Mardi Gras

We had fun celebrating Mardi Gras this year, although I didn't take too many photos. Jason had to work at dinnertime on Fat Tuesday, so we had our little celebration the day before.

Of course the house was decorated, and for dinner I made chicken sauce piquante. I also made king cake. Typically I make it from scratch, but I was sick and decided to take a shortcut involving crescent dough. It was a little flat, but it actually tasted better than my time-consuming recipe, so I might start doing that from now on. I figure if I lived in Louisiana I'd be buying my king cake from the grocery store like everyone else, so I'm still adding a little homemade touch to it by making my own with store-bought assistance. The kids were super excited to eat some since we don't give them dessert very often.

We have a GIANT bag of Mardi Gras beads I collected on my two trips to Mardi Gras in 1997 and 2001. They are mostly the green, gold and purple ones that the locals don't care about very much because they're not as intricate as some of the other ones. So they were pretty easy to come by, either because I caught them, or found them on the ground or Jason's family just handed them off to me.

I thought it would be fun for Xander to take some in for his classmates, so we counted out enough and he took them to school. Looking cute in his purple shirt, Xander informed me as we were waiting for the bus that if you bring in something about your culture you have to be prepared to talk about it. So I quickly wrote out a few things for him to share. I volunteer for his teacher on Tuesdays so she invited me in for his presentation. He did such a great job, and his friends seemed geuninely interested in what he had to say. They asked relevant questions as well.

He ended his presentation by saying, "I love Louisiana because I like to watch Billy the Exterminator." He cracks me up.

March?!

Wow, February sure went by quickly. We've been so busy the past week or so. Xander spent more time out of school due to weather, I think one whole day and maybe two 2-hour delays. My bible study has also been cancelled the past two weeks ~ last week for snow and then this week because the power went out during a thunderstorm and the sump pump broke, so the restrooms were out of order.

Jason's parents came to visit on Sunday afternoon and the kids were able to con them out of some money. They were both pretty excited to get a five dollar bill, they're used to only having singles. That money, on top of allowance and three visits from the tooth fairy made Xander a very rich little boy. Yes, I said THREE visits from the tooth fairy. He's had this one tooth on the top that has been loose for almost six months now, and he wouldn't let anyone pull it. It's made for some serious battles where tooth-brushing is concerned. Two other teeth ended up coming out first, and the other one had been hanging on so long that the adult tooth is already sticking out. He currently has an adorable lisp.

One of Xander's teeth fell out on Saturday while we were at an old friend's for dinner. I used to always look at my mom's wedding album and ask why I didn't know anyone who was in her wedding. I thought, if these people were that close to you that you would have them in your wedding, why don't you still talk to them any more? And now I understand, as our dinner host was one of those friends for me. I've known her since first grade, we were in each other's weddings, and then life plus a few miscommunications on both sides occurred, and here we are. Currently we live less than 10 minutes from each other and we had a nice time reconnecting, so I'm hopeful we will do a better job at keeping in touch.

On Tuesday the kids and I went to Red Lobster for dinner with my mom and step-dad. We needed to get together on that specific day and, unfortunately, Jason had to work so he wasn't able to join us. My dinner came with dessert though, so I gave him half. The kids were crazy-hyper after we ate and my attempt at taking them to Whole Foods with me was futile. They were running laps around some cases of wine in the meat department and then when I was looking at some chicken I heard Xander shout

Download this mp3 from Beemp3.com

"Everybody dance now!" and he had a whole chicken standing up on its legs and was dancing it around the meat case. The song he was singing was what we used one year in high school for drill team tryouts, but he heard it from Shrek the Halls and now I will just never think of it the same way again.

At bed time I asked Jordis why she was acting up throughout the course of the evening and she said, "I was mad at Xander because he woke me up today when I was trying to get my booty sleep." On Wednesday she had her first gymnastics and hip hop class. She was easily the smallest one there by about 6 inches, but she jumped right in and had a smile on her face the whole time. She's been practicing her stand-ups (hand stands) ever since.

I now have a cold and am glad that this week is coming to a close soon. Hoping to rest up over the weekend and prepare a little Mardi Gras shindig for us since Fat Tuesday is right around the corner. Have a great weekend!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Wow, Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras two days apart. It's like April when Easter and the kids' bithdays tend to be at the same time. In fact, this year all three fall within a nine-day period. But back to Mardi Gras.....

The house was sufficiently decorated (for a Yankee girl, anyway).

I cooked Cajun food for dinner Monday and Tuesday.

Let's throw in an obligatory snow day photo. Becoming commonplace anymore. This was day four in a row of both kids home together ALL.DAY.LONG.

On said snow day the kids made the filling for our King Cakes.

Time now to rest.