Mardi Gras Activities

Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday and we have a fun day planned!  We will be kicking off the day with some yummy doughnuts for breakfast.  Eva picked out a chocolate frosted one covered with sprinkles when we were grocery shopping today and she can't wait to give it a taste!  We'll also be having a New Orleans staple for dinner- jambalaya- yum!

Other fun Mardi Gras things to do:
*  Throw on some beads and grab your masks for a masquerade.  Add some fun music and you've got a dance party!
*  Use those beads for painting.  Dip a string of them in your favorite color paint and then drag them around on paper or toss them in a box top lined with paper and shake them up.
*  Grab some musical instruments (or make your own, like we did last year) and you can be your own rag-time band!
*  Many folks enjoy a king's cake on Mardi Gras and it's good luck to find the baby hiding in the cake.  Play hide and seek with a baby doll and bring on the luck!

Mardi Gras Masks

We'll be leaving China this week for India but we'll make a pit stop in New Orleans for Mardi Gras next Tuesday.  In preparation, we made Mardi Gras masks.  I started out tracing this template onto purple card stock and cutting it out.  Then Eva went to town decorating her mask with gems, sequins and feathers.

When the mask was complete, I used packing tape to attach a pencil to the back to make holding the mask easier.  You could also punch holes in each side and add ribbon or elastic but if your child is like mine and hates having anything around her head, the pencil is the way to go.

Now we are ready to start indulging in the Fat Tuesday fun!