February 2015

 

I decided to start Quincy in swimming lessons, just for a month to get her some basics.  She did so well on the first day and seemed to really enjoy it! I didn't tell Jeremy that we signed up, but Quincy was so excited about it that the second he got home she ran up to him and said, "swim class!" She also told anyone who would listen..."swim class!"  Including my mom over the phone.

She also liked bundling up afterward and insisted on keeping her hood on.

 

 

 

Mia came to New Orleans for a conference so I bugged her until she made some time to have dinner with me....I got to get dressed up for a night on the town!

but what was really important was the good company.  While we were eating a waiter came and asked how we were, Mia returned the question and he responded with, I'm handsome, I'm healthy and I'm alive.  Then he proceeded to coach her on how to use his mantra. It took her awhile, but she was finally able to admit that she is gorgeous!  I was a ball of nerves about parking and walking around in the French Quarter at night, but she was having such a good time I almost forgot to be worried...and of course we were safe.

 

What the girls were doing while I was on my girls night out.

 

I tried my praline recipe again and made my best batch yet!

Selfie's with Quincy.

Ellia working on her spelling words.

 

and Jeremy decides to take on the job of making a Mardi Gras ladder.  We were inspired when our neighbor left a ladder out for the trash...bingo, a new project, and new toy for us!

I had my own project going.  I got tired of the girls single shelf and rod closet and took some action! 

Ellia and Hailey sure enjoy one another's company, and don't let their size difference get in the way. So hard to believe they are only a year apart in school!  Obviously at two ends of the growth spectrum!  We all enjoyed their company while we waited for the Eve parade and then of course had fun watching it.

The ladder was a huge help!

Soccer Saturday!

After our games we headed to the city for more Mardi Gras!

The view from the ladder was much different.  I am getting to really like this Mardi Gras tradition...I had almost forgotten how fun it is.

I guess not all of us feel that way ALL the time!

Best throw of the day.

These dancing wrestlers were so fun!

 

 These girls know how it's done!  In fact we were walking down the street sometime later (several weeks, when Steph B was visiting and I just said, "Mardi Gras" and Quincy put her hands up in the air like this!)

 

 Night time parades are rolling in!

 

 

Our busy weekend continued with Ellia's baptism preview.

We just happened to all choose red this Sunday.

 

Despite being worn out from our weekend, we were excited to head back to the city to use our Jazz, I mean Pelican's tickets. Such a fun Christmas gift from Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Laura. I really enjoyed taking the girls.

 

Basically the fun never ends during Mardi Gras season.  The very next day was Heather's Abadie's King Cake testing party!  Another one of the things I look forward too this time of year. I recently tried a piece from PJ's coffee, which actually comes from Market Baked. I ate it cold and there was so much cream cheese filling it became one of my top three choices. When I ordered the whole cake I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of cream cheese so Sam's Club pecan praline is still number one for me.

Quincy got into my makeup...again.

Another fun school tradition here is the shoe box parade.  Ellia and I had a lot of fun making this, maybe me more than her.

 

 

Just one of those sweet moments.

 Time for hair cuts!

The third graders at Woodlake decorate wagons and do a block parade for the other students. This year Quincy and I got to go watch with Ellia.

Principal Parker! What a sport.

These parades and the floats are taken very seriously!

Such a silly little princess.

Trying out some new poses.

She found this old shirt of mine and tried it on.  Super cute.

 

 Ellia's loot from the school parade.

More stuff.  Jed thought he might want to throw beads at a parade in Heber and I said, "I can be your supplier." Now at least we have a place for them to go!

Krewe of Tiny Tumblers parade.

Ashlyn didn't want to wear her mask until she saw Rylan with one on.  Ashlyn put hers on but it didn't last long.

One of her first traveling peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  At least she's happy!

A playdate with cinnamon rolls turned into king cakes for the kids to decorate...so cute!

 The first time I saw this as we walked to our spot for Mardi Gras Parades, I thought it was quite random.  Then I saw it about five more times this month and it became more of a mile marker for walking back and forth to the car.

