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Sunday, March 2, 2014

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

"Laissez les bons temps rouler!"
Cajun French for "Let the good times roll!"
A Mardi Gras battle cry, I guess one could call it.
Glasses & Necklace -Wally's Party Factory
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Saturday afternoon me and my crew marched in Texarkana's second ever Mardi Gras parade. Dressed in traditional Mardi Gras colors (green, purple and gold) and loaded up with beads, we rocked the parade scene again.


 The parade was a lot longer than expected with a few thousand more people that we thought would show up so we all ran out of throwing beads halfway through the parade.
 If you've ever been to a Mardi Gras parade, then you would know that running out of beads is a crime.....
Adults and children screamed and BEGGED for those cheap plastic beads. It was so strange! "BEADS! BEADS!" they cried. Their fervor was almost disturbing.
Our friends from Middlefaire Renaissance Festival in Hillboro, TX joined us too!
Since my husband had camera AND baby duty, he wasn't able to get many photos, but here are 8/100 of the other parade entries. The parade theme was Superheros... again...
This isn't anything like what you'll see in New Orleans. There, they prepare for Mardi Gras all year. Here, it's just another parade and everyone's still pretty new to the concept.
And here's River with some beads Daddy caught for him. He kind of looks like he's not happy with his small collection.

After I handed out 100 flyers for the faire and pimped the event to potential vendors, I treated myself to a nutritious dinner of funnel cake and a corn dog. 
If you're unfamiliar with funnel cake, it's just a giant swirly deep fried doughnut covered in an inch-thick layer of powdered sugar. The best dang thing in the world.

On our way out, we stopped at this vendor to pick up two pounds of delicious Cajun crawfish for dinner. You can't have Mardi Gras without crawfish*!


I think the proper term for this little bugger is "crayfish". Here in the South, they're "crawfish", "crawdads" or "mudbugs". They're boiled in a spicy Cajun mix and are almost always served with potatoes and corn on the cob that have been cooked with the crawfish.
So that was my Mardi Gras weekend.
 Did you all go to any Mardi Gras festivities this weekend?

12 comments:

  1. You look magnificent, all the costumes are amazing and River looks so cute in his beads!
    Funnel cake looks like Spanish churros, bit too sweet for me but the perfect hangover cure. xxx

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  2. Great parade. I loveee funnel cake.

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  3. River probably wants to know what happened to all the bead from home. Funnel cake, hmm......the Azalea Festival is coming up in a couple of weeks..........and it's 2 blocks from my house.

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  4. How fun. I have an idea that wherever you go les bons temps rouler beaucoup!

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  5. I can almost smell the corn dogs and funnel cakes - ahhhhh!

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  6. And, btw, we always said crawdads here in Oregon. My brother and I were going to cook some once, but when we got to the river to look for them, it was muddy and we only found one. We didn't think it was fair to cook just one, so we let him go.

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  7. Funnel cake, yep I'll have some! Mardi Gras looks like a whole load of fun, all the outfits are incredible! x x x

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  8. O, fun fun FUN! You look amazing!
    Mmm, I wouldn't mind some of that crawfish! In Australia we call those "yabbies"!!!
    I see baby number 2 is on the way!!! WOOT!
    XXX

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  9. You look spectacular!

    I like the weird Tiki/Funnel Cake sign.

    That is so cool your ren friends came and did the parade with you!

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  10. Looks excellent! I love the shot of River with his beads. So cute. I've never had either Funnel Cake or Crawfish, but both sound pretty darn good.

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  11. So glad there was not a bead mauling:) you look gorgeous as does your gang! I think I need to try funnel cake would you have shared with me:). Crawfish scare me too much work. Not a lot of meat:)
    Xxooo

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