Catching Some Beads.

The snow came as forecasted on Thursday, but it only amounted to an inch or so. It was enough to close school for the day on Friday. About ten that morning, we went out so I could take pictures and The Bean could make a snowman, albeit a litle guy. By noon it was all a faint memory.

Saturday was a glorious day full of sunshine and temperatures in the mid 60's. We went to the Mardi Gras parade on famous Dickson Street. The Mardi Gras parade is such a fun event. Everyone is happy to be there and everyone is friendly and courteous.
Well, except these pinheads that decided to stand right in front of us as the parade was making it's way down the street. How Rude! We went to the other side of the street and had a better view and scored a lot of beads anyway. Here it comes! The obligatory Police car and Firetruck. There are usually a dozen police cars, but there were 45,000 people over the hill at the Razorback Basketball game, so they wre doing traffic duty instead of parade duty.
Why, that Fire Truck is so shiny you can practically see your reflection in it!

The parade comes down Dickson street then snakes it's way up around the Square. They block off the square and the parade just sort of stops - well, all the floats anyway. And then the bands on the floats play Zydeco music and everyone gets in the street and dances. It is so fun to watch the people all dressed up for the parade go into the crowd and get an old man and then he starts shaking his booty! They were all having so much fun. The beads were still flying, people were happy and it was just a fun day.
The back of one of the floats. Pretty funny!
You probably can't even make out anything in this photo, but I just loved it for the colors. This was the winning float that featured the band that played. The King and Queen were on it, but you can't make them out. A little one enjoys the parade and the loot. It amazing how everyone wants those beads. They need those beads. They will dive under a parked car to get to those beads. They will jump up and catch them in the air. They will shake a treet rying to get the beads to fall out of it. Oh, wait, that was just the Bean doing that......
I think this is a good photo. This lady ws dressed like a fairy and she bent into hear the little girl and the sun just hit her right in the face. It looks magical to me. All the parade walkers were dressed as woodland characters.

The Queen of Hearts.
Not sue which one she was - but she was colorful to say the least! Actually, now that I look at her, she was the Queen. Her Royal Magesty!
Another colorful creature. The characters and the floats wouldn't have been half as pretty if the sun wouldn't have been shining so bright and clear that day.

The Bean's Beads.
And, the loot. I got 32 strands, The Bean scored 40 strands plus the tokens and the shakers. They were throwing candy too, but no one really even went towards the candy. It was all about the beads!
Can you believe we caught this many?

And I even kept my top on!

*Snicker*

I started playing with my flash settings and the lenses on the new camera and I came up with this.

And this.

I particularly like this one. It's the Mardi Gras beads up close and personal. Cool, huh?