Playin' Pirate with Captain Tyler

For those of you who have had Tyler over to play at your house, you know how much he loves playing dress up with his friends. For those of you who haven't, you might recall that nearly all of Tyler's friends (and cousins his age) are girls. Much to his father's dismay Tyler is often caught being the pretty princess. So, it was with great relief (to me at least) that he returned from his last play group (at cousin Morgan's house) having played Pirate dress-ups which is considerably more manly. Although we don't have nearly as cool of Pirate gear as cousin Clayton with all his Jack Sparrow and Will Turner garb, we were able to put together a pirate outfit that satisfies for now.
All week Tyler would mention pirates and has threatened me with walking the plank if I am not careful. His "ARRRR Matey" is also pretty cute. On Saturday night when his mom was at a relief society conference Tyler insisted we play pirate. He also kept telling me we needed a pirate ship.

And now our story flashes back some 20 odd years ago. One of my most fond memories of spending time with my brother and sisters growing up was making "forts" in our basement and playing "Swiss Family Robinson" for hours on end. I'm not sure how my parents managed to get us to play together so well, but I do remember spending literally days together "living" in our jungle forts.

Back to Saturday night, I recalled my "Swiss Family Robinson" days of yore and built us a pirate ship "fort" with a card table Jamie had borrowed for the scrapbook night she had hosted on Wednesday. The top of the table became the lookout as Tyler and I sailed the seven seas (or at least our living room) looking for sea monsters and treasure. Down below were the barracks where we could rest and exchange pirate tales. Tyler got pretty good at singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's life for me."

Oh ya, Marcus got in on the action as well and I dare you to find a cuter first mate!