's repeated torture of him on the playground.  Poor, good natured dog!

 Trying to get a group shot.  Callie insisted Levi had to be in it, and no one would look at me.

Callie took Levi down the slide.... several times! 

 Note the death grip on the collar so he can't get away.

Such a good doggie!

 This was a fun little thing and the girls really liked it.

Delaney asked for her picture to be taken. 

Rylee was cute.  She had fun, until she scooped up some sand that had been part of an ant pile.  Ouchies!  She got a few fire-ant bites on her fingers.

Did I mention it was about 65 degrees?!  Gorgeous weather that day!  The girls kicked off their shoes and had a blast digging and building in the sand. 

Callie an Levi weren' the only ones to utilize the slide.

And Joshua is spotting wildlife.  I've got him super-zoomed here, and he didn't know I snapped his picture.  heh heh heh

Stats for the Week

Highlights of the Week:
** I got to see my friends at the Library.  Rylee wasn't awful and even participated a bit!
** We had the missionaries over for diner on Tuesday.  That was great because I made yummy Bourbon Chicken and an awesome Cheesecake for dessert!  It was Elder Green's last meal before going home the next day.
** Visiting Teaching Nancy on Thursday and then having marvelous success at the shoe store AND the Thrift store.  Yay for feeling fabulous about my day!
** Play-date/Visiting Teaching at my house of Friday.  I love visiting with my friends.
** Best highlight was going to the Temple on Saturday with my friend Mandi.  The drive goes so fast when you gab with someone you like, and going to Chili's for lunch after was great.
** Callie and Delaney would say the highlight of the week was Friday night's Daddy Daughter Dance!

Low lights of the week:
** Squeezing my stupid allergy shot between preschool pickup and kids getting out of school.  Making it worse, the nurse shot me too close to the nerve.  I've never had that happen before, so the incredible pain in my left arm worried me.  Fortunately, we have a friend and neighbor who is a flight surgeon, and he makes house calls!  He came over and told me it was because the nurse hit too close to the nerve and it would be better in 48 hours.  I loaded up on motrin and cried myself to sleep.  It hurt that bad.
** The rain.  The incessant gray, drizzly skies that lasted through Thursday.  So miserable.  I'm so happy the sun is back out!

Running Report:
* Monday- Took Rylee to the gym with me because it was raining.  Ground out a miserable 3.5 miles, with a 5 minute intermission to deal with Rylee.
* Tuesday- Ran the flightline with Levi in misty not-quite-rain. Had an awesome run of 4.5 miles!
* Wednesday- Yucky weather, no motivation.  Used the elliptical machine 45 mins.
* Thursday- Got up early and ran outside at 5:45.  Found a decent loop and did 3.3 miles.
* Friday- Decided to try the track. Did 4 miles while Rylee hung out at the park.  Levi did half the miles with me and then I locked him in the tennis courts so I could run free.  His feeling were really hurt.

And now for the pictures:

Callie's fancy hair for the Daddy Daughter Dance.  She wanted a bun, but her hair is a bit short and wispy, so it needs help to keep it all up. 

It came out nicely! 

Yeah, I parked her in front of the tv so I could work on her hair and she has no interest in looking at the camera!  Just wanted to watch her movie.   We are battling over the length of the bangs again.

Delaney wanted 3 ponies that met in one big pony in the back. She was cute.

Dan took the girls and said they had a good time.  Callie and Delaney talked about it forever and loved it! Delaney keeps telling me how she got out and learned to dance!  Now she can dance all by herself!

  Love these guys!