Peppermint

Alex's first candy cane.  He loved it.

Hint for future visits with my family:If you have something you don't want to share with Matthew tell him its peppermint.  He will leave you alone instantly.  

No, of course I have never used this.

Poses

In preparation for the sending of Christmas cards, I wanted to get some really up to date pics of the boys.

After the posing, Matthew took the camera and the following ensued.

the giant pile of stuffed animals 

Brother

close up selfie

Mum and brother

The diverse herd of dinos.

Then he managed to lock his brother in the bedroom.

Please let me out.

Ok I'll pose then please let me out.

(just FYI, he let him out)

Christmas Lights

The weekend before Thanks giving was clear and sunny so I got my butt outside and got the Christma slights put up.

 I always find they make the shorter days easier to handle.  This year we added colored stars and a small set of lights around the garage door.

 Matthew loved them so much, kissed them!

Alex was happy to just sit and admire.

Salamander

On Veterans Day/Remembrance Day the weather was relatively pleasant so we headed to our neighbourhood park in search of worms.  We discovered on this day that the best place to find the big guys is under rotting logs.

Alex stopped to look at the creek.

Matthew soon joined him.

Near the end of the trail loop we decided to head off the concrete into the trees to check out some fallen logs.  When we lifted the second log, I saw something that I thought was baby snake.  I grabbed a little stick and poked it and low and behold....

Sally the Salamander!!  We put him in with the worms in our little plastic container and took him home where we provided him with this lush habitat.  

 He lived with us for a week during which time we found out he was a Western Redback Salamander, that although the internet says they eat worms they really don't (at least he never ate the one we gave him) and that they can live (barely) in a jar for a week.

  The next weekend we drove back to the park in the pouring rain to release him back under the log where we found him.  Matthew was heartbroken and yelled "I love you Sally" I'll Miss you Sally" all the way back to the car.

Bigfoot

One afternoon Matthew spent many many minutes (which is s long time for him to be focused on one thing) setting up a museum  He was taking me on a tour showing me all the stuff he had on display:dinosaurs that had been hit by trains, a red Ford mustang that had in in an accident in 1625, the collection of african animals etc.  Then he said rather offhandedly "and the big foot".

"The Bigfoot??" was my reply.  "You have a bigfoot in your museum?  I want to see that!"

So he led me over to the chair where he matter of factly pointed out

The. Big. Foot. Duh

Randoms

Ales loves to accessorize!

He also loves to play with the pots and pans.  This day he decided the best way to do that was to actually get in the drawer.

a messy snack

His first dress

office Party at Teatro Zinzanni

Smothered in all the stuffed animals at Grandma's.

Jenn's Visit

On November 1st Jenn arrived for a visit.  

I have almost no photos of this event.  We had an amazing visit.  I wish we lived closer so we could see each other all the time.  She is and will always be one of my closest friends.

Oh and she made this kick ass rocket for Matthew.