So while we were living it up in Canberra this past long weekend, I decided I would make my family doing something educational. We were in the capital of Australia after all, and there were so many chances before us to do something that would expand our minds! I know, I sound like sooo much fun. But when you homeschool your kids, you are always on the lookout to cram their brains full of good stuff.
Because I was raised by a mother who LOVES all thing historical, and passed that love onto her children, I really wanted to go to a little place called the Australian War Memorial. Except it's not little... it's HUGE... and fascinating. You could spend all day there. (You would have loved it mom).
Anyways, as you can probably imagine, when I insisted we go, there was a lot of resistance and some whining and complaining. But I was finally able to convince Wes this would be a good experience. So off we went! Hurray.
Everyone (but me) was expecting to be bored out of their minds, so when we arrived and the first thing we saw was this, the boys were pretty excited. About the tank of course, not the man suffering from a mid-life crisis straddling it.
"Take a picture of us with this HUGE gun! Take a picture, take a PICTURE!!!" Boys and guns... explain it to me please.
This is a small part of the war memorial... and those would be my three little boys running a muck by the water. And no, I don't know that couple off to the right cozying up for a picture... but I found the whole thing amusing... 'ah, the war memorial... such a romantic place...?'
This is part of two massive walls covered with the names of Australians who were killed in wars. When we told that to Reid and Jarom, their eyes just about bugged out of their heads... "Really? ALL these people died??? In wars??? So... so... wars are TRUE???" I think they've led too sheltered a life.
Inside the museum part of the war memorial, Conner-- who as we should all know by now, has a massive obsession with cars-- took one look at this, gasped and then shouted in excitement, "I want to hop onto THAT!" And then without a moment's hesitation, he jumped up onto the platform. And as soon as he did, a red light started flashing and there was a ringing noise. No, I am not exaggerating, and yes, it was embarrassing.
Fortunately there was an interactive area of the museum for kids, and they could climb over anything they wanted. Here's my three cutie pies sitting ever-so-peacefully on a helicopter. I think they half expected it to take off at any moment. Which would have been really tragic, considering a three year old girl was sitting at the controls at that time.
Next we walked through a little 'submarine'....
Lena: "I don't wanna sit on a bunk!"
Daddy: "Sure you do! It's fun!"
Lena: "But I don't wanna sit on a bunk!"
Daddy: "Sure you do... see it's fun!!!"
Lena: "But I don't WANT TO!!!"
Daddy: "But IT'S FUN!!!"
It could've gone on forever.
Then it was off to experience life in the trenches... I tried my hardest to explain to the boys how hard it would have been for soldiers to live in a trench... but for the ten to twenty minutes they played around in there, they seemed to think it was pretty awesome. 
Ummm... something tells me he is going to have a major crick in his neck when he wakes up. Creepy... I sometimes wonder what my kids think when they see the mannequins in places like this. They didn't look too pleased about it, and kept feeling the need to ask me, "those people aren't real... right???" I remember asking my mom the same thing when I was little too. And I bet my kids are thinking the same thing I did when I was small... when the museum is closed, those mannequins are SO going to come to life, and be stuck behind those glass walls, in dark corners, etc. ~Shudder~
"I'm a master mommy, I'm a master!!!" (They've been watching a lot of Kung Fu Panda lately).
What you can't tell from looking at the pictures, is that they had some war sounds going on in the background. Unfortunately as Lena was wandering around on her own, the 'enemy camp' started firing... kinda loudly... and poor Lena didn't know what to do, and starting running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, her eyes wide with fear and panic. This picture was taken just moments before the 'gunfire.' Ah... so innocent, so unaware...
Fortunately, her daddy rescued her. And as you can tell, he didn't find the whole thing amusing at all.Good times.
There was so much more to it than what I've shown you, but I'm far too lazy to post any more pictures... you'll just have to take my word for it. We had a good time.
The end.