We are soon going to embark on a journey that many might think to be strange. We will be heading to New Orleans for Mardi Gras...with the kids (and a 12-hour road trip each way). Yes, that's right the kids are coming with us. I have received many strange looks recently from people when I tell them I'm going to Mardi Gras and the kids will be joining us. I was especially worried about trying to explain to Allison's teachers that she will be missing four days of school to go to Mardi Gras but they seem to be okay with the idea (somehow I managed to explain it as a cultural event which she will be very educational to her) . Most people view Mardi Gras a a huge drunkfest that involves flashing various body parts and just going all out crazy. While this certainly does occur in New Orleans at Mardi Gras, we will not be partaking in such activities, nor will our kids be witness to them (at least not to the best of our control). I have been to Mardi Gras once before, so I can attest to the fact that there are parts of town that are very family friendly, more specifically the parade routes. It's every kids dream - a parade where they throw fun things for you to catch - and not just beads - all sorts of junk. Quite simply, our kids will be in heaven. Jeff has already started to train them on what to do, including teaching them to yell the phrase "Throw me something mister!"
In order for the kids to be able to catch things during the parade, without being trampled by everyone else, the need to be placed "above the crowd" It's a tradition in New Orleans for kids to sit in (homemade?) boxes that are affixed to the top of a ladder. So Jeff's project these past couple weeks has been to build a box for the kids. Being the engineer that he is, and the most safety conscious person that I know, I put all my faith in his ability to construct this box. Of course when when he told Allison about it, the first sentence out of her mouth was 'Is this safe??" Once he settled her initial fears construction commenced. I had some great pictures of the initial phase of construction (mainly sandpapering the wood) but then accidentally deleted them off of my camera. And they were really cute because they grabbed all of Daniel's tool bench items and mimicked whatever Jeff was doing with his real tools. But alas, the photos are gone so we'll have to move onto the second phase, which was painting the wood. The kids were so excited to be able to paint something other than paper. We pulled out all the paint cans we had leftover from various paint jobs we had done on the house and let the kids go at it. There were no rules, they were free to paint whatever they wanted. (Just wish I had realized that paint really does stain clothes, for some reason I thought it would wash out, silly me). Luckily I didn't delete these pictures. Here they are having fun painting the wood in the garage:
And here they are after all their hard labor:
On Sunday Jeff bolted the box together and attached it to our ladder (and no, we're not bringing the ladder with us to New Orleans, just the box). The kids got a chance to see what it would feel like to sit in the box. Now mind you, this box is also bolted to the top of the ladder, it's not just sitting up there and Jeff will be standing behind the kids on the ladder, as in the picture. Also, this is a 6' ladder and we hope to actually use a 5' ladder. So no need to report us to child services or anything. Here they are sitting pretty (the pole you see is just a temporary one b/c Jeff still needed to buy one that was the correct size, so it won't be sticking out the sides like that):
Alright, so it's kind of hard to see the actual box in those pictures. I'll try and take some close-ups when it is complete. In the meantime, we are all very excited for the trip and to see all of Jeff's family whom we miss very much. Anyone need any beads? I have a feeling we'll be coming back with more than we could ever want or need.
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