NOLA – Mardi Gras for Kids

Did anyone recently get orders to New Orleans? I hope so, because I think you are going to love it here. You might initially think of New Orleans and all of the stereotypes come to mind: drunken people flashing for beads on Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras. But the reality is that this city, and the Mardi Gras season as a whole, is incredibly family friendly and fun for kids.

There are a ton of parades that roll all over town throughout the entire season. And that’s an important distinction: Mardi Gras is a season, not just a day. You can see when all of the parades roll, the themes, and the routes HERE.

Family Gras is next weekend, February 22 to 24, so go check out that link for all of the fun and family-friendly happenings. There will be some big parades geared towards kids, including Krewe of Little Rascals, which is an all kids parade.

We wanted to share our first mini parade adventure for Mardi Gras with you. The Krewe of Confetti Park held their annual parade in Algiers Point. This is right down the street from MARFORRES and Federal City.

We love this playground on a normal day, but today it was bustling with everyone getting ready for the parade.

The snow cone truck was there, and a local sponsor provided drinks and king cake as well!

I don’t know if you ever had neighborhood parades as a kid. We did on the 4th of July, but let me tell you, those parades of my childhood were nothing compared to what we experienced today. They had a whole marching band from the local school!

People were all decked out to stroll through the neighborhood and throw beads and candy at onlookers.

Basically anything goes in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. You can dress as crazy as you want! Kids obviously love this. There were tons of kids in their Halloween costumes – we love any excuse to get another wear out of those! And there were some “mini floats” where people had decorated wagons as fire trucks, so creative!

There was even a kids roller derby krewe skating the parade route.

It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. If this is how New Orleans does a neighborhood kids parade, then we can’t wait to share with you what the big parades are like! Stay tuned in the next few weeks.

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