Happy Mardi Gras!

 We have had a hectic couple of days, so we spent the day doing some Mardi Gras stuff, and some Getting-Ready-for-Lent stuff.

I have to admit that before meeting our close friend from New Orleans, we didn't really celebrate Mardi Gras much.

We started making King Cake for him, but I had never tasted one before.  I followed internet recipes carefully, but it always seemed like just a lightly sweet bread (with frosting and sprinkles).

Unfortunately, it was after Fr. Mark returned to New Orleans that I tasted my first actual King Cake.  I immediately knew what I was doing wrong!

I had been treating it like a bread, but it's really more like a cinnamon roll!

I swapped the bread flour for pastry flour, added filling, more eggs, and kept the dough much wetter.


Bingo!

Tender and delicate like a cross between bread and cake.

Not too sweet, but perfect with the kick of frosting.

Worth making a tradition! 

Now we enjoy it every year, never forgetting to raise a slice to Fr. Mark: Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Mardi Gras Masks

 Between the surgery, praying for the surgery, shoveling, sledding, and some actual homeschooling/housekeeping/life, we managed to squeeze in a bit of Mardi Gras fun.

We didn't manage a King Cake.

We didn't even manage to do pancakes and sausage for dinner!

But we did do some fun masks and beads!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Hope you're having fun celebrating!  We'll be making masks, eating up all the extra candy in the house, and having sausage and pancakes for dinner.

Instead of beads, I thought I'd toss you some fun links!

From Mrardi Gras 2011!

Here's a kid friendly video explaining Mardi Gras and Carnival with an emphasis on New Orleans.

Mardi Gras crafts and printables for younger kids. 

Ctafts and fun (especially masks) on Pinterest

King Cake Recipe




Update: Pictures from this year!

Happy Mardi Gras!

We made masks and had a party!

We put on some jazz and dumped whatever was left in the candy drawer into bowls: presto!  Instant party!

We didn't do as much as we've done in past years, but the combination of President's Day, Mardi Gras, and Ash Wednesday kind of compressed the week.

But we can always take an afternoon off for a party...

Oob decided that Daddy was missing out.

Oob:  What time will Daddy come back?

Me: 3:30.

Oob (negotiating): How about... ZERO thirty?

Happy Mardi Gras!

We are celebrating in two ways:

1. PARTY!!! We made masks with feathers and glitter and dressed up in crazy clothes and had our own parade! We are also eating all the goodies left in the house, the traditional reason for Mardi Gras. We will also have pancakes and sausage for dinner - yum!


2. We are getting ready for Lent! Taking all the non essential art off the walls, making our "Walking with Jesus" poster, setting up a vine with branches, that kind of stuff. That's fun, too!




Wait a minute... Did you notice something missing in the larger picture? Where did Oob's hair go?



Before

After

When I did it (yes, this was not self-inflicted by a three year old no matter what it looks like!) Oob looked in the mirror and said "It's Mxyl! No... It's Ooby, but the hair is Mxyl. I love it!"

Happy Mardi Gras!

This a fun, no stress holiday for us. The Emperor and I met in New Orleans, although not at Mardi Gras, so we feel a little connection.

We'll eat sausage and pancakes for dinner. If I'm up to it, I'll make beignets. The kids will wear their craziest clothes and we'll make silly hats and/or masks.

We'll eat up all the candy in the house! We'll take down all the hearts and snow flakes, and tomorrow we'll be ready for Lent.

I made some worksheets by hand and then photocopied them since I didn't have access to the computer. I thought I'd describe them here because they were easy to make and could be adapted to cover any theme or occasion.

Page one is, "Draw a silly hat or mask for Mardi Gras." This will dovetail with actually making them later.

Page2 is a secret message for them to decode.

Page 3 and 4 are Mardi Gras themed word problems scaled for varying math ability. My favorite is for Leena: If you have 74 sausages, and you eat 67 of them, how many are left for everyone else?

Page 5 is a bunch of dot to dots by 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s. They make various Mardi Gras treats, and I drew pictures of each kid near their favorite treat making silly comments. These are just stick figures, by the way!

Page 6 is simple: Tell a silly story about eating too much of your favorite food on Mardi Gras.

Page 7 is a picture of a kid on one side and a plate of sausages and pancakes on the other. In between I drew three very tangled lines, but only one leads to the sausages. It's a quick and easy way of drawing a maze.

Mardi Gras Ideas

The Emperor and I met in New Orleans , so, even though it was a Science Fiction convention, not a Mardi Gras, this has always been a special holiday for us.

1. Make King cake.
2. Make begniets.
3. Make masks with lots of glitter and feathers.
4. Dress in purple, green and gold with lots of beads.
5. Eat pancakes and sausage for dinner.
6. Watch parades on You Tube - watch out here, some are family friendly, some are...not.
7. Make a parade!