Happy Fat Tuesday – Mardi Gras, ya’ll!!

Chicagoans celebrate Fat Tuesday by indulging in the paczki – a Polish pastry with a sweet filling. But this former New Orleans resident misses the king cakes, especially the cream cheese filled king cakes. But in either case, both are good to indulge in on Fat Tuesday.

When I used to live in New Orleans, I would also look forward to the Mardi Gras parades. I have to say, parades are not the same after you have experienced the ones in New Orleans. The floats are ornate and colorful. The people on the floats have so much fun and throwing beads and doubloons at the parade goers. And the people at the parades are celebrating with family and friends with all the gold, purple, green beads and other treats thrown our way.

Since we can’t be in New Orleans this year for Mardi Gras, I thought it would be a fun idea to make a Mardi Gras float for the twins and walk around a few blocks with it. It just so happened that we had a fun collaboration with Sparkling Ice beverages for a Mardi Gras themed Instagram post, so I decided to use the idea for the campaign.

I wanted to show a fun scene where the twins were throwing beads at us. But they’re too young to throw things like that on cue. So Luke and I decided to throw things up in the air to make it look like we are catching them.

Throw Me Something, Mister!

During Mardi Gras, you hear kids and sometimes adults yell out the phrase “Throw me something, Mister!” to the people on the floats. It’s usually cuter when kids yell this out because they are showered with all the treats from the floats. But it’s okay for adults to do it too! So if you’re ever in New Orleans and attending a Mardi Gras parade, remember to yell “Throw me something, Mister!”

Our DIY Mardi Gras Float for the Kids

I wanted to share some of the pictures we took to recreate a fun and kid-friendly Mardi Gras scene. The twins had more fun playing with the beads and Luke had fun throwing the beads up in the air. It was a bit windy this weekend so there was a lot of movement with the fringe table skirt.

I also wanted to share how we put together a simple but festive Mardi Gras float that is perfect for toddlers to sit in!

• We used our Radio Flyer all-terrain steel and wood wagon (but you can use any wagon you have).
• A Mardi Gras Fringe Table Skirt from Oriental Trading to wrap around the wagon.
• Yellow, green, and purple helium balloons.
• Mardi Gras beads.

I hope everyone has a great time celebrating Fat Tuesday! We had so much fun taking these pictures and doing our mini parade around Chicago.

Laissez le bon temps rouler!!