Because I can't resist...

 Matthew's first day of school....

 At the sign with his best mate Dylan. (They are still mates and Dylan is Alyssa's brother!)

 Ryan's first day

 At the sign

 Ben first day....

with the sign.

I have no words only tears!!!

Ben's Big School

So I am now the mother of three school age children!!! This has blown my mind for a little while now. There have been many benefits in having the kids so close together. For example we haven't had a sleepless night in years, nappy's were done when Ben was two and they will all move out of home around the same time (won't they??)

But the one thing I didn't count on was them all leaving the nest so quickly! It has been bam, bam, bam.... three school boys!

Ben has been busting to go to school since Matthew started 4 years ago! When he started preschool last year he very quickly figured out the fence separated him from his brothers so that meant he wasn't at real school. Well now there is no fence and they play with each other regularly at lunch and recess.

 Ben has settled well into school. However he is missing his friend Eli desperately. It's funny because I am an army brat so I moved school every two years and thought I got a rough deal. However, I now feel greatly for all the kids that got left behind. In hindsight I probably did the wrong thing in letting them get so close (but then again I was close to Eli's mum too...) They were so tight last year that Ben didn't really extend his circle of friends. Yes, he knew the boys in his class well and played with them when he had too but he would always choose to play with Eli. Anyway so now that Eli is gone the other boys have their own little friendship groups and Benny is a little lost.

I had given him the task last week of finding one new friend. So the first day he came home he said he had. But he forgot his name! So the next task was to remember his name! He came home telling me it started with a T! The next day he came home and said that they ate lunch together and Benny said to him "Will you be my friend?" The kid said yes so Ben asked him if he wanted to play with him and his brothers at lunch! (Soo cute!) Anyway it turns out he lost his little friend in the search for his brothers in the playground. Well finally today he tells me his new friends name is Taj!

 On the first day of school only kindy goes which meant Matt and Rye stayed home with Daddy.

 Ben kissed us and our photographer (Michelle) decided a photo of us kissing him would be great!

 Ben and his wife Alyssa!

 Ben and his locker. He is in the Possum Magic class!

 Ben and his tote tray!

 Miss Brearley, Ben and I doing an activity on the first day. He was much better at it then i was!

My three school aged little men!

Mad scientists!!!

Santa bought the boys a science kit each. On the holidays we got to do quite a few cool experiments. We started with a geyser tube (the good old mentos in a bottle of diet soft drink)

 All of the crew was here fully kitted out int heir safety goggles!

 Ryan got to pull the chord....

 We ended up doing this one three times. Firstly with a bottle of lemonade, secondly with diet coke and thirdly with a 600ml diet coke. This one was by far the biggest. It was about level with the roof! One of them we did on a windy day and it sprayed every where!

 We then moved onto the deep sea underwater goo.....

 And then they grew crystals. I remember when i was a kid we had a smurf one and you grew the crystals on a tree!

 We then moved our scientists onto the museum.

 And finally, I took 6 kids to the CSIRO discovery centre by myself!

 We watched stack of 3D movies...

 on all sorts of different topics!

 Then they all got to have a look at an assortment of things through the microscopes

 The kids loved how they could put on a white coat!

 This is the crystal growey things a few weeks after they made them. Awesome hey!!!