let them fight it out

The boys have been fighting. A lot.  Nothing new there really.  What's been driving me crazy is that I'm called in as referee every five minutes.  I think there has even been some lying creative storytelling going on by big brother in an attempt to get sole custody of a toy (No worries; this will come back on him.  Little brother learns almost everything he knows from him!)  So I'm tired of being called in to mediate.  I just want them to work some things out on their own.  What's the solution?  Well my solution is to buy them weapons.  Yes, really.  Swords for each of them.  Go ahead, fight it out.  And since I'm not totally evil I even got them a shield for protection.

He really wanted his turn with the eye patch:

Mission accomplished; retreat!

I tried just giving them a plain ol' eye patch from our mish-mash of Halloween accessories but since they're cousin has a skull and crossbones on his pirate eye patch it means all patches must have them.  I painted one on free hand.  It looked pretty lame.  Tip:  a black sharpie can fix a lot of mistakes and make you look like a hero to your kids.  Here's the improvised eye patch:

Then I was told that pirates needed to find buried treasure; so I drew up a map of our front yard.  X marks the spot.

Then "buried" the treasure beneath some fallen leaves under the tree (clearly marked on the map; many hints were given; they were just not finding it; I guess my map drawing skills need some work).  After some very specific directing they found the treasure.

The rule with the swords is if anyone gets hurt they both get put away.  Now instead of hearing loud yells of "mom! he hit me!" I hear whispers of "shhhh, its ok buddy!  I didn't mean to hurt you" since neither one of them wants to lose the sword.  I don't anticipate this lasting long but I'll take what I can get.

Yes, I know the shield and one of the swords is a knight shield but he doesn't.  FYI - the swords and sheilds  are from Target for about $4 and are very sturdy.  I know, my boys thoroughly tested them.