Umbrella Play

Since there hasn't been much "real" opportunity to need these, the boys have come up with creative exuses for pulling out the umbrella.

Pretending it's raining:

twirled umbrella = "Helihocker"

Shooting or utilizing a shield (or anything else battle related)

Going around the sun.

And then finally, he tried to step into it as if it was a boat.  I drew the line there. 

Umbrella's: a perfect open-ended play toy that occasionally can also be used to keep one dry here in Arizona.

Any other ideas on what we could do with our mostly useless umbrellas?