It's carnival time!

Sneaky calendar is sneaky, and Mardi Gras is already upon us! Here we are, just a few weeks from Thoth Sunday, the day of David's parade. Today was the Thoth open house, a family-oriented day in which the krewe opens their den and everyone gets a preview of the parade's floats.
Glossary (let's just get this out of the way):
Krewe: a paid club, invitation only, that celebrates Mardi Gras, usually with a parade (but some don't actually parade).
Den: the warehouse that stores the floats before the parade. Events are also held here sometimes, like meetings or things like this open house. The Thoth den was built over and around old brick slave's quarters in order to preserve their history.

David's brother and his three boys on David's float

We took our nephews to see the floats, and they had fun eating burgers, climbing all over floats, dancing to the live band, and even playing with a little petting zoo in the corner. The food was for sale, but it was cheap ($1 beer, $3 burgers, etc.) and proceeds went to the krewe's charity beneficiaries; the event was free. Riders' dues pay for things like this. Because, yes, you pay to be in a krewe, and you pay for all your throws. I'll never get over this.

More glossary:
Throws: the crap you throw off a float. Mostly beads. But beads are usually called...beads. One string is called a "bead", like, "I caught a bead from David!"

Anyway, the boys had fun, and it was nice to see the floats before the mayhem of the parade to appreciate the theme. Every parade has a theme each year; this year, Thoth's theme is "This is how we roll." I had a little more time to make sense of the theme without it rolling on by - and I needed it, since some of them were...a stretch. David's float is "bankroll" themed, but the one that is "rolls of wrapping paper"? I'm pretty sure they were just re-using a Christmas float from a prior year!