Author: cafedave

Another big week; it was Dad’s birthday and graduation this week, so more photos of Dad than usual.

After swimming, we went to a cafe for breakfast; it was a beautiful day, and we had a tasty meal.

The kids enjoyed their food too; Huff was excited to share a box she had made and decorated for Dad (which he used to store the Minties Puff gave him).

It was a happy morning.

Dad, determined to get a morning walk in, took the kids for a brisk, somewhat hilly 2.5km walk.

Huff received her year 6 jersey this week; perhaps we’ll put up a photo at some point when her school name is less relevant.

Then on Friday we had Dad’s graduation. Huff wore a brooch from her cousin’s wedding.

There was lots of smiling (Puff is still adjusting to regular smiling with his complex tooth-braces situation going on).

Masks were on and it was time to head in for the ceremony. The kids were impressed with the chairs in the auditorium as they have built-in mini-desks!

After the ceremony it was time for some more photos in front of the giant logo.

Is this the first photo on the blog of just Mum and Dad?

After graduation we drove down to Canberra.

Puff had lots of school work to keep on with, while Huff had a great time watching the sunset.

We stayed with a friend overnight, and had a great time catching up with them – our first trip to the ACT post-lockdown.

We stopped briefly on the way home for fancy coffee at a place called the Cupping Room.

On Sunday Dad was teaching Sunday School at church with Huff’s as a part of the class.

Back to school for our first full school week, and in the shadow of a teachers’ strike tomorrow: the kids’ first one.

Dad picked up Huff from school and stopped for hot chocolate when it emerged that she would be walking home with a grazed knee.

Puff’s glasses arrived, so he’s been spending the week getting used to them: they’re for close-up work.

Dad is teaching Sunday School this month: it was a slow start so far with only three kids including Huff! We visited cousin A and V at their place after church. 

And that’s about it: lots of time at home, Huff still feeling the weight of bronchitis a bit so we’re trying to get a second opinion on that. And despite the teachers’ strike, Huff and Puff still have to get up early for swimming lessons.

Two weeks of holidays, stretched out with two long weekends and a bonus pupil free day; back to school tomorrow. 

Here’s the back of the car when we were about to head to Katoomba for Easter Convention. We even managed to bring pineapple along, as we were staying in a pet-friendly place. Huff has ginger beer for long car trips to settle her stomach.

Dad and Huff walked up to Leura from Katoomba together; there wasn’t much complaining, so Dad was a bit heavy-handed with the reward desserts.

The next day, to meet up with an old workmate, Dad and Puff walked over to scenic world, pausing to grab a bubble tea from a local Katoomba store.

Puff had a bit of homework to do; Pineapple was glad to be out of his cage.

Puff and Huff had a great time in the kids program at Katoomba Easter Convention.

After the weekend we went to the REFRESH conference at Stawell Tops that Dad’s work was running.

Puff was on the AV desk for the open mic night, and did a great job managing the desk for the various acts.

When back in Sydney we went out for a cafe breakfast. Mum and Huff shared Mum’s poncho.

Dad and Puff didn’t think to bring jumpers.

Sunday, Dad and Huff had some father-daughter time. We went for ramen.

Then we went for gelato.

Dad, a soft touch, agreed for Huff to buy fairy floss from a vending machine that spins fairy floss. She was impressed.

And the macarons had a lot of food colouring.

On Anzac Day, Dad and Puff went to watch the dawn service together (though there was a mix-up with the start times). 

And Huff and Dad went to watch a movie in the final embers of the holidays.

Overall, it was good to spend some extra time together as a family.

School holidays are back again! Is life really returning to some kind of normal? Mostly, it seems. Even as more than one friend at any given time is covid positive, people are isolating for a week at a time, for the most part not too sick (with some exceptions) and then returning to society again.

We even felt confident enough to head to Costco when invited.

Huff celebrated the end of term by getting her hair cut shorter than it’s been in a long while.

And on Friday night we had a youth group night where parents and youth could share ideas on what they would like to see happen with youth group.

