Mardi Gras parade adventures

Yesterday was the Mardi Gras children's and pet parade. We don't take part in any of the adult activities and have not actually done any of the parades since Jessica last marched with the flags with police explorers, but I decided to go this year.

And I got the bright idea to take the dogs! What I didn't realize is that when they said "pet parade" it meant you could pay money and march down the street with your dog as part of the parade. Our dogs were not at all excited to see other dogs walk by. In fact, there was quite a bit of barking, growling and doggy attitude from my three. It's also hard to grab beads while holding a dog.

But don't they look so sweet and innocent? Not sure what Sasha is doing with her head though.

I can understand my puppies acting like puppies. But what I don't understand is why some parents let their kids be rude and greedy. And why is it that I always get next to a kid who is determined to get every single thing thrown!!

In the children's parade they throw very little candy but do throw stuffed animals and beads. And the boy next to me was about five and felt he was entitled to all of it. My kids seemed to be invisible. I finally told them to stand out in the street and wave like crazy like the other kids were. Personally, if I were throwing stuff, I'd throw it to the kids who were just waiting quietly, but not so for the ones throwing in this parade. Mine waved a little but just aren't the kind to kill for beads.

Not so with the family next to me. First a little girl in the parade goes up and gives the boy a stuffed animal. He says, "I don't want this one." Hands it back to the girl and grabs the other one she was holding. She was about 6 and looked ready to cry when he did that. The boy's mom did nothing. Personally I would have made my child give it back.

Then some beads were headed toward both the boy and myself. I was holding Sasha so didn't put much effort into getting them, just put my hand out. They hit my hand, but he snatched them. When I turned to look at him, he says, "Ha. Ha. I got them" in a really mouthy tone. Seriously there were lots of things I could have said to him at that moment, but I just looked at him a few seconds then said, "I guess you're just more aggressive than me. It didn't matter that much to me." (or something like that) And I gave his mom a look. She wasn't even embarrassed.

But the thing that really got me was that his mom started darting in front of us to get beads. I'd reach down since they were at my feet but she snatch them before I'd get them. I wasn't in a hurry and I'm not about the sacrifice my dignity for beads. If it were money, maybe :)

 You see how many Kayla and Jasmine have in the picture? This boy had about three times what they have combined. I mean, what do you really do with them. The boy wanted blue beads. They are rare. So the mom started calling out to the people on the floats "Give us blue beads." Then two greens landed ON KAYLA'S SHOES and the mom darted around me and snatched them right off of Kayla's feet!!! I could not believe a grown woman did that!!!! I just looked at her and said, "Oh my." What else is there to say? If she can't tell that she is a totally aggressive greed monster and a horrible example to her greed monster son, nothing I say is going to matter. So I stuck with "Oh my" in a very quiet "I'm so disappointed" tone usually reserved for a child who has done something that is, well, disappointing.

After the parade, we walked around to see if there were any food booths with food we couldn't resist, but we didn't find any food booths at all. So we went to taco bell and went through the drive through. This was very interesting because, remember, we had all three dogs in the car with us. And two of them thought they needed to dive out the window and through the carry out window to help bag up our food. Nope. Didn't happen. But not because they didn't try!

We took the taco bell food home, including a soft beef taco we split three ways between the dogs, and watch A Christmas Carol (the Jim Carry one).