The Ladder!

The Mardi Gras experience was greatly enhanced this year by the addition of a Mardi Gras ladder, aka The Skyscraper. Addison's ladder was built lovingly by her father and painted in Mardi Gras colors. It was the tallest ladder by far of any child at Mardi Gras this year, and maybe the tallest in Mardi Gras history. Here is the first time trying it out. The paint was still tacky.

Addison seems to be looking at the ground longingly and thinking, "Boy, we're really up here," but she was very excited. We couldn't get her into a coat and shoes before going out to give it a try.

Waiting for the first parade to roll.

Mardi Gras 2010

Addison started out Fat Tuesday with a pre-parade naked ballet dance. She was dancing to a song in which Britney Spears exhibits her math skills by counting to three over and over. Okay, technically no ballet was involved, but there was a tutu.

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Friends, Floats, Food and Fun

After several days and nights of excellent parades, we had an incredible Fat Tuesday. We smoked a brisket and made chili and were lucky enough to snag a great spot for the final parades. There were super nice Indian people on one side of us. They repeatedly declined our offers of meat-based foods until they politely informed us that they were vegetarians. It was quite a treat to have a real DJ on the other side of us. The music really got the crowd going as you can see below. At one point, about a hundred people were doing the Electric Slide (at least that's what we thought it was) right in the intersection of Louisiana and St. Charles. Now that's a party.