The Jolly Wheeler

I always knew I was going to do 2 costumes for Nickolas. The walker and the wheelchair, to leave his options open about how we would actually roam the streets Halloween night. But also to hopefully attend some Halloween events.

 

So like everything, I started off with a simple idea.

 

 

I wasn't sure how to start.

I knew I needed a lot of cardboard, and had already decided to cover it with garbage bags instead of painting (in case of rain), but needed to go searching for the right size box.

Katheryn helped us to do some searching

 

And we found it!
Taped it all up inside

Fit it over the wheelchair
(Perfect fit)

Kyle cut a hole in it
(I don't think he liked my knife-wielding skills)

It fit perfectly!!!
It doesn't drag on the floor, about 2 inches off.

Then it came time to start decorating it
I always wanted the wheelchair one to have the waves lapping - which ended up working perfectly with the shape of the garbage bags.

Nick got to try it out!
Yo Ho Anchors Away!

Nick loved it!The question now is how to get him NOT to play with it for the next 2 weeks!
 

 

This is the end of the sneak peak, there is much more I still want to add to make it more pirate-ship like. And there are some things I think I want to change to make it look better. So there is still more to do! But I think it turned out pretty much like what I had in my head!

 

Nick decided to celebrate his new ship with a visit to the pirate apple juice bar!

 

 

 

The wheelchair costume didn't take long - this one actually only took about 2 hours, maybe less, and because the box is so thick we were able to staple some of the things on instead of using tape - which was a big plus.

But I have a list of things to add on as well, the flag pole, telescope, treasure chest and parrot can change between the walker and the wheelchair, but also port holes, steering wheel, anchor, I'm sure I'm missing stuff...

 



The Jolly Walker

Halloween is such a creative time of year.
I can come up with fun ideas for costumes that we only get to wear for a couple of hours!
Like a whole family of Little Red Riding Hood (2009) and Princess with her Knight (2010)

This year Nickolas has asked to be a pirate!
So using ideas  from a couple of online friends (Cassie and Leah), as well as google I found some  inspiration.

I could totally do a pirate ship!

Because I'll want to post pictures after Halloween I thought I'd post about our progress so far and how we made our walker/wheeler-pirate ship. (It took just 1 whole day, some of it just sitting and staring at the walker trying to figure out how things would go together).
I also thought that I might be able to provide a bit of inspiration to others who aren't sure where to start.

I started with the walker. I thought it would be easier, but first I needed to start with an idea...

I wanted to do a walker and a wheelchair costume, but be able to have parts cross between the 2 costumes. The flag, treasure chest, spy glass and anything else I can think of.

We have a pirate flag coming, so far this is our stand in.
A broom stick, duct tape, coat hanger and some fabric made a pretty good sail.

And it fit in place well.

There was some debate about what to actually make the ship from.
Originally I was going to just paint and glue together the cardboard. But then I started to worry about the weather at the end of October and how pained cardboard would stand up to rain or dampness.
And since we were talking about black, I had a whole box full of black plastic covers under the sink!

 

Garbage bags and duct tape helped to keep everything together, and even Nick's new treasure chest backpack kept everything in place on the walker.
I was able to get black and pirate duct tape at the store.

I know that duct tape contains latex, as long as it is holding things together and Nick has long sleeves I think it will be ok.

After we got the body of the boat together we just needed to add the extras.
The treasure chest, a spy glass, sword, some decoration

Put it all together and we got a sneak peak of a pirate ship!

Can't forget to add the pirate!

I have 3 pictures with this exact same expression! It is Nick saying "Arr"

That's all the walker preview you get until the full reveal at Halloween, I have a couple of more ideas to make it look for pirate-ey and more like a boat.
I can't forget to add the Pirate Boat name too! The Jolly Walker

A little pixie dust

We were surprised at physio today that a harness (a super-hero suit) for Nick, and other preschool kids, had arrived, and Nickolas got to be the first one to try it out!

