Yo, ho, Mateys: A Pirate Birthday
About a year and a half ago, our then next-door-neighbor showed up on my doorstep with a huge bag in her hands. "Could you use this? I'm just going to throw it away if you don't want it." A big bag of free? Always. "Sure," I said. Then, I stuffed it in the closet, without looking at its contents, just knowing it was pirate stuff left over from a birthday party. Every time it was in my way, I considered, for the briefest of moments, throwing the whole lot out. But then I remembered it was free and I shoved it aside as I looked for the latest lost item. Last fall, Netflix added Disney's Jake and the Neverland Pirates to their line-up and Thomas was an instant fan. At Halloween, he wanted to be Jake, specifically. I nudged him toward a cheaper costume so he was a pirate, generally. For the next two months, he told us all about his Jake and the Neverland Pirates (you have to say the whole thing, not jus