Hayden goes to Mardi Gras...and the days in between

I've been some what fail on posting to a regular schedule but I figure you really don't care about certain days that I take pictures as part of #febphotoaday. So...I'll just consolidate. Before we get to the real dish of this post, let's reflect over the past week.

Day 6 (Monday)- Dinner
Without realizing it, I cooked a traditional south Louisiana Monday meal. Believe me, it wasn't because I had clothes on the line all day.

Red beans and rice. And no, it wasn't beans from a can. I actually, the day before, soaked my beans and cooked them. I'm domesticated like that.

And what's dinner without dessert? Well, I guess it's just dinner. But for the sake of something more wonderful, we opened up our King Cake Ice Cream. In a word, it's A-MAZ-ING.  No lie. It's pretty good.

Day 7- button

Nothing fancy other than I was wearing a button on my dress that day.

Day 8- The sun



The sun rising on our way to school that morning. And to think a week ago we couldn't even see these golden arches because of the fog.







Day 9- Front Door

This is my front door. And my awesome wreath I made.








Day 10- self portrait
Okay, so Hayden hasn't been taking pictures, mainly because well, he just hasn't. But because this is still a team effort even if he has slacked on a few days, the self portrait picture is of the two of us.

Day 11- makes you happy
There are so many things that make me happy. Food, cherry coke, little blue boxes, my Nook- but nothing compares to these two-

And with that picture, we begin our journey to Hayden's first Mardi Gras parade.

I've mentioned before how Hayden LOVES the movie Rio. Well, for apparent reasons, we can not go to Rio. Instead, we took Hayden to Centaur by way of the duck pond.

He was so excited and a trooper through out the day! It was cold, he was tough. We had to wait, surprisingly, he had patience.

Mardi Gras is a lot like I'd suspect the acting world to be. Hurry up and wait. And I know this because *ahem* I was an extra in the movie Straw Dogs. Please, autographs later. With Mardi Gras, you get to your spot, you hang out and wait. Then when the parade starts you still have to wait for it to get to you. And what if it doesn't start on time? What if a float breaks down between here and there? You wait.

Centaur actually rolled pretty smooth from where we were. But before the parade, we had this...

Hanging out with mom, trying to stay warm.

The hubs and I.

 Little known fact, this was actually his first Shreveport Mardi Gras parade. And I was proud of him. He didn't laugh at any of the floats. He actually wants to go back next year!

And of course, you had a lot of this-

"We're watching...and waiting."

And with any kind of street parade or large gathering, you have those carts that sell those crappy toys. Noise makers, hats, glow sticks, and this...

Horns. And who had to have one? Well of course he did. And like any good parent, neither Stephen or I had any cash on us. Mr. Chris to the rescue! No one likes to see an upset kid, or one that whines for hours and hours because he doesn't have a $5 horn. And good luck to PapPaw and Meme next weekend. The first words out of his mouth were, I'm taking this to PapPaw and Meme's next weekend! Ah...the sounds of a budding Louis Armstrong to get you through a long weekend.

And FINALLY! the parade started.



Nothing starts a good Mardi Gras parade off quite like the Clydesdale horses. Shreveport did not disappoint.

Every time a marching band walked by, Hayden had to have his horn so he could play with them. This is my little musician as Tech's band marched on by.

Welcome all to the Krewe of Centaur...now throw me something Mister!!!

Again with he horn, but I have to say, this is my favorite picture of the day.

Now, we had some friends on the Atlantic City float which is where the previous picture came from. Stephen threw Hayden on his shoulders so that we could get some loot from Mr. Brian and Mrs. Kelly. Between trying to keep a hold of his horn and all the goodies Kelly and Brian loaded Hayden down with, he started to run out of arm space. Thankfully the wonderful people we were with grabbed the things Hayden dropped and when I tell you Hayden was thankful, he was thankful! I'd hate to see the kid who would have grabbed the stuffed tiger that he couldn't keep a hold of.

And after he hopped off Stephen's shoulders, I snapped a picture of his treasures- minus the stuffed animals which were safely in a bag so no looters would steal them.

Big Ballin'. Literally.

I can't say thank you enough to Kelly and Brian for loading him down! He can't stop talking about y'all and the tiger Mr. Brian gave him and the little puppy dog Mrs. Kelly put in his hands. And what's even better, Hayden asked me when the float drove off, "mama who was that lady who gave me all that stuff?" I said, "Hayden that was Mrs. Kelly- you know them, they've been to the house." He says, "Oh yeah. She's pretty but why did she have a mask on?"

Eat it up, Kelly. My four year old might have a crush on you.

