Eli had an awesome birthday last September. It is absolutely shocking to me that he is 4 years old. At his request (with some prompting, if I'm honest), we had a pirate birthday party complete with a treasure hunt and a pirate ship cookie cake. Pictures are saved on a hard drive somewhere. I have no idea if I'll ever find them again.

The truth is I love putting together birthday parties for my kids. I really enjoy thinking about the possibilities of party favors and games, decorations and cakes. I think kids' parties can do things that grown up parties can't, like request their guests to dress up in pirate gear! Arrrgh!

In an effort to recycle, I figured Eli would be a pirate for Halloween a month later. The costume was already all put together. Easy-peasy, right? Kevin had the great idea to make a parrot costume for Linden so she could be the parrot to his pirate and they could ride together in the wagon at the neighborhood parade.

Well. Eli saw Linden's parrot costume and decided that he actually wanted to be a parrot instead. So I made a second parrot costume, in a larger size.

Then Linden screamed her head off when we tried to put on HER parrot costume. So we put her in a tiny little pirate dress with Eli's big hat. and Eli wore the big parrot costume. She was the pirate and he was the parrot. It was strange but it worked. Every one was happy.

(thanks to the Millers for the photo.)