Gasparill-what?

I almost want to apologize for throwing a weekend recap at you right out of the gate but I could've posted about my opinions on all things Bachelor or even (shudder) a round-up of my favorite leggings. Count your blessings, tolerant reader.

Anyway.

Before we even moved here we heard all about Gasparilla Pirate Fest. The tradition is named after pirate Jose Gaspar who is known for terrorizing the West Florida coast way back in the 18th & 19th centuries - your fun history fact for the day and maybe ever here at the Camp. There's a real live pirate ship decked with 750+ pirates that "invades" Tampa Bay and then once ashore, there's a massive parade which is where things get crazy, from what I understand. We were warned that it is not a place to take a small children because apparently it's about as rowdy as a real live New Orleans Mardi Gras. There's an annual a kids' parade that took place the previous weekend but we were busy painting a bathroom (fun-parents-r-us) so we took part in some of the Gasparilla fun without dipping down into the actual eye of the debauchery storm.

We kicked the day off by joining friends at a local park where the pirates board the ship. The kids got an up close and personal look at the swashbucklers and oh, wait ... Julia, is that you?

Your scary stamped hands threw me.

The boys were mostly wide-eyed in amazement/wtf-is-this-ness and the only reason Theo would abandon his death grip on my hand was if he knew there was a chance he'd score some beads ...

Phoebe was her usual happy-go-lucky self ...

No surprise there.

Next year we will be bringing ear plugs because the noise (cannons? guns? the apocalypse?) was really loud and scared the kids once we got up close and personal with the ship although ... it lulled little B right to sleep thanks to my trusty kangaroo pouch.

I thought 750+ pirates sounded like a liiiiiitle bit of an exaggeration but ...

... they made use of every square inch ...

Next year, I'm totally dressing up and sneaking on.

The Party Pattons continued onward and upward over to a little island (still away from the chaos) to meet up with some other friends (we are very popular and that is very much a joke) who had a beer tent (complete with tented port-o-potty that they brought themselves - Gasparilla veterans) set up to watch the flotilla because we thought they'd love nothing more than a little buzz-kill-o-kids. No, they were great and I kept expecting the kids to get crazy and we'd have to make a beeline for the Odyssey but it turns out watching boats float by with handfuls of beads is sort of the Patton kids' jam ...

... except for Phoebe ...

"have fun, suckers. I'll just be here with the snacks and beer."

We lured her out temporarily with the promise that she'd get to don the biggest beads ...

but once she tossed ALL the beads back in the water much to the chagrin of the other bead hoarders .... back in the wagon she went.

Even our little Joey had a decent time ...

... decent at best.

I know deep down that I'm a pessimist at heart but I like to pretend I'm just a sensible realist and I had visions of the day going down a lot differently because things can take a turn for the worse when we're out and about for an extended period of time {diaper failure, fatigue induced meltdowns, bead shortages, etc ... you never KNOW) but much like our tailgating adventure, I was pleasantly surprised.

Fancy that.

*tiny housekeeping note: I'm trying to restore my bloglovin' feed and I'll put the link over on FB as soon as it's up. Here it is! Thanks so much for your patience and once again, thanks for your insanely generous welcome back! Heart emojis galore.