Children’s House Montessori School second-graders Clement Dornbusch and Grace Vriesen, above, show their Mardi Gras spirit with masks and costumes during the school’s Mardi Gras parade on Monroe Street Friday afternoon. Below, kindergartner Kristen Miller, left, throws Mardi Gras beads to third-graders Julia Lee and Patricia Walker. This was the last big weekend of the carnival season, celebrated most grandly in New Orleans. The official Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is Tuesday, and it ushers in Ash Wednesday and the Christian Lenten season, which ends with Easter on April 15. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)