Pirates...Aaargh!

Hooray for Halloween!  One of the most creative times of the year, when children can express their inner gangster/princess/witch/ninja/DarthVader/ghost/bumblebee/pirate.  Parents ask them, so what do you want to be for Halloween this year?  And the answers are almost always amusing, providing food for thought and some insight into the minds of the little ones. 

Samantha, ever-influenced by the tide of children's television that enters her brain daily, didn't susprise me one bit by her decision this year.  I saw it coming a mile away. 

Pirate. 

What children's show doesn't feature at least one episode where the characters are pretending to be pirates?  Mind you, this is not fueled by current pirate-lore, the vicious drug-runners of the coastlines, but by the romantic pirate-vision of storybooks, of fairy tales, of history, involving (in realistic detail or not) parrots on shoulders, trunks of gold, damsels in distress and swashbuckling sword fights. 

So after vacillating back and forth a few times from pirate to ghost back to pirate again (at the moment, she's pitching ghost as the costume of choice for next year...what happened to princesses?), we were ready.  The only items I was prepared with were pirate bandana-hat, eye patch, gold earring and sword.  I figured we'd wing the rest of her attire, and with a few forays into the darkest depths of my over-packed and disorganized bedroom closet, that's what we did.  To be perfectly honest, I wasn't entirely sure, even up to the time I got her dressed to go out, of what exactly she was going to wear, but somehow, it all came together nicely. 

And voila, the New Romantic pirate in all her glory. 

Aaaargh!  Give me some candy!  (Please?)

Fabbo pink-striped Barbie socks from Target!  Could not possibly have done better!

Sporting, oh so much more fashionably than me, a black lace top I'd gotten for an 80s party last year.  And here I was, thinking it'd never see the light of day again! Oh yeah, and she's wearing one of my 3/4 sleeve white work blouses under it...re-purposing at its very best...

Candy or plank-walking - your choice!