Somewhere along the line, we converted to pirates. Sure, there are sushi chef days, knight days, dinosaur days. Evan often pretends he is a baby alien in a box. Master Viper and Master Tiger still come over for lunch every once in a while. But pirates is a thing we play every day now. And I think it’s my fault.
Maybe it was when Evan started hooking on the Backyardigans pirate edpisode, and I looked for it all over YouTube, only to find hilarious homemade, stop-action shorts. Maybe it was when I learned the lyrics of “A Pirate’s Life” and decided I needed to make new verses that were more child-friendly. Maybe it was when I bought The Pirates that Don’t Do Anything because we had no movies of good guy pirates that were age suitable.
Evan: Daddy? Do butt pirates have arrows?
Me: I’m sure they have bows and arrows. (Quietly to the husband) He has no idea what that is.
The Husband: (quietly to me) Are you sure?
Or yesterday when we were about to go swimming.
Evan: I’m a BUTT PIRATE!
Me: A What?! (He doesn’t know what it means.) Evan, what’s a butt pirate?
Evan: It’s a naked pirate.
Now how do we get that phrase out of your head?
Now Evan talks about his pirate birthday party, which has sent me salivating with ideas. Sashes, bandanas, and tattoos for all the kids. We’ll make craft foam boats. We’ll paint rocks gold. We’ll have a luau and include Evan’s love of Tiki gods. We’ll build our own mini water park in my parents’ backyard.
I learned yesterday I was getting too carried away as I stood in line with my mom at the material store, getting the last minute things for the bridal shower. I grabbed a ruminant of black material. My mom arched her eye brown in silent question. “We can make pirate flags! Each boy can make their own!” My mom asked, “How would you do that?” “We could- We could iro- No. We would use-Um, no that won’t work either. I have. Damn. Never mind. I’ll put this back until I can think it through.”
I can’t help but get excited because Sean has become equally excited as Evan and I.
Sean goes around singing, “Yo, ho, yo, ho” every where. Then he got a pirate shirt with a skull and cross bones the other day. He touched the shirt and went “Arrrr!” Then he did it again when ever he wanted people to say pirate. He tried to say pirate once. “Pie-Arrrr!”
We’re going to have the best pirate day ever!
Faemom 
June 9, 2009 at 5:09 pm
My son was running around shouting “YO HO YO HO” the other day, loud enough that neighbors were staring. I think it must be part of the preschool years- pirates, dinosaurs, vikings, anything that fights with a sword or growls. I think it’s adorable.
Oh, and for flags- fabric paint! Especially the glittery neon kind. Kids LOVE it, and it’s washable while it’s still wet, so even if they get a little messy you can clean it up. My parents did it one time where the kids painted the fabric and then stapled it together around a dowel, it worked relatively well (with lots of adult assistance, of course)
June 9, 2009 at 7:25 pm
AWESOME party idea!!! There’s so much you could do…. and running around shouting yo ho ho ho sounds absolutely perfect.
June 9, 2009 at 9:34 pm
*L* butt pirate. I love it. ARRR
June 10, 2009 at 3:30 am
Yo Ho Yo Ho it’s a butt pirates life for me. I find this endlessly funny and I can’t get it out of my head. We are suppose to go to disneyland soon and I’m going to be laughing the whole pirates ride singing Evan’s version of this song. People will stare.
June 10, 2009 at 4:28 am
Great post. Those kids of yours are too cute! Love the birthday party ideas. Don’t forget some sort of treasure chest. I’ve been dreaming of the day when Shorty is old enough for a pirate party. There just seems to be so many endless possibilities with a pirate theme. Wish I were more crafty like you. Please, please, please let us know what you do and how it all turns out.
Oh and I love the butt pirates! LOL
June 10, 2009 at 10:39 am
Butt pirates, ahoy!
You know he’s gonna use that term, loudly, at the grocery store.
June 10, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Lindsey~ You’re so right. Evan likes me telling him stories about the pirate dinosaurs. And what a brilliant idea! Awesome!
w4w~ I was thinking just letting them run in their pirate garb through the sprinklers.
Zee~ Arr, I know!
insider~ Do it in front of a bunch of teens and it’ll catch on!
incognito~ I shall. I shall. It’s so exciting to finally be able to DO something with the boys.
KathyB! *groan* Oh, don’t tell me that!
June 10, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I think you should do a running tally of how many places he announces that he’s a “butt pirate” at and the respective responses. I think an excel spreadsheet is in order…
June 11, 2009 at 1:16 am
[…] would like to thank Faemom for sharing her story about Evan and the pirates. It was unexpected and I didn’t know how […]
June 11, 2009 at 2:48 pm
ck, do I assume you want me to post said excel spreadsheet?
June 12, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Thanks for the LOL!
June 13, 2009 at 2:13 pm
My pleasure.