Australia

G'day mates!  We had a beaut time studying Aussie for two weeks.   In fact, it's been requested that we take a vacation there someday.  Yah, we'd better start saving up!

It was fun to learn about the animals there that we don't see very often here, even in zoos.  We made koala bears out of peanut butter, powdered sugar and cocoa, adding chocolate chips for eyes, arms and legs.  The boys thought it was fun, and although their globs of peanut butter/sugar mixture might not have looked quite like koalas, they still tasted good.

Our koala bear treats in the making.  Mine, Gabriel's and Matthew's.

We rolled them in cocoa per the instructions, but I think they looked better without it. 

My kids already had some knowledge of Australia, whatever they picked up from watching Finding Nemo about a hundred times in the last few years.  They did recognize the Sidney Opera House, and it was fun to build a paper model of it.  "Laa-aaa-aaa-aaa," always sings in my head whenever I think of it.  Yes, I've also watched Finding Nemo one hundred times (or at least parts of it). 

We finished our study of the land down under with a dinner of Australian Meat Pie, Damper Bread, Grilled Sweet Potatoes (not really Australian, but I did cook them on the "barbie"), strawberries and kiwi (an Australian fruit), and finished dinner off with some Pavlova (for which according to Google there is an ongoing argument about whether it originated in New Zealand or Australia).  The meal was delicious and even Matthew said, "Everything is better than I expected."  It was nice to have a meal that no one complained about at all, from start to finish.  I think the fact that I made the dessert first might have had their attention elsewhere. 

The sweet potatoes on the "barbie".

We've found a new way to encourage Leah to try eating new things that she otherwise doesn't want to...with baby food.  We now sit Anna at the dinner table with us and feed her baby cereal mixed with fruit.  Leah loves it and wants to finish off what Anna doesn't eat.  "Eat your dinner until Anna's done and then you can have the rest."  And it works.  I'm not sure what we'll do when Anna finishes off the whole jar...I hadn't thought that far ahead when I started letting Leah have the leftovers.  In the meantime, Leah's eating a ton of veggies that she was starting to fight against eating before. 

Yummy...Pavlova

We also really enjoyed reading beautiful picture books about the Great Barrier Reef and we found a Netflix DVD about it as well.  Christopher was also excited that an episode of Curious George that they watched on PBS was about a coral reef too.  Perfect timing, right?

Next stop, Antarctica!