Happy Mardi Gras friends! For those of you not in Louisiana, I’m very sorry that you had to go to work/school today. I got a five-day weekend, which started with Eastwood DNow, followed by the Highland Parade, and a couple days off.

The Highland Parade is a family-friendly neighborhood parade in Shreveport. It’s always the Sunday before Mardi Gras, and we rarely miss it. Anyone and everyone can be in the parade, so there’s a fun combination of local cheer groups, floats from some of the major parades, and local businesses and community groups. My tired self went out there with mom on Sunday after lunch, bringing our chairs with us for the wait. The parade was even bigger than last year, with many fun floats. Here are a few of my faves:

The parade was lots of fun, and we got more beads than we know what to do with. I was wearing an LSU sweatshirt, so one man pointed me out and tossed me a Tigers specialty bead. I also got a heart pillow that says “I love Mardi Gras!” Last year, we took my puppy, Gumbeaux, but he got a little freaked out because he was hit with beads several times. We didn’t take him back this year.

Yesterday was a homework day. Since today was actually Mardi Gras, I kicked it off with a solid 8-mile run, followed by grocery shopping. I got all the ingredients to make homemade king cake, a healthier version. (Recipe here, on the ClaimYourJourney website!).  I’m pretty proud of the way it turned out.

Yes, I am aware that half of it is purple.  It should come as a shock to no one that I accidentally made more purple icing than green and yellow. We had this and shrimp creole for dinner – a perfect last decadent meal before Lenten season! Hope everyone else had a fun Mardi Gras too!