Happy Valentines day!  This year the whole holiday of Valentines had been overshadowed by Mardi Gras.

A nice safe place to rest, away from flying beads.

With nicer weather come larger crowds.  It may also be due to the fact that the Lazy boy club was part of this parade...love these guys!

Day's haul.

So many ladders!

 

 Best new Mardi Gras tradition...re-enacting the parades at home later in the day with all the new throws, lot's of music and Ellia's newly learned sassy flag girl walk.

Quincy is still loving her swimming class, and telling everyone she talks to about it.

Throw me summthin' mister.

They just always remind me of something else..something not so good.

Are we done yet?

Mardi Gras day started off a little chilly.

 

After Rex, the truck parades started. They couldn't go as fast in this part of town (in fact a few times they got stopped for-e-ver) but they still came one after another after another, for HOURS!

I was trying to capture the line of semi-s during the truck parade but it is something you just have to see to believe.

All bundled up and still smiling.

Ok, THIS is the last of it.

Ellia's turn for a hair cut.

Caught her sprawled on the table just playing away.

 

 

Contrary to a few months of trial dance classes with no real participation, Quincy now talks about and attempts to dance nearly every day.  

 

 

With guests coming there was a reason to pick a project and spruce up a bit. I was going for some more curb appeal and a warm entrance.

While daytime helps, so do a few decorations.

 

finishing the final touch.  I am a bit of a shortcut taker. I was super proud of this G I covered in moss until I walked in and shut the door.

It was then I realized that my shortcut was a failure.

A quick fix with some felt I had on hand.

Final product.

 

A little birthday fun between friends.

A request to "taka pichur"

and one from Ashlyn, to which we obliged.

Soccer practice before the game.

Following in her sisters footsteps.

Peek- a - boo on the sidelines.

In my experience with kids and swimming, they are always very hesitant to lay back in the water.  Coach Marion had Quincy doing it with seemingly no fear by her fourth lesson.

She's here!  I was so lucky to have Stephanie take the time and money to come visit me!  I picked her up in the evening after she had one delay after another. It started with a door that wouldn't lock on the plane!  Then her luggage was lost but she was a trooper and we went straight to a dinner with my friends here! 

The next morning we decided to see a plantation (and go by the airport for Stephanie's luggage...which she didn't intend to check because she had used Nathan's and wanted to protect it, but then ended up doing so at the last minute.)  Quincy wasn't really up for it.

Quincy eventually came around...but Steph's bags still weren't found by the time we stopped by the next morning. We went to tour the Destrehan Plantation which is where they filmed Interview with a Vampire.  There was a new guide in each room and they were all in costume.  We learned about a "faint" and a fainting couch!  With corsets and heat and hoop skirts, the women would sometimes be out of breath but had a hard time sitting in all that garb so they would have to sortof lay on the couches at the foot of the bed sometimes.

New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood company was next!  We finally got her bags and went for some lunch.  We had friend green tomatoes, alligator poppers, and of course thin fried catfish. Then as always, to top it off....ice cream! I stopped counting how many times it got in her hair.

We decided to make the most of our day in the city and go to the Mardi Gras museum.  It worked out nicely since it is indoors and it rained most of the day. Quincy looking a bit small in some of the Mardi Gras costumes.

This was a prop used in the last few days in the Krewe of Frete's parade and being re-made into something for next year.

The Smokey Mary!

We took Ellia to gymnastics so Stephanie and Teresa could say hi!

The next morning we attempted to be on time to a cemetery tour (compliments of Mia since she couldn't use the Groupon she bought) but were late.  I had a hard time finding the check in and then had to drop Steph off so we didn't get left, and run to catch up after parking and pushing Quincy in her stroller.

By a crazy coincidence they announced that this cemetery is being closed to the public (unless on a tour) in two days!  Guess Jeremy and I will have to learn another cemetery to take any other visitors too. Marie Louveax's grave had a facelift!  Apparently some well meaning person jumped the wall one night to paint over all the x's that had been written on it, but all he had was pink paint!  Well they had to change that pretty quick. Coolest thing I learned (or rather that I remember learning) was that some of the iron on the tombs is a special pattern that the people also have on their homes.  We also spent some time shopping in the French Market.

