"Where are you meeting him?" "Here, by these rocks, And his favourite food is roasted fox".

It's been a fairly quiet few days on the blog as there has been so much other stuff going on at Gifts from the Pirates HQ, not to mention a huge new box on mixed LEGO that i acquired from eBay (oops) keeping me quite occupied. As my nights have been taken up by other things I thought this would be the perfect chance to bombard you with fox pictures. Yes, it's about that time for the next installment of the GFTP Fox hunt. A little game that Opeie started about a year and a half ago after reading Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss. 

Opeie has really upped his game over the last few months and his fox sightings have been crazy. Because he is at a lower level than me he picks up on so much that i miss. So here they are for your enjoyment.

 A couple of weeks back we had a surprise package from a PR company that we work with and it was exciting to see that they had joined in too and sent us Fennekin the Pokemon fox, Opeie has been taking it everywhere with him, very cute.

During our last trip to the Library Opeie went in to full on Fox mode and spotted lots of different variations of our sly woodland friend...

I know what you're thinking is this post over yet? I've had my fill of foxes! Sorry Opeie has been on a Foxy rampage so there's still more...

And there you have it, apart from one other image which is amazing and I'm really jealous of. A few weeks back our good friend Chris who is a photographer and blogs over at Gingerjamphoto hired a fox for a shoot and the pictures were beautiful. After all our posts about our foxy finds it would be great to have an actual photo of us with a real fox... one day!

Anyway until next time fox lovers, i can't see this game coming to a halt any time soon. If there's a fox to be found, us Gifts from the Pirates lot will track them down!!!

“Mr. Fox, sir, I won't do it. I can't say it. I won't chew it. Very well, sir. Step this way. We'll find another game to play.”

It's amazing how the smallest things that seem insignificant at the time can become part of your daily life with children. With Seth it was plastic forks, sounds crazy but when you're walking about there seem to be loads of those mini chip forks everywhere. Once Seth shouted "FORK" and then every time we spotted one after that we shouted "FORK". We still do it now occasionally.

With Opeie it all started when we read 'Fox in socks' by Dr. Seuss, as soon as i started reading it he was hooked. If we see foxes anywhere Opeie points them out and says "fox in Socks", So its now become something we look out for all the time.

Because of his new found obsession Ive been taking photos of foxes everywhere we go. They seem to be everywhere so this post is all about the foxes we've found during our journeys out and about.

Seth has been getting involved too which has been great. He found one of his favourite books 'fantastic Mr Fox' and also spotted some foxes biscuits which for some reason i had missed. I think its really nice to have these silly little things that we do as a family, it would seem crazy to other people but that's what makes things like this so special.

Our recent weekend away at Center Parcs was also very productive for our fox hunt, we spotted a pile of foxes in one of the gift shops and Opeie noticed one when he was colouring in a picture given to him by restaurant staff...

While driving about last week i even spotted this, turns out they all live on one road too...

I really hope that our Fox game continues, its certainly a fun addition to our journeys out and it keeps our own cunning little fox entertained wherever we go.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

To embrace Opeie's new love of Dr Seuss i thought i would splash out on a collection of books that i spotted on eBay to add to the books we already own. Ive always been a huge fan myself so Opeie's big day seemed like the perfect excuse to treat us both to something we love. It's so nice as a parent to have a special something that you do together and sitting together reading Dr Seuss seems to be our thing. Opeie holds my little finger and we say "Best friends" to each other, it's very cute.

Sadly the books didn't turn up in time for his birthday, they arrived the following day so as Opeie can't have chocolate due to allergies the lateness served as a great Easter present for him. He went straight to bed when we got home from out trip to Chris' on Friday so he didn't get to read them when i opened them but i managed to read a few of them relaxing in the bath.

Opeie's favourite so far has been 'wet pet, dry pet, your pet, my pet", but after not reading it before i have fallen in love with 'Thidwick the big-hearted Moose' what a cute story. Ive been so good since Christmas completely reigning in my toy collections but after buying these i can feel a book collection brewing. I think it's really important to have plenty of books at home for your children's development and Opeie is turning in to a real bookworm.

I'm quite sure Opeie's new books will keep us occupied for sometime especially because he loves hearing the same stories over and over. We've read the Lorax seven times in the last few days, i don't mind though as they are great stories and are fun to read. Plus i love seeing the big smile on his little face every time i turn a new page.

There's something really magical about these crazy books with their pages of insanity, it's probably the same way Mrs M feels about Dick Bruna. It'll be nice to have a collection to give Opeie when he's older. Next on my list to buy is 'Dr. Seuss & Mr Geisel and 'The Lorax' pop up book because Opeie is loving the new pop up books we brought Mrs M for mothers day which i will write about very soon.