 

 

It got to hook to a cool contraption that could go up and down and help to hold Nick so he could walk without using his arms. It didn't take much coaxing to get him started

 

 



And then we got to do the fun work!

Treadmill.

We were treasure hunting like pirates!

Nick walked faster and then we went 'up the hill' to hunt for some treasure

We must have found some, because Nick got to carry all the treasure down.
(And strangely with his hands full he couldn't hold onto the sides of the treadmill)
Sneaky

Nickolas thought this was great, he didn't think he was working at all!
How fun is it to hunt for treasure and stomp, stomp, stomp

Walking back Nick found that he could lift his feet up and still stay upright!
 And for the title of the post - Pixie dust away!!

Thanksgiving

It was our Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. We tried extra hard to have a good, happy and family oriented thanksgiving, while remembering and being thankful for the influence and love of someone who wasn't there.

 

We were thankful for the excitement that Nickolas has from being independent!

Wanting to do everything himself.

I'm thankful for Nick's inquisitive nature!
What is all these leaves doing here?!

For his determination to work things through, and having fun kicking the leaves

I'm thankful that Katheryn has never stopped asking questions and exploring

Nick has been enjoying the play set, and his favorite thing is the slide!

 Especially when there is a whole pile of leaves on the bottom!

I've been trying to get Nickolas some kind of carrier for his walker. So far I found a little tool belt that is working so far. Nick can carry his milk and walk at that same time.

We took the opportunity of the beautiful leaves and sun to take some pictures.
Look at that adorable face!
I'm thankful I can look at this every day, and hear him say "I love you mommy"
Something a year ago I wasn't sure I was ever going to hear!

 

Everyone enjoyed a jump in the pile of leaves!

And throwing leaves at each other!!

We enjoyed 2 thanksgiving dinners with all of our family.
Including a couple of pirates!

We shared some bonding moments (don't need a special day for that)

And we had an opportunity to show off our crazy side!!!

Thanksgiving gives us a day to be together and just think about how thankful we are to be together, to be ourselves, to enjoy ourselves and just be thankful that we are exactly where we are supposed to be.

Pumpkin Hunter!

We told the kids last night that we were going to pick up some pumpkins.

They were really excited!!

 

We wanted to do the whole experience, not just find a random pumpkin patch. So we looked up a couple of our local farms and decided on Whittamore's. They have a whole Pumpkin land area.
I was hesitant at first. Kyle and I decided that Nick was walking in his walker and I didn't want him to get stuck or have difficulty moving around in areas.

The first thing they kids saw was the bouncy castle! (Or I should say farm). Katheryn went right in. And of course Nick wanted to follow. After thinking about it for a bit, and seeing how open it was, and that there weren't any really big kids in it, I decided that Nick could go on it.

Off he went crawling around.

And he did have fun, until he fell over onto his back, and couldn't get his knees back under him. The attendant rescued him. No tears, nothing. Nick just told me he was done and wanted to look at something else.

 

The idea was to get really big pumpkins! But then the kids saw the little ones and decided that they could carry their own pumpkins and wanted small ones in stead (and somehow Mommy, Daddy and Grandma lost our ability to say no)

 

Nick was really excited that he got to carry one too...

But then it started to get heavy...

Problem solved!

We had a little lunch break

And we raced some rubber duckies!
Katheryn and Nickolas both won (Katheryn has gotten significantly better when she loses)

And then we decided to look at the big pumpkins!!!
I think this is what they were waiting for!

And what the point of going if you can't get a family picture!
(It was a little windy and cold)

And then we loaded all the pumpkins in!
We have a future movie star here (there was a camera from CTV that got a clip of Katheryn)

And then the kids were tired and cold and were ready to load up and go!
(Did you miss the part about not being able to say no - we got 10 pumpkins of various sizes)

A very successful pumpkin hunt!!