puff and huff

Another week – celebrating Doc’s 80th party, and heading into another winter.

The oodies are back!

Huff had to wear red for athletics carnival, so found this wig at a party shop.

The wig was then paired with a matching skirt, and off she goes!

And then, at the end of the week, we had a birthday party for Doc. Huff had a great time with her baby cousins.

Puff has been spending more time working on maths homework, aiming for a solid 2 hours each day as he heads toward an exam. He’s had an impressive run thus far, continuing to work hard on it, and starting to feel some of the resulting confidence. He’s still logging some impressive results on some video games as well.

Oh, and Huff and Dad watched another Movie on the weekend with a friend.

On to next week!

And we are back; I’d convinced myself that I had written another post since the last one. 

A few things to catch up with. Somehow Dad and Huff were twinning. Dad is a bit sad about how much taller she is getting.

And of course this was Mother’s Day – we had brunch together at a favourite haunt.

Huff is loving this Hogwarts jumper; here she is helping take the dog for a walk.

Puff is also enjoying feeding the dog the occasional sample of peanut butter, the latter’s favourite snack.

Huff is still slowly getting healthier again post-COVID but has had some days where she hasn’t felt too well.

We also managed a trip down to Wollongong and caught up with the cousins; Puff was happy to be getting bubble tea with his cousin.

And then later in the three weeks we had another trip to a more floral looking bubble tea place. See if you can spot the concealed child.

And then this weekend our friend Tom was running a painting workshop, so we all went as a family to learn how to paint on canvas. Much fun.

See you next week!

It’s been a tricky, though dull, two weeks – Mum spent almost the whole time testing positive for covid and so isolating, and Huff spent about 9 days in the same situation.

They’re out of isolation now, but we are still getting used to a slightly higher level of engagement with the world.

Dad was doing a lot more cooking that usual, and hopefully Mum will be feeling better again soon.

Thanks to Anzac Day, this whole fortnight has been another set of school holidays. When we last reported, we were at Easter convention and Puff was getting more familiar with Puff, and how to interact with him.

We managed a trip to the Illawarra to visit the cousins again.

Dad still managed in a busy season to take Huff for a movie.

After the movie Huff was keen to pick up some more of her current series of books: the “keeper of lost cities” series soaked up a lot of time over the holidays.

We went a few times to the shops to get additional books.

We spent a few days at a conference for families in ministry, and then Dad and Puff helped one of Dad’s friends with some moving. It was a late night, but good to have a chance to talk together.

And now, in the final moments of the school holidays, there’s another dose of the spicy cough in our house (Mum and Huff);j Dad is doing a bit more cooking to help keep the house ticking over.

Sadly, with the household illnesses, it was only Dad at the Anzac service this year, but hopefully we’ll be in better health this time next year.

Huff was keen to go back to the arcade that Dad had showed her on a previous outing, so we managed to fit that in on a rainy evening.

This fortnight spans the final week of term and the Easter weekend, heading into school holidays.

Major visual change for Huff this fortnight. Noticing that her school was doing a hair-shaving-related fundraiser, Huff decided to get involved, and raised over $1000 for kids who are coping with blood cancer. An amazing effort, and a very different silhouette for Huff.

We spent the Easter weekend at Katoomba again staying with friends and attending the easter convention that runs there each year. This was a bit of a logistical effort, Mum opting to watch the livestream from the place we stayed, and so Dad dropping kids and catching shuttle buses with them. It was worthwhile to keep connecting the kids to different age-appropriate faith activities.

Puff enjoyed it, despite a lot of queueing.

And we managed to get to our favourite Blue Mountains orchard again for some hot apple juice.

Huff was always glad when we returned to pick her up. She had misjudged her ability to stay balanced on a wall while waiting for us to return, and then due to some mis-hearings, we were telling some unfortunate Humpty Dumpty type jokes.

But on balance, it was a good time away, with Pippin in particular enjoying some time walking with Dad.

Another fortnight in term and the days blur together. Too much time on screens and the challenge of spending time together amidst work and homework.

We visited the cousins for an early birthday visit, and to check out their sporting prowess.

We visited an IKEA together after church.

Dad and huff went to watch a movie together.

Lots happening this past fortnight. Huff had her first high school camp – year 7; she had been unwell the week before, but seemed to have healed up okay. She made it most of the way through the camp, but is having some challenges breathing from time to time, so we needed to pull the pin a bit early.

The next weekend we were travelling down to Canberra to see a friend for her 50th birthday, so we left Pippin with one family, and Pineapple with Doc.

We stayed in a place with a really long corridor.

After the party, we visited a friend’s church. Their son adopted Huff as his big sister.

We also visited the Canberra version of a Harry Potter store. Huff tried on this hat.

And also this hat.

They had a flying car that you could climb in and drive.

Puff, meanwhile, had lots of homework to get through.

It was great to catch up with different people, and yet, it’s also good to be home again.

It’s been an odd couple of weeks. Huff has been sick on and off for most of it. We catch her here in a rare well-rested moment, excited about going to see a marvel movie with Dad.

Here we are; not too far away, plenty of provisions for the movie. Hard to tell if Huff likