Halloween parade & party

Our neighborhood had its annual Halloween parade and party today. We had a blast cruising around with the others while onlookers cheered and wished us all a happy Halloween. The boys enjoyed being outside in the beautiful weather with all the festivities.
The local fire department brought over a truck and an ambulance for the children to admire. We parked the ship and anchored down, so daddy could make some adjustments to our mast.

Reed thought Ryland's shiny sword was amazing. After a little sweet talking, Ryland let him play with for just a second.

We all enjoyed some food and ice cream then headed back home. Ryland was being a silly pirate and wanted to roll around in the grass in our yard. I guess he was happy to see the ground after his maiden voyage. Or just silly!

Making a pirate ship

Somewhere in the discussion of Halloween costumes for this year a pirate ship came up. I thought it would be cute and easy since the boys were dressing up as pirates. I had envisioned a cardboard ship attached to the red wagon. John Chris and I talked about it, and he mentioned he had the perfect box at work.He brought the box home, and I quickly realized it was bigger than I was thinking. A LOT BIGGER!

John Chris and I had several discussions on how to attach the box to the wagon. At one point he even thought we could build the ship around the double stroller.
I finally had to build what I was thinking while he was constructing an arc. I say constructing because he had started using a saw and air compressor to build the platform. I had to start laughing because about this time the warm sun was gone, and the clouds had started rolling in. I asked if I should start expecting pairs of animals. He thought my sarcasm was funny too. We had a great laugh, and then decided cardboard and duck tape would suffice.

A preview of what is to come. The hull of the ship is finished, so we will start working on the details this week. We did a trial run in the boys' pirate costumes, because I thought I was going to have to hem them before Halloween. To our surprise, they both fit perfect.

Reed loves the pirate ship and costume!