Author: cafedave

We’ve been away on a road-trip for a couple of weeks, so Dad is only just catching up with the blog now. Lots of photos.

In addition to the last week of school, where Puff had a haircut (with obligatory free lollipop).

Dad and Puff went out for breakfast and to play draughts, having left the chess pieces in the car.

Dad and Huff went to watch the Dora movie together.

By then it was time for a day at home, a lot of packing, and then to head off on our road trip.

Dad had some work places to visit, and we had some family downtime as well. It was by all accounts a great holiday.

We took some photos in the car pulling faces:

We went to the Dolphin Marine Conservation park (formerly known as the pet porpoise pool). Huff was calling it a “water zoo”.

We had a lot of meals together, including a lot of milkshakes and hot chocolates on break.

Puff, who noticed the birds at Dubbo zoo (or “land zoo”) almost as much as the animals, was excited to see this bird show:

The kids played monopoly a bit, and read every chance they could (and we listened to the audiobook version of the first three Harry Potter books at some point of over 2000kms of driving, from Sydney to South West Rocks, Nambucca Heads, Emerald Beach, Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Yamba, Bellingen, Armidale, Manilla, Narrabri, Dubbo, Blackheath, Katoomba and home).

We had a great time at Dubbo Zoo, where we took more photos of the animals than of the kids!

And at the Coffs Harbour butterfly sanctuary with its dinosaur show.

The kids loved going to the beach and being in and near the water, even if sometimes it was on a pirate ship.

We discovered rock finding and hiding:

We enjoyed being away.

And on the way home we stopped so Huff and Puff could tell Grandma (and Doc) all about it.

It was encouraging to see the kids telling stories of their adventures once they were back at school, even as it’s sad to see them back into the regular grind.

It’s been a week of creativity, illness and fun. Huff had a chance to use up a lot of her aunt’s stickers.

Puff had a chance to work on some assignments.

Huff and Puff had a chance to do some indoor camping.

With Puff out of action and feeling a bit sick, Dad and Huff had a chance to have breakfast together before church. It was good to catch up with her, and check in to see what’s happening in her world.

Dad has been roaming around spending time with his side of the family: it’s been good to try and be better connected.

Another week of school. Lots of family and friends chipped in, and Puff has a LEGO robot to learn on. He’s been very excited to play with it, and has already burned through a set of batteries.

Huff returned from school camp having had a great time, and then promptly fell asleep on the way home from school, when Mum paused to buy a barbecue chicken from a local shop.

Over the weekend we had the cousins stay with us. There was a picnic lunch in the backyard.

Puff and Dad headed to the concert together, pausing to grab a quick breakfast on the way.

On Sunday, Puff had a school band concert at UNSW. Here’s Huff at the concert, waiting patiently for Puff’s school.

After the concert, we went for ramen and gelato.

With the end of the weekend it was time to take the cousins home. Dad and Puff went down on a public transport adventure to meet them.

Another week with a mix of birthday celebrations for Puff and other adventures.

Huff was making some tasty desserts, and was then upset at losing them, and so we took some photos of her with the desserts.

Saturday Dad was sick, and so had to stay home away from Puff’s climbing-based birthday party.

Here are the kids prepping party bags, complete with Minecraft Nyan-cat pictures on them.

Sunday, Dad was finally feeling better again. Huff was super-keen to play LEGO with Dad so we did some different imaginary characters.

We also went out for a late lunch. Dad was excited to be able to eat food again. Puff managed to finish his whole bowl of ramen, which was very impressive.

Mum and Huff getting ready for Huff to go on school camp.

Huff was in good spirits heading to school for her overnight camp – she was up super early, keen to detail everything she had packed, forgetting her pillow and then remembering it at the last moment with some prompting, and – this time having worked out in advance with whom she would be sitting on the bus – looking forward to the whole thing.

We’re expecting her home tomorrow.

While Huff was away, Mum and Dad went to play mini golf with Puff and his boys group, but Puff played in a separate team, so we didn’t see much of him on the night.