We visited the cousins on the weekend, and Dad managed to take the kids to see Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Oh, and the kids spent some time going out for a walk with some friends.

All in all, an encouraging start to the holidays.

Site note: Slightly different layout because the old WP theme seems to be too old for the current hosting environment now!

This was the week of the selective schools test; Huff and Dad spent some more time revising answers, and then after it was over, Dad took Huff out for some celebratory churros. Now, the waiting game.

Puff made it through all his assessment tasks and is celebrating now by working out how to turn a Raspberry Pi into a portable gaming console. Lots of lessons to learn through this project.

Huff also had the chance to participate in the school Anzac Day programme.

Puff was back into using his 3D printer to make some sort of video game artefact.

And Dad spent most of the weekend with the kids helping them tidy their rooms to various degrees. The results were good, but the kids were a bit unsure of that as a restorative weekend project.

Another week has cruised by. We are getting closer to the selective schools test for Huff; Puff has a couple of exams this week too, so there has been more study than usual. The kids are getting older and taller and more confident in themselves.

Saturday ended up being mostly a home day. Sunday Dad and the kids took a train ride to meet up with Mum, and did some studying on the train. Puff was doing maths.

Huff was doing some revision with Dad, and taking breaks to look out the train window and take some pictures.

The kids were reminiscing about things they had seen before; Huff was very excited to see something that years before we had called the “cloud factory” in the distance, and stopped to take a photo of it.

We saw some family members for a bit, but mostly this week has been a time for listening to the kids and trying to help them learn, and trust their instincts in studying and answering questions.

in the drives to school Puff has also been sharing some of his musical tastes with Dad; lots of electronic music.

This was the week the Puff did his first practice hike for bronze DoE. So he went from laptop on the weekend, to packing a hiking pack.

To this. Early start at Cronulla Wharf, and they walked from Bundeena Wharf to wedding cake rock to deer pool to marley beach to bonnie vale campground, and then the next day they went from the campsite to Myanmar, the red jack point trail, and then back on the ferry for a total of 34km of walking.

Huff, instead, went for breakfast with Mum and Dad.

And then, home safe again, Puff and Huff had dinner by candlelight due two a planned power outage (hence this post being a day late).

Mum and Dad are proud of Puff for toughing out the whole hike. Well done!

Bird ownership is an increasingly prominent part of family life, with pineapple coming into his own; this is his bedraggled post-spray-bath look, with Puff on hand to give him some millet as a treat. It’s been great to have a new creature in the house, as sceptical as Dad was (and as disruptive as the bird can be to the relative tranquility of a zoom soundscape).

Puff continues to count down to a Duke of Ed hike, to press on with maths and other assessment tasks, and to dream up increasingly complex computer games, that he’s starting to code.

Huff on the other hand spent most of the week feeling sick. A trip to the doctor (and a few negative RAT results and a negative PCR result) showed it’s just been bronchitis. She is finally starting to bounce again, but had a very quiet week trying to get well. Mum made some chocolate mousse for her to cheer her up, which seemed to work quite effectively.

For her, the global pandemic disruption has been a larger proportion of her whole life, so it’s been a bigger adjustment for her to deal with being sick.

Another week; lots of rain, and flooding in different parts of NSW (mercifully not immediately near us), so more car rides to school with Puff.

A busy weekend this week; Huff and Mum headed down to visit Aunty C, who braided Huff’s hair very elaborately.

Puff, on the other hand, broke out the 3D printer to make a duck beak mask, learning some more printing techniques in the process.

The cousins came to visit, and Dad cooked dinner!

Puff, five hours of printing later, was excited to have the printing completed – success!

The girls were excited to be sleeping in a tent in the lounge room. Having younger kids around was a trip down memory lane, breaking out the old picture book bibles instead of the current audio bible.

And Mum cooked pancakes for breakfast in the morning!

A successful visit all told.

Puff had his first go (solo) of running one of the computers during morning service. It’s good to see him serving in his church like that. And the three girls enjoyed their time at Sunday School.

We even caught up with another old friend for dinner, and had a Friday night pizza dinner with friends too. A very sociable week!