Mardi Gras weekend wiped me out! Between a night on the town, a parade, and enough good food for an army, my behind is dragging and my scale is whimpering. However, I can definitely say that we let the good times roll this year.

After a Friday of absolutely gorgeous weather, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset to go with our usual Friday mayhem of ping pong, billiards, cocktails and work-detox.

Saturday, however, brought the rain, but we still managed to have a nice time, even if it snuffed out our gardening plans. J came over and made us Chicken Big Mamou over pasta:

And I wallowed in a meal that I did not have to cook. By the time I was done, I was sporting a Budda-belly! We also stopped into the local glass factory’s outlet store, and stocked up on jars for future candle-making experiments. J and I then made a few candles just for fun, while the boys invented a game by pulling each other around the house using my office chair and a blanket. Fortunately, we have no injuries to report from that endeavor…I meant regarding the kids, not me…but I can see how you would wonder.

After a lazy day of food, fun and more food, Granny offered to watch the heathens, so we all headed out for a night on the town. We hit a couple of local hot spots, had a blast and stayed out way too late. Despite a day without drama, fate decided to punish my husband and me soundly…because what would a night out be without some calamity thrown in for good measure? After crawling into bed at an unmentionable hour, we awoke at 5 a.m. to the sound of our smoke detectors doing the “low battery” warning beep every thirty seconds.

Wanna guess who was out of 9-volt batteries?

Soooo, after my husband took an early-morning trip to Wally-World, we tried to catch some more sleep. When we finally managed to roust ourselves, we worked studiously to get our raised beds built for our vegetable garden…but only made it about halfway. Why? Because it was parade time!!!

Our town has numerous Mardi Gras parades, but we avoid the larger ones because they are just too much effort. We’d practically have to camp out for days to get a good parade spot. However, we happen to live 3 blocks from one of the best parades in town, and we can walk five minutes to get there. The boys had a blast:

And we caught a ton of beads, cups, Moon Pies and doubloons.

We were so excited to see all the floats, bands and smaller krewes from around our neighborhood. Finally, we headed home for a classic Louisiana dinner of red beans and rice with andouille sausage, and of course, King Cake!

I swear, my husband and I fell into bed last night like we had just run a marathon, but when my oldest wrote his school assignment today on how much fun he had this weekend, I knew it was all worth it.

Mardi Gras is coming to a close this week, and it’s time to get in gear for Lent. I need to dig out my stash of meatless menus and check the Mass times for Wednesday.

But first, I think I’ll have just one more piece of King Cake.