Puff’s birthday celebrations continue, with gifts being given, and various friends getting together – we have one more gathering planned for this weekend!

Dad managed a brief chance to go for a walk with Huff, who loved it.

Here’s Huff’s book week costume; Alex from the Land of Stories. She brought the book along so people would know what book she was from…

… and then spent 20 minutes reading while waiting for the parade to start!

On the weekend Dad was the taxi driver for Puff’s friend to get to a common friend’s birthday party, and then we had the cousins over for dinner.

Father’s Day was on Sunday and the kids gave Dad some cards and gifts, we went out for lunch (the kids read their books), and then spent some time with Grandma and Doc and the aunts and uncles.

It was time for us to pick the timber for the 3d chessboard he’s been wanting to make since last birthday.

Our friend with a drop-saw was very generous with his time and supervision of Puff.

The finished product was very impressive. If harder to play chess on than a flat board.

Huff keeps improving in her swimming, building up confidence.

And Huff and her friend gave an impromptu duet with a recorder song they’d both just learned – it was impressive!

Burying the lede: Puff turned eleven this week! We’re very proud of the young man he’s growing in to.

Another quiet week, photograph-wise. Back from our weekend in Canberra, Dad was busy wrapping up a uni assignment, and so Mum took the kids to Costco for a bit of an outing.

Saturday morning, Dad picked up the first of the Harry Potter books for Puff. He responded by spending his cousin’s birthday party on the picnic blankets reading.

Once he finally finished the book, he was up for some exercise so he and Dad did a quick 500m non-stop run, the first step in some increased interest he’s shown in being more fit – not enough to be an athlete, but to be more fit than he currently is..

Sunday afternoon we visited Grandma and Doc, and Huff was given this scottie dog badge, which is something of an heirloom.

And in the next week, Puff will turn 11! 

We managed a little bit of family time one afternoon after school, taking the kids to a playground. They’re officially big enough to play on the swings by themselves. They might not quite have the direction figured out.

Open Day was this week. Here’s Puff thinking about an in-class activity.

This is probably the last year that he will fit into his nearly three year old Angry Bird costume.

On the weekend we visited friends in Canberra. Puff was reading our friend’s Pokemon book; hundreds of pages of information.

Mum and the kids went to the LEGO Brick Expo.

They even met a couple of famous LEGO people. 

 This photo was shared with a lot of their respective school friends, who were very excited.

Missed from last week’s collection: huff waving for this quick update photo for Mum to prove the school pickup.

After visiting a relative, and being well behaved, the kids were given free donuts, which was they were pretty excited about.

Knowing that Dad would be in uni class all weekend, on Friday night we went out for dinner as a family, and had a chance to catch up.

Huff was in her usual form.

Oh, and Dad managed to get the kids to the library for some fresh reading material. Once they have books, the car is pretty quiet.

Other highlights (no photos) were having people over for dinner, and Mum doing some impromptu computer repairs, which resulted in treats for the kids.

Every now and then, thinking through the blog, I realise there are generally more photos of Huff than of Puff. This week, an attempt to even this out.

One morning this week, Dad had to take Puff to an appointment before school (Huff also had an appointment for her sore ankle, but nothing quite lined up). We grabbed a quick snack on the way to school.

Sunday was a music rehearsal from 2pm-6pm, so Dad and Puff had a quick post-church lunch together.

We (well, Dad) were showing the kids excerpts from some of the Marvel movies; they were really enjoying some of the catch-phrases (especially one about lightning, and one about “help me”, where Loki is thrown by Thor).

Puff was pretty excited about his concert. Mum managed to spend much of the day helping wrangle school kids as a parent-helper.

And we were able to bring Grandma to the concert in time for pre-show dinner together (Mum took this photo).

Our seats this year were pretty close to the stage.

Oh, and one new milestone for Huff: she stayed awake all the way to the end of the concert – a first for her!