Ben's robot

Ben drew a picture of a robot a few weeks ago at preschool. 

Previously he would draw people as a head with 2 legs. He stuck with that technique for a long time without adding much extra detail. We didn't encourage detail, as I was interested to see how he would develop it himself.

This is a picture of our family that he drew a few months ago.

Earlier this month he came home from

Preschool with a picture of a robot. Interestingly his robot has many more details than his people!

He also wrote his name in mirror image in the corner. He does this every so often, but usually writes his name the right was around.

It's fascinating to watch their drawing progress.

Ethan's self portrait

Ethan drew this self portrait at preschool last week. They say he studied himself in the mirror and was very careful to draw it as he saw himself. He also noted "I have flat hair" and drew his hair flat!

This drawing is a massive change from his art a few months ago. He's a bit of a perfectionist and would avoid art as he couldn't draw, therefore wouldn't try. It's great to see him trying :)

Ben's omelet

Today Ben requested an omelet for lunch. He wanted potato onion and cheese. He chose a very big potato, and onion!

It took 3 eggs to make it, and wa made on our large frying pan. It was so big it didn't fit on a dinner plate! So we served it on a platter. 

Ben was very happy about his lunch.

He must have been very hungry, as he ate most of it!

Plane toy.

Bens playing with his toy plane, flying it around the room in his hand

"We are coming into landing soon, please turn off your iPhones"

Funny boy!

Trophy winner!

Ben won the soccer trophy this week!

He is very happy about it and did a great job this week!

Soccer champ!

Ethan won the encouragement award this week at soccer. (Each kid in the team gets a turn to win the trophy each week)

Ethan was very happy to win this week

Ben and Ethan are 5yrs old!!!!

Happy birthday to Ben and Ethan!!! 5 years old!!
Where has the time gone?!

Their actual birthday (Friday 3rd May) was spent at preschool. They got up early and exchanged presents they had bought each other. Ethan bought Ben a snakes and ladders game and some Lego. Ben bought Ethan a fireman Sam fire extinguisher (that squirts water) and a book. We took them shopping separately to buy gifts for each other last week.
They spent the day at preschool and ate the cakes we made for them at preschool.

When they came home we gave them presents from us (as Sal had to work at 7am we didn't do it in the morning) and had a special dinner of their choice. Ethan chose hamburgers, Ben chose mashed potato and corn and meatballs. We had a mixture of that! Aunty Shell came over on Friday evening to celebrate with us and help with party prep for Saturdays party.

We gave Ben and Ethan a few small presents, including a t-shirt, pencil box, wii game and foosball (table top football). Their main present was a day at the zoo a few weeks ago.


On Saturday we had their party. They invited 9 friends from preschool, twin friends and swimming lessons. We had fantastic weather and a great party. We had the jumping castle, played pass the parcel, musical chairs and stick the balloon on the right spot (variation of pin the tail on the donkey).
We ate fruit kebabs, chips, popcorn, yoghurt, jelly, finger sandwiches (and wraps for adults) mini pizza, mini quiches, mini chicken sausage rolls and of course cake! We made most of the food ourselves and enjoyed a party with reasonably healthy food options :)
The boys had a wonderful time and received many wonderful presents. It was a massive amount of work for us, but fun was had by all :)

Ethan chose a banana flavoured Fireman Sam cake and Ben chose a chocolate Spider-Man cake. They were both happy with the end result. My lovely friend Caroline works as a cake decorator and printed the picture for Ethan's cake on edible fondant. Apart from that picture, the rest of the party was done with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives - something that we still try to achieve within our daily life :)

Karate kid

Ben and Ethan went to their friend's (Matthew) karate party yesterday.
They had a great time.
Ethan got this headband that he loves!



Today I told him to get dressed. This is what I got!



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Ben's Allergies

Today we took Ben to a Doctor who specializes in allergies.
Over the past few months we have noticed Ben has developed hives after eating salmon. He has had salmon many times in his life, but only the last 3 times he has had a reaction, each exposure the hives have gotten worse.

The doctor took a history then the nurse did some skin prick testing.

Each allergen goes in a box, they scratch the skin and see the size of the reaction.
Box #1 is the positive control (which was 4mm)
Boxes 2-3 are dust mites and as they have big reactions he is allergic to dust mites
Box 10 is salmon. Also a big reaction, so he is defiantly allergic to salmon.

The doctor said that as he had a decent sized reaction, combined with his history of worsening symptoms on each exposure he must now have an epipen (adrenaline injection for anaphylactic reaction).

The doctor says that he doubts he will ever need the epipen, but best to be safe than sorry.

Ben swimming

Ben is getting much better at his "big arms" swimming :)

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Sydney Harbour and Taronga Zoo

This week we FINALLY got our upstairs floorboards sanded and polished. We've been planning to get it done for over 2years!
We had to move out for 2 nights to avoid the dust and smell. We took the opportunity to have a couple of nights in sydney and a day out with the boys. We decided that this day would be their birthday present, as they don't need any more toys, a day out is best!

We took the train from the hotel to circular quay, then a ferry across the harbour to the zoo. It was a beautiful day.
We spent about about 4-5 hours at the zoo and had a great time! We let the boys buy a souvenir as part of their present. Ben chose a stuffed toy monkey. Ethan chose a plastic tiger that's mouth opens. They each like their new toys.

For dinner we went to Pancakes on the Rocks (pancake restaurant). The boys were amazed we let them eat pancakes for dinner. It was a great treat.

After dinner they were hyped on sugar so we went for a walk down by the water to run off some energy. We saw the large cruise ship leaving, and they loved watching them untie all the ropes and the tug boat pull the big ship out of the dock. They don't get out much after dark, and loved all the city lights at night!

It was a fantastic day!!