Sarabeth: Mardi Gras 7

It's not Mardi Gras unless you're wearing a costume. We made ours out of duct tape. Yep, even my husband's jacket.

Sarabeth: Mardi Gras 6

Our friend took this one on Sunday. I love the colors.

Sarabeth: Mardi Gras 5

I forgot the name of the group that this swamp thing paraded with, but the costume is striking. I did enhance the color a bit.

Sarabeth: Mardi Gras 4

The NOPD has a mounted division. These men and women must have been hungry after the two parades on family Sunday last week. All the horses were hitched to the KFC fence.

Sarabeth: Mardi Gras 3

A lady across the street from where we watch parades made signs out of beads for this year's parades. She flashed this to the marching bands and dancing groups.

Sarabeth: Mardi Gras 2

Krewe of Orpheus Leviathan with my husband and middle kid.

Sarabeth: Mardi Gras 1

Mardi Gras is upon us. This is the Land of Hades float that we got to see at the Krewe of Orpheus open house.

Sarabeth's 108th

Happy Mardi Gras, y'all! Yep, the girls are wearing our costumes from the night before.

Sarabeth's 107th

On Lundi Gras, my husband and I rode on a float in the Krewe of Orpheus. We began the parade at 6pm. We got off the float at the after party at 12:30am on Mardi Gras. Can you tell how tired we were?

Sarabeth's 106th

Inside the museum, the bathrooms were disguised as port-o-lets. These are nearly as synonymous with Carnival as are beads and parades.

Sarabeth's 105th

I couldn't get enough of the costumes on display that have been part of past Carnival's. This was a maid's dress from the 1950's, where all the maids and lieutenants were different types of candy. This was for cotton candyand used to have a scent like the confection.

Sarabeth's 104th

A costume used for the king of Bacchus in 1990.

Sarabeth's 103rd

Another costume on display.

Sarabeth's 102nd

A costume on display at the Presbetyre, a Louisiana State Museum.

Sarabeth's 101st

Our good friend, who works at a specialty cupcake shop, visited for Mardi Gras. She brought special cupcakes for us. Those masks are made of fondant.

Sarabeth's 99th

The whole family marched in the Krewe of Barkus parade today. Barkus is a walking parade through the French Quarter that involves dogs dressed like tailgaiters. We all wore some version of black and gold in honor of the Saints in the Superbowl.

Sarabeth's 98th

One of the bands in Saturday's parade through Uptown New Orleans.

Sarabeth's 94th

I learned to make my own king cake, a confection eaten only from the Epiphany to Mardi Gras.

Sarabeth's 93rd

I didn't get any photos taken today. I could shoot a group of bags from our costume shopping today. The dogs and family are parading in Krewe of Barkus (all money made goes to a non-profit animal rescue group or two), and we shopped for that today.

Instead, here is my husband in his drag gear from yesterday's parade in honor of Buddy D. Notice the bottle of rum.

Sarabeth's 92nd

Today, New Orleans held a pep rally, which is the best way to describe what happened today. Years ago, a sports announcer, Buddy Deliberto, said he would put on a dress and parade around the city if the Saints ever made it to the Superbowl. Buddy died in 2006. His son and former Saints quarterback and current sportscaster Bobby Hebert decided that they would do what Buddy would have done. So, they did just that today with huge amount of men dressing in drag--including my husband. No, that guy in the photo isn't my husband; he just happened to be one of the good photos I got as we watched the parade in the French Quarter.