After that it was more catching beads, tooting the horn, and standing in front of the heater to keep our hands warm. I want to say thank you to Chris and Katy, and Emily and her family and friends for having us. You really made Hayden's first Mardi Gras a wonderful experience for him.

As we were walking back to the car, beads littered the street. Hayden, bless his heart, wanted to stop and pick them all up. Most were broken. But I looked at my husband and said, he gets that from your mama. Now, for those of you who don't know, my mother in law lives for Mardi Gras. She loves it! She's a 5 foot tall, cajun-Italian woman and has a motto, "no bead left behind". She's also the kind of woman who will knock a small child over to get beads. I'm not kidding you. She's the most lovable woman, outside of Carnival. And when she's in her element, she's brutal. Like, you don't get in Gloria's way. And if you want "good beads", you don't stand next to her. She'll take them from you. I've had it happen.

Later that night, after dinner and bath time, the excitement of the day caught up with him.

I'd say it was a good day.

Today marks day 12. A look inside your closet.

Hayden's closet. Some clothes, his wreath that hung on the hospital door... pretty standard for a 4 year old.

I was in for a surprise when I opened my door. I keep my wedding dress in a big box on the shelf above my clothes. Sometimes, that box likes to slip from its place. Case in point to what I saw when I opened my doors.

The box has slipped an any paper I had sitting on top of it, now lies at the floor where my shoes are kept in disarray. Happy closet cleaning to me.



The weekend of hands, strangers & 10AM

So blogging didn't happen all weekend. Even when I found the time after Hayden went to bed, I wasn't far behind him. Tell me I'm not the only one who crawls into bed before ten on the weekends? Is this a result of being over thirty? I thought your thirties were supposed to be the new twenties? I could hang until the wee hours of the morning in my twenties. Someone lied to me.

So...Friday was day 3- Hands. No, they weren't across America. They weren't even jazz hands. It wasn't even as awesome as my friend Anne's picture (check out her blog- http://annecorrell.blogspot.com/ her family is pretty awesome).

Really? How creative is that?

Here is mine and Hayden's. Day 3- Hands.



This is the hand that holds my heart. And these tiny little hands make me think of the song, Hands.

These hands are small I know

but they're not yours they are my own.



This is the picture I snapped at work. Kristina's hands were just a working on something so I took this without her knowing.

Now that was Friday. Before we get to Saturday's picture, let's relay a little conversation Hayden and I had.

See, Hayden LOVES the movie Rio. So much so that he wants to go to Rio so he can experience Carnival. And when you say that word make sure you put emphasis on the end of the word. Carnival. Hayden's pap paw was corrected several times Sunday for not pronouncing it correctly.

Alright, so Friday night Hayden told his daddy that he was going to ride on a float in Carnival while Stephen was going to ride in Mardi Gras. BIG difference. Saturday morning, Hayden and I had this conversation.

Hayden- "Mama, in the morning you have to take me to Carnival. That's in Rio."

Now imagine him telling me this with Mardi Gras trinkets in his hands. A light saber type wand, a lighted bead hanging around his neck, a Frisbee. All in his bumble bee pajamas.

Hayden- "I'm going to wear all of this while I wave to people from my float." At this, Hayden starts to wave to his people. "Mama, do you think Evy will be there? I can wave to her from the float!"

Okay. Hayden loves Evy. He thinks Evy should be at everything of his. Just this weekend he asked me why Evy doesn't come to his house more. I tried telling him it was because she lives far away. Yes, south Bossier is far when you live in south Shreveport.

So I tell him, "I don't know." That's standard response after he's asked me about a million questions and no I'm not exaggerating. I get asked a million a day.

Then I figured, I need to ask him how he thinks he's going to get to Carnival. He tells me, "you're going to drive me." Riiiiight, because all I'm good for is a chauffeur.

Me- "Hayden, you do know that we can't drive to Rio. We have an ocean to cross and we'll have to fly."

Hayden- "Okay, then let's fly on an airplane."

Also, let me stress it's really hard to crush a child's dream when they talk all excited and are bouncing off the walls.

Me- "Hayden, it would cost a lot of money to fly to Rio. We don't have that money."

You know, because I owe the government money...wha wha wha

Hayden- "Then let's go buy some."

Bless his heart. The minds of children.

Sunday came and went and we, obviously, didn't go to Carnival.

Saturday's picture was a stranger. Hayden didn't see any strangers because he went from my house to my mom's. Not a lot of room to come in contact with strangers. Therefore, Hayden didn't take any pictures.

