Pirate Camp

Last week, Will attended Yo Ho Ho Pirate Camp at our local community college for a few hours every morning.  This should come as no surprise when I tell you that it was a big hit.  Glenn paid it the highest compliment when he said the agenda sounded like it was developed by a 5-yr old boy.  From sword-making (and fighting!) to a treasure hunt capped off with pirate snacks, I think Will enjoyed every minute.  And just like with Reina at dance camp last week, I think he enjoyed the chance to have a slightly different schedule for a few days.

Pirate Camp started at 9:30 a.m. so Will came to work with me for a little while in the morning.  On the first day, he sat quietly and looked at the few toys I have in my office.  By the second day, he was prepared to occupy his time, and my desk.  

Will and the 3,257 pieces of Lego's he brought with him each morning. 

On the last day of Pirate Camp, the parents were invited to a art show and demonstration of all of the pirate skills the pirates learned over the week.  Will insisted on wearing his hat at a rather jaunty angle. 

Mr. Serious showing us his treasure map. 

Capt. Will asked for a few takes before we got this picture just right.  He told me after Monday's class that they were going to get to have a swordfight the next day. I thought, "yeah right."  Who teaches a bunch of 5-7 yr olds how to fight with swords?  Well, Will was right. 

Swordfighting!  It was all very civilized with one arm behind his back and parre (sp?) and en guard and such.  The picture is blurry because Capt. Will's mom was giggling too hard. 

So Pirate Camp was a big hit.  Will's interests have branched out a little bit to include other people who battle: soldiers, ninjas, a motley crew of Star Wars characters, Kung Fu Panda and Puss-n-Boots.  But Capt Jack Sparrow and the gang remain a constant presence around here.

On Saturday, we braved the heat and went to Super Day for a little while.  Now I should note that to some of you, a 90 degree Saturday morning might not seems like a hardship, but let's face it.  I should've been born in the Arctic.  I'm melting.  Since we don't have air conditioning (in a "normal" Wyoming summer, there are really only a few weeks where it's really necessary), we don't have a lot of ways to beat the heat.  So instead of sequestering everyone in the basement, we decided to go to the park and get some ice cream, jump in a few bouncy houses, and watch Renaissance re-enactors (Will was hooked!).  The only item on Reina's agenda was to get a yellow balloon.  Not a pink balloon, not a blue balloon, not a yellow frisbee but a YELLOW BALLOON thank you very much.  Luckily we found one. 


She calls it "Balloon-ee" and slept with it tied to her bed last night.  This morning Balloonee had shrunk to half its size and I can't say that he's long for this world.  Poor Balloonee.





One quick final note.  Reina has entered into what I'm calling "The Naked Phase."  Maybe it's the hot weather, and frankly who can blame her, but the girl likes to take all of her clothes off.  After church this morning, I told the kids they could swim in the plastic pool out back.  Which by the way, used to look a lot bigger!  When it was just Will's little 15-month old body in that thing it looked like an Olympic-sized swimming pool.  Now with two kids and assorted dogs, it's the size of a cereal bowl.  I almost climbed in there today so we might be investing in something slightly larger soon.  Anyway, we come home from church, Will heads upstairs to get his swimming suit on, I start some laundry, peek out the backdoor to look for something in the yard and see a completely naked Reina casually climbing in the pool.  (I hope this is one of those phases that ends in the next half decade.) For the record, I made her come back inside, put on a suit AND sunscreen and then she proceeded to hear her swimsuit for the rest of the day and made a half-hearted attempt to sleep in it tonight.  3-yr olds.