A Pirate-y Halloween...

I have never really been a big fan of Halloween.  I remember dressing up as a kid to go trick-or-treating but I don't ever remember just loving it.  This year Braden was ALL. ABOUT. IT.  He has pretty much talked about what he wanted to be since this summer.  He wanted to decorate the house with bats and spiders (um, no.)  He is really enjoying all the dressing up lately and very into pretend play.

So back in August after we went to this awesome pirate show in Myrtle Beach, SC on our family vacation, he kept telling me he wanted to dress up like a pirate for Halloween.  I found him a cute costume online at Target and went ahead and ordered it.  He pretty much wanted to wear it everyday!  Then I decided that Cooper could be a parrot to go along with Braden's pirate costume.  

About a month ago, Braden started saying how he HAD to have a ship for Halloween.  Oh boy.  How the heck do we get a ship for Halloween??  I tried putting it off for a few days but he was NOT having it.  SO I put my thinking cap on and came up with an idea.  We will use the wagon!  I had just bought his new car seat and had this giant box sitting in the garage.  I went out and set it on top of the wagon and low and behold, it was just the right size!  Hallelujah!  We cut one side off of it and a hole on the other side and it slid right over the top of the wagon.  We painted it black and added port holes made from cardstock to the sides.  I thought this was good and he would be satisfied with his wagon/pirate ship.  OH no.  We HAVE to have a sail!  Of course we do.  So we headed over to Hobby Lobby to see what we could come up with.  I ended up buying 3 dowel rods, one that was pretty thick and the other 2 a little thinner.  We also bought some canvas.  I had some twine left over at home.  We painted the dowel rods black and constructed our sail.  Then added his pirate flag to the top.  Wow.  I have to say....it was pretty fun!  And pretty easy too!  And it definitely made trick-or-treating fun having the wagon to tote our little parrot in!

And I give you....Captain Braden and his parrot in their awesome ship...

Braden had a great time trick-or-treating and loved all of his loot!

Cooper was just along for the ride but always loves riding in the wagon, err, ship!

Who knows what we will come with next year.  Braden already has ideas.  Batman, a fireman, a cowboy.  He is just full of imagination these days!