Cute girl in a bath!

 Stephanie quickly won the girls over, showing them pictures of her kids and just cuddling them.  When we were out Quincy was always concerned with us getting separated, "where's snephne?!" and when she left they were all sad.

Ellia almost cried the morning Stephanie was leaving. Despite our running a bit behind she insisted on showing Steph around the neighborhood.

 

Late again!  We rushed to the French Quarter for our cooking class and as we were crossing the last road we saw Mary who was planning to join us!  We walked in after everyone else was already seated. The instructor had us stop in front, I did a big wave before he started reprimanding us!  He asked where we were from, I spoke up with "Mandeville."  He asked who had traveled farther and of course everyone raised their hands.  Then he turned to us, "they all had to come farther than you and they still made it on time." Me, "Well I guess I just take is for granted being so close!" He then tried to tell us two of us were going to have to wash dishes, Steph went and sat down! I told him I'd probably learn more being behind the scenes anyway, and I wouldn't let a friend stay there by themselves. (Mary later said she didn't know if he was serious and I admit I was beginning to believe him too, but I had been there so I was pretty sure he was fibbing.) I responded with something like, "I know you pay people to do that, but let's do it, I'm sure I'll learn more back there anyway!"  He finally let us sit down fortunately!

These are his examples of roux at different stages.  It was kindof funny because he was using a new stove top and kept commenting on how fast it was cooking everything. Then as the roux was going it started to smell SUPER burned and the room filled with smoke. He started stirring like crazy and took it off the burner but kept talking like he was as cool as a cucumber.  I was VERY doubtful that this TOTALLY burned smelling stuff was going to taste like anything but burned food. BUT I was wrong. He said that's the difference and the error most people make when trying to make a real Southern Gumbo, not cooking the roux long enough!

Afterwards I apologized for being late and blamed it on parking. All of a sudden we were buddies! He told me his favorite parking lot and three of his favorite restaurants and we had a good little chat. (I did have the guy sitting next to me in the class lean over and say, "when you were up there I was thinking, 'it takes a pretty strong women to respond to him like that'"  I hope I wasn't too sassy!

Checking off Bourbon street.

We wandered around a bit after the class, caught up with Adri at Huck Finn and said we'd meet up with them at the swamp tour. Well, true to form, we misjudged our timing and were late again.  THis time though, she kept calling me saying, 'we are trying to hold them up, but they are getting ready to go..' and 'ok, we already delayed with bathroom breaks and they are about to leave!'  We got stuck behind a truck on this long windy road and on her final call she said, "they are pulling out!"  I responded with, "we can see you!" the truck turned and Steph jumped out to pay as the boat was reversing to pick us up...phew THAT was a close one.

So our tour guide claimed he took the Disney people who were creating Princess and a Frog on their swamp tour. Furthermore, he said he was mentioned in the special thanks part of the credits because they based Ramone the lightening bug on him....I think I'm going to check out his story!

I was worried we might not see any gators because this place was so much more open than others I've toured, so I was really glad when we did.

Gracie wasn't so much.

 

We were actually on time for Stephanie's flight fortunately...or actually maybe not so  much.  She was TWO WEEKS early!  Instead of a flight on March 1st, it was supposed to be on March 15th!  I was about five minutes away when she called me and told me the good news!  Another night to spend at my house!  They changed her ticket for free and it sure was fun to tell Jeremy all of our mishaps for the day.  I texted him that she was staying again and he said he thought I was kidding until he walked in and saw her sitting in the kitchen later that night. 

 All the vacationing sure wore Quincy out too!

A little project Jeremy has been working on...the outdated brass fan before and.....

 

after! A little silver spray paint and some pink "oops" paint and the girls are happy as can be!

 

 Sometimes Ashlyn gives me the sweetest little kid gifts. A cup filled with water and flower petals next to my bed.

 Something that was unique and I thought kindof silly when I first moved to Louisiana.  Rain stations inside stores.  Wipes to dry stuff and umbrella bags. Now I know what I nice and necessary feature they are!