Pirate Ship Makeover

I already posted about creating Nick's Halloween jolly wheeler/walker. But when I looked at the pictures (and of course showed them around) they just didn't pop the way I wanted them to.
I wasn't happy about how plain it looked.

So I went out and got a whole bunch of foam 'paper' from the dollar store (including a whole roll of yellow, orange and red) and tried to make things pop!

So I needed some new inspiration.

I started with some bright accessories

A captain's wheel

An anchor

 

A pirate flag

 

 

A treasure chest

With treasure of course! (jewels, gold coins and a king's crown)

 

These ones can all transfer back and forth between the wheeler and walker.

To the actual boats I updated the look too
A nice sparkly name!

I added a new deck (this is where the roll of foam came in)
And a 'figure head' sticker (I did quickly consider trying a lalaloopsy doll to the front, but thought it might traumatize Katheryn)

I put on some port holes

I updated the jolly walker too

Some chain, port holes and water

 

Trying out the telescope

Can't forget the pirate!

 

Oh Uh a Sneaky Thief!

 

Sorry, no sneak peak for the costumes until Halloween!

Bippity Boppity Boo!

A couple of weekends ago, we spent a lot of time making Nick's Halloween costume, the jolly walker and his jolly wheeler. Katheryn was very excited and wanted to help.
By the end of the day she said she had changed her mind about what she wanted to be for Halloween (and what she has wanted to be for months). She said instead of Cinderella, she wanted to be a pirate.

I realized that spending all the time making something for Nickolas made Katheryn feel left out. So we decided to make her a carriage.

Today all 4 of us were home sick, so it was the perfect time to start.

Again, I started with an idea in my head (and attempted to put it on paper)

 I collected what I thought I would need for supplies

And of course I had my model

I trialed a couple of ideas to get what I had in my mind.
To get the circle of Cinderella's carriage, I wanted it to be light, portable and use what we had without a lot of glue or anything.

Katheryn was excited to help and model as I worked (for about 20 minutes)

Once I got the shape, I could do the final decorating

And we were done!

It's not a pumpkin, but I think it's going to work well

 

I don't actually think she's going to carry to umbrella... I mean carriage ... around on Halloween night, but I hope it makes her happy that she has her very own Cinderella carriage.

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!!