I worked so the kids went to their grandparents. I took Alex to karate in the evening. This time Alex copied some words. He was given a stamp – I’m not keen on this new initiative though. Alex has since commented on not receiving stamps because he ‘failed’.
On a terrible weather day we decided to check out a new play centre that has opened up nearby. The kids had fun, got to burn off some energy! I went down the slide with Daniel as he’s not keen on going solo just yet – they are very tall! But he’s starting to go off exploring with a friend now, knowing that I’m close by. On the way out, Alex was showing Daniel ‘6’ on his fingers, it was very cute, but I’m not sure of the context! We ran some errands in preparation for camp and went home and packed.
We headed to IMAX in the city to watch the dinosaur feature. It was quite scary, and Alex really enjoyed it. He was sad that the pachyrhinosaurus that we were following might die. I had to remind him a few times to stop talking throughout – he just has so many questions! Daniel didn’t want to wear the glasses so I’m sure it seemed less scary to him!
We headed to camp. 
The kids were excited to be staying in a cabin with their friends. We headed out for a walk and saw lots of kangaroos, lots of water as it had been raining so much, and a dead rabbit. Daniel was quite upset by the rabbit and mentioned it many times later. The kids played their iPads (minecraft), made dance videos, and generally went crazy in the cabin! They played lots of games, including one that they made up where they took all the dice from all their games (5 in total I think) and rolled them all and added their totals and compared to see who got the most. Camp was lots of fun, Alex LOVED it. The first day we headed on a bush walk. Daniel was asleep on my back for much of it! He had had a hard morning 🙁 On the walk we were shown bush foods that we tried, and a kangaroo skeleton! 
We managed to locate the skull to Alex’s delight! The kids were told dreamtime stories, and played games. Alex adores a new game called ‘fire in the forest’ which is a bit like ‘octopus’ that he has played with other kids when we’ve camped. We did an observation task, looking in the bush quietly for things that don’t belong. There was an obstacle course too. The last task was to line up blindfolded and follow a sound, then use touch to follow a rope path. They were all in full concentration mode, and very quiet! 
The kids made a fire from scratch, collecting wood then ‘rubbing sticks’. Alex had really been looking forward to this and out of his group he stayed the course and persisted. The kids went off on a trek with the leaders of the camp to see a shelter, and I stayed back and learned how to make rope. We also cooked damper in the camp fire, which Daniel loved doing. When the kids came back they cooked damper too and made string. They painted their faces with charcoal and went wild!
We did have 2 injuries, one for each child! Daniel caught his finger in a door only minutes before the start of our first day (his nail has since dropped off!!) and Alex got dirt in his eye. He was quite scared and upset by it all, and I tried to get him to make his eyes water and stop rubbing them. he opened one eye after about 10 minutes and saw Daniel. He touched Daniel’s face and cried “I can see you!” and they hugged. It was quite a beautiful moment, though a little dramatic!
After a busy week, we spent most of the weekend recovering! We attempted a park trip and a visit to a birds of prey demonstration. But we were all too grumpy and tired. Poor kids were constipated too. At home Alex asked for an eagle app (he has tried lots of animal sims). It cost $2.99, Alex thought it was $299 until i showed him the decimal. He said he’d have it for pocket money, which meant I owed him $2.01 (pocket money is $5). I was surprised as I have never had to explain cents and dollars to him, or subtraction for that matter! Anyway, it turned out that the eagle game was not a sim, but a collection of photos. he changed his mind about it and we found a simulator (free too!). I strewed a game called ‘soccer physics’. It wasn’t what I’d expected, but Alex loved it! Daniel and I built train tracks, played kitchen, doctors, and playdough.