Arrrgh!!

My parents plan a special "Grammy and Papa weekend" at least once every few months.  Sometimes they're pretty casual, time with cousins, playing, a special family dinner.  And sometimes they're more extravagant, themed and full of prepared activities.

This last weekend was one of my favorites yet.  A few weeks ago, I picked up the mail and found a brown plastic bottle, addressed to us from Pirate Papa.  First of all, how awesome that you can mail a plastic soda bottle?  Inside was a treasure map/invitation to a pirate party weekend.  So we picked out costumes (thrift store, borrowing from friends) and eagerly awaited.

We arrived Friday early evening at the campsite, pulled our little travel trailer in next to Grammy and Papa and set up camp.  My siblings trickled in and everyone set up their sites as we watched pirate movies on an outdoor projection screen, gathered around the campfire as we feasted on s'mores and popcorn.  Our tired kids went to bed easily and slept soundly as we hung around the campfire, chatting as adults and especially enjoying the company of my kid sister who had flown out for the weekend.

Saturday morning started with Barbarian waffles, waffle boats loaded with nutella, strawberries, bananas and topped with a pirate flag.  We dressed in our costumes, we made and hung our family pirate flags behind each trailer (ours was a traditional black flag with a hot pink skull and cross bones) and decorated treasures chests.  We played with bubbles (cannon ball bursting), made paper boats to float down the river, did a ring toss onto Hook's hook and more.  The girls particularly loved when we split into two teams and did a relay race, each pirate racing along the path while using a hook to scoop up necklaces and rings for the team treasure chest.  But the proclaimed favorite of the day was the war.  We split into two teams and decorated our ships which were huge cardboard fronts staked into the ground.  The cousins drew and the dads spraypainted, giggling and teasing.  Then each pirate was given a slingshot and a supply of powdered sugar covered marshmallows as their ammo.  So creative and such a blast.  Another favorite of the day was the treasure hunt, following Pirate Papa's clues around the campground, leading to a huge pile of sawdust in which I had buried a stock of candy and school supplies.  The 3 and under kids searched for 1 minute, collecting as many treasures as they could.  Then the 4-6 year old kids had 45 seconds, after which the 7 and up had 30 seconds.  We made it through three rounds of this before the adults teamed up to help, still finding treasures in the elusive sawdust.  For lunch, my clever sisters made mermaid shells (mac and cheese shells) and cannonballs (meatballs) with fruit (shaped and decorated as boats).  For dinner, Grammy and Papa did dutch oven chicken and potatoes, all themed and decorated.  Once it was dark, we gathered around the campfire again for movies and campfire cones (treasure cones).

Sunday morning (following a very rough night with a stubborn baby who had refused to sleep), we meandered through breakfast (Captain Crunch, Marshmallow Mateys and muffins).  The kids spent the morning playing with cousins, making up their own imagination games, watching pirate cartoons or coloring in their pirate coloring books.  For lunch we grilled burgers and hot dogs before reluctantly breaking camp and heading home.