Ryan loves boobies

At dinner time Matthew was giving Ryan the ultimate in insults for when you are 3 and 4. Apparently Matthew and Ben like boys and Ryan likes girls. Ryan was incensed. He does not like girls he likes boobies. Nathan and I looked at each other and pissed ourselves laughing because we could see Ryan in 15 years time drunk as a skunk slurring "I like boobies!"

War Memorial

So after we saw the Olympic torch relay we took the boys to the war memorial. (3 hours was all I could get from the workaholic for school holiday activities!) The boys love the war memorial. Our first port of call was Teddy Sheean's painting. Teddy Sheean is my Great Uncle. He was killed when the ship he was serving on, the HMAS Armidale, was shot at and sunk by the Japanese. When the ship came under fire he strapped himself into his post and fired upon the enemy. He shot sown two aircraft and was still firing his gun after the ship was sunk. He is a true war hero. He was had the honour of a submarine names after him. He should have the honour of a VC. But as he was an able seaman and not an officer it is very hard to have that honour bestowed on him. But that is another blog entry all together and a project i intend to take up the fight for.

SO! We got a photo of the boys in front of the painting and then went on to explore the discovery centre. Check out the photos. And i have a feeling that Ryan really has a military career in his future!

Busy! Busy!

We have had a really busy week. It's time to catch up!
Thursday we went to watch the Olympic Torch relay. The boys were so excited. As Matthew told me "he has never seen that before!" And seeing as the boys are going to miss out on seeing Uncle Brenty in Beijing we thought it would be great to see the torch.
I was quite nervous taking them as i didn't want to get caught up in violent protest with three small children but it was really important to us that we saw it. And I really was quite prepared to argue with anyone who wanted to take away from the occasion. The Olympics are about excellence in sport which has nothing to do with politics. And whilst i am so very sympathetic to the Tibetan peoples plight and firmly believe that China should never have been allowed to host the games. I believe there is a right and wrong way of protesting. I would prefer protesters to protest (peacefully) at the International Olympic Committee. However, I supported Senator Bob Brown's "Free Tibet" skywriting . THAT was appropriate if a protest was to take place. BUT I digress!
So we got up early and met Nath in at his work then we walked down to Kings Avenue to wait. Somehow we ended up inside the barricade and for a while we thought we would be allowed to stay. We had already nominated Nathan as the person to tackle anyone attempting to tackle the flame! But eventually the police arrived and ushered us to the "right" side of the barricades. So in the end we got to see a peaceful relay. Thanks largely to the hot police men running in front of the torch. Trust me they received as bigger cheer as the torch bearers (mostly females cheering, incidentally!) Louise Savage carried the torch ( She had to push her chair up hill, one handed! As she didn't have a torch holder as she did in Sydney) Anyhow, the boys were thrilled and we caught the Olympic spirit! Go! Go! Go! Uncle Brenty!!!
Oh and back to the protest for just one minute (maybe the title should be Protesting the protest!) I found the Chinese supporters bussed in from everywhere to be quite aggressive and somewhat bizarre. They where carrying signs saying "Welcome to Beijing!" Last I checked we were in Canberra!

Biker Benny

Benny also loves to ride his bike.

Big and Strong!

Benny looks so big and strong. And loves to tell you that!

(The spelling mistake in the title of the video is all due to the editor! He has since been let go.)

Balloon Spectacular

WOW!! This morning we rose early to go and see the annual balloon spectacular. It was so worth it, even when it was 2 degrees and Ben and I were sick. There must have been about 50 balloons. We were there in time to see the first balloon blown up and we stayed until the last balloon took off. Questacon was giving tethered balloon rides but we couldn't talk the boys into getting in. (The flames were to scary and noisy, so maybe next year) We got some great pictures. And I'm sending Nathan off tomorrow morning to takes some from mount Ainslie. So should have so more good ones tomorrow.

Canberra Zoo and Aquarium

I took playgroup (and my children) to the zoo today. It was SO much fun. Ben loved to otters the best, Matthew loved the zoo map the best and Ryan well I'm not sure what he loved but I'm pretty sure he loved it. I think he gets overwhelmed by his thoughts. Actually, what I really think is he is like me. I like to go and read all the notes about the particular animal in the enclosure, observe it for a while, ponder the animal and if i like it's lifestyle before i decide if i like the animal. And i think Ryan is still pondering all of this. Or he could be thinking if he liked his lunch!! Oh! But it was so much fun. Those little faces where amazed by what they saw today and when you think about it so they should. I think the boys (well maybe Matt and Ryan) realised the things that they read about in their books can be real. We read Edward the Emu about an Emu in a zoo. Well they had two roaming a walk through enclosure today and Matt and Rye Rye recognised them as Edward and Edwina. We talked about the favourite animal at the zoo and recited the words from the book. The picture books we read on wild animals and the shows we watch on TV became real life today for the boys. And the looks on their faces was priceless.


So back to what the boys liked. Ben LOVED the otters. They were playing when we arrived. There are photos of him watching them further on down the page. Benny did not want to leave them. Many of the other animals he couldn't see. Like the Koala curled up in the tree and the red panda high in the trees and the cats asleep in long grass. But the ones that were moving he could see and he loved. He liked the aquarium with the brightly coloured fish. But what he loved best (after the otters) was being apart of the group of kids. He walked where they walked. He climbed on fences when the other kids did. He was one of the big kids and he loved that!


Matthew loved the map! He followed it and referred to it all day. Thank goodness it had pictures! And since we have been home he has been going over our entire day with the map. Daddy got the blow by blow account. "First we started at the cafe then we followed this path to the aquarium....." The whole spiel takes almost as long as we were there! As for a favourite animal i don't think he had one, well maybe the fairy penguins were a fav (Poppy will be thrilled the penglins got a mention!) I think his favourite part of the zoo was being able to recognise all the animals we were looking at. Although he did come tearing up to me to tell me he found (he found a lot of things that i thought were already discovered!) an owl which did turn out to be a tawny frog mouth but an easy mistake to make!


And Mummy's favourite was her exceptionally well behaved children. They were a joy and a pleasure to be with. When some of the group where naughty, my boys were angelic. I didn't have to grump to get down from the fence beside the lions cage or scold for trying to feed the tiger a biscuit. (I was totally convinced that i would have to rescue at least one child from an enclosure containing a scary animal).They were perfect. I have nothing to complain about and once again are proud of my little men. But enough bragging! Here are the photos! (I didn't take many as i was too busy watching and enjoying their reactions to remember to take photos)