Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler

I now realize that I have to blog right away otherwise I get completely overwhelmed by all of the things there are to get caught up on. It's been almost two weeks! So much has happened. To start, I'll explain why I had no time to sit on the computer. On the 10th my parents drove in from Tennessee and Meilina flew in from Seattle. I hadn't seen Meilina in almost a year so we had a blast catching up in person. We talk almost daily but it's not the same as being face-to-face. Thursday was another busy day. We spent a good part of the day running errands in preparation for our annual Mardi Gras party. My parents were a HUGE help! I don't know how on earth I would have been able to get it all done without them. Late that evening Eddie flew in from Jacksonville. We stayed up really late that night because Kevin & Eddie didn't even get home from the airport until almost 11. Friday was another crazy day. We ran around all morning and that afternoon was Reese's Valentine's Day party at school. My Mom & Meilina came with me to help out. The kids had a blast and wore us out! That night we prepped nearly all of the food and got most of the decorating taken care of. Saturday was the day of the big party. My parents packed up the kids and off they went to stay in a local hotel for the night. Seriously? I have the best parents on the planet. I don't know how we could have made it all happen without them. When they left we went crazy with all of the last minute details. We did a lot ahead of time but there were still a million things that had to be done last minute. We were expecting a lot of people so I was focused on making sure that we didn't run out of anything. On the menu: Papa Boudreaux's chicken & andouille gumbo, red beans & rice, chicken cakes, crab cakes, boiled shrimp, mini muffalettas, 3 kinds of sausage, & King Cake. We also had Pat O's hurricanes to greet everyone with at the door. We spent a long time decorating so the house looked super festive. There were decorations everywhere! We even rented high back tables and set up the basement: We finished up everything and were anxiously waiting for our guests who started arriving at 7:30. We asked that everyone come dressed in black and in a mask. We had a really good turnout (about 30 people) and were impressed by the awesome masks! We had a blast and can't wait for next year.