I however, did leave the house to go to the mall. Where I forgot to take pictures of strangers. Dillards was having a shoe sale and it would have been the perfect time to capture women in the wild. All over tacky shoes at 70% off. Yes they were tacky. Yes I looked.

That night I realized I hadn't taken my picture yet. Not wanting to be a slacker. I mean, I committed to doing this, so I'm going to do it. I was reading on my Nook when this struck me-

Divine intervention. So I snapped a picture. There's my stranger. Day 4- donzo.

Day 5- Sunday- 10AM

Hayden is a morning person. Holly is not. Sleeping until at least 8AM would be Heaven. I'll take 7 when I

can though. I knew capturing a picture at this time would be no problem.

Hayden eating a snack while his bestie Rane drools on my couch.

Poor thing. You'd think I don't feed this goat. Oh he eats, believe me, he eats. Toilet paper- trash from the trash can. Really, he's a goat.

Not long after this was taken, I said to Hayden, "Hayden I'm about to jump in the shower."

From my super smart 4- almost 5 year old- this is how that conversation played out.

"Mama, you can't jump in the shower. If you jump in the shower then you'll bump your head and get stitches like I did."

I say, "You're right. You are so very right."

"And Mama," he continues. "If you bump your head, who will drive us to the hospital? I can't drive. I don't have a license."

Touche, my friend. At that, all I could do was give him a kiss. He's too stinkin' smart for his own good.

And it doesn't stop there. Just this morning, we're on our way out the door when he stops, sticks his tiny little hieny out and says, "Wait Mama." So what do I do? Stop to see what in the world he is doing. He looks up at me with the long eyelashes and an evil smile on his face and says, "wait for it..." then toots. And of course, then laughs like passing gas it the funniest thing ever. I guess that's one thing boys never grow out of.

What I'd like to know is, where did he hear the phrase, "wait for it"?

Hmmmm... pretty sure the other half of my parenting team taught him that one. Either that or Hayden's been watching How I Met Your Mother.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Today's picture we'll be tonight. You'll all get to see what we're having for dinner!!

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Day 2- Words

Today's picture was words. I love words. I fancy myself a writer so of course I love words. And I had big plans for the right words to jump out at me.

Oh, they jumped. Just not how I had expected.

This morning I gave Hayden the camera & said, go take a picture of some words. Any words! This is what he took a picture of.

Picture 1. Not words, but little Rane.








Picture 2- The real Rane. Or at least part of him.

Picture 3. The Batcave.

Yeah.




Finally i said, Hayden go pick out a book & take a picture of the words on the page. He chose his book about mummies. So I sat him on the couch & he took a picture of what he saw.

It turned out kind of awesome.

Then! I spent all day waiting for my words to appear. Nothing showed up. I guess I wanted some inspirational message to show up in a billboard or in a magazine. Instead, when I got home I decided to work on our taxes. These aren't exactly the kind of words you want to see.

Never mind how much I owe. The point is, apparently i do. I'm not settling with this amount. I'm going to take another stab at them. I might have to rehire my accountant.

Sigh. Tomorrow is another day, another dollar I owe to the IRS. Oh and hands. Will they be across America? Will they be jazz hands?

Oh the possibilities.

Holly

February picture a day- day 1

I'm a Pinterest addict. Obviously I'm a blogger addict also since this is my second blog. But, in my defense, this one will be dedicated to the family. All things Donaldson. I know you're thinking, oh I can't wait to see how interesting they can be.

We're not really.

You were being sarcastic above.

Anywho...

Pinterest. Yes, I'm addicted. Where else can I go for amazing recipes, crafty projects, and motivational posters- or funny pictures? Pinterest has it all! And it was there that I discovered my next project.

A photo a day challenge!!! How fun! Well I think it is which is why I've recruited two thirds of my family to participate. There are only three people in my little family. Can you guess the odd duck who isn't playing along?

So join me as Hayden and I take a picture every day this month. And maybe we'll talk about other things like how he's four and addicted to Angry Birds. Are there support groups for that? Should I be worried?

Day 1- Your view today

This was my view today on the way to work. I had already dropped Hayden off at school and as you can tell, it was a foggy morning. So foggy that Hayden commented that he couldn't see the golden arches of McDonalds.

This is Hayden's view today. Well, not most of the day, but it's his view when he's eating a snack after school. His best friend Rane drooling over tiny cheese its.

Are you playing? Show me your pictures or where I can see them. Mine are also uploaded to Instagram (I'm HollyGeauxLitly) and twitter (where I'm also, @HollyGeauxLitly). If you play on twitter don't forget to use the hashtag #febphotoaday It's been neat to see other people's views today.

There will be words tomorrow. How creative can Hayden and I get?

Holly