every since our visit to new orleans (here and here) while on our epic road trip that is no more, we have a spot in our heart for mardi gras. this year, at our co-op, we have met some families who hail from the new orleans area, and managed to get an invite to a real live homeschooler mardi gras party.
leading up to the party, we worked hard on securing shoeboxes and craft supplies to construct our very own mini mardi gras floats. see if you can guess whose is whose?
if you guessed, hazel, anna, and isaac, from left to right, you’re the grand prize winner!! anyhow, armed with our shoeboxes, dressed in purple, gold and green, we were off to party!!
at the party, a table was set up to display all of the shoebox floats. there were several VERY impressive creations. it was quite an assembly.
since it was a homeschool event, there were obviously themed arts and crafts, in the form of mardi gras masks. there were also generous amounts of beads and other accessories for maximum celebration fun.
eventually, we all settled in to learn a bit about mardi gras history from our lovely host, rachel. we watched live footage being streamed from new orleans (which i now realize was us watching a bunch of people unwittingly pass around coronavirus with reckless abandon).
after the little lesson/discussion, it was time for king cake!! it was ordered in from some random famous king cake supplier in new orleans. super official. the girls gorged themselves. isaac, who has recently decided to go gluten free, just ate a bit of frosting on top of some GF vanilla wafers we brought with us. he’s committed.
tasty. 
stuffing themselves. 
the two adults in this pic are the moms of the families in our co-op from louisiana. they are also sisters to each other. and teachers at the co-op. fun.
upon completion of all mardi gras themed party events, the kiddos dispersed outside, where there was a trail in the woods, and some rogue chickens, but the main attraction was the slack line.
eventually the fun had to come to an end, and we piled all the kiddos onto the staircases with their floats for an obligatory photo op. one smiling. one goofy.
we had a great time, and it was fun to get out of the house on a random tuesday afternoon. especially in retrospect, as i write this from day 17 or so in coronavirus quarantine, just over a month later. sigh.
I have never been to a real Mardi Gras party, complete with floats. What fun!