Chapel & Mardi Gras

Christian's class led chapel on Tuesday, February 24.

Christian read scripture:

and was so proud that his little brother had come to his school!

The title of this post is "Chapel & Mardi Gras," and I imagine you're wondering how we do both on the same day! HA!

I grew up with Mardi Gras, and while I wouldn't exactly consider it a family holiday, it's nothing like the "Girls Gone Wild" portrayal of Mardi Gras that happens in New Orleans.

Most people don't realize that Mardi Gras is celebrated all over Louisiana (not just in New Orleans) and that almost every town has a big parade. In our town, the main street was shut down for several days, and people would grill out in the street! We even got out of school for an entire week for Mardi Gras!

We'd eat king cakes for weeks leading up to "Fat Tuesday" (whoever gets the plastic baby in his/her slice of cake has to bring the next cake), so by the time Mardi Gras arrived, we were really sick of king cake.

King cake is a brioche (sweet bread) baked into a ring shape and decorated with purple, gold, and green sugar crystals. I taught a lesson on Mardi Gras in my French classes at the University of Memphis, but my mom happened to be in town and was able to make those cakes for me... this was my first attempt at making a king cake. It was ok... a little too dense and dry!

I brought the King Cake to Jacob's office, and we walked downtown for the Mardi Gras parade in Jackson.

It was a little chilly, so Isaac got bundled up in Jacob's jacket.
The parade was nice! It had a marching band,

school children,

clowns on bikes...
even the Ghostmobile!!!!

We had lunch at Jacob's office, and Isaac had yogurt for the first time. He hated it!!!

It was plain, cold yogurt, and it was very unfamiliar to him! He was making AWFUL faces, so I decided that I needed to get out the camera!

We went home after lunch, and Isaac had a nap... here he is waking up so happy. This was just a day or two before he figured out how to pull up in his crib (you'll see him trying in the video), so his crib is currently on the lowest level!

The next day, I added puréed blueberries to his yogurt, and BINGO! ... success! He loved it! You can hear him grunting for more when his mouth is empty!

These days, he loves yogurt and eats it plain and cold (and he doesn't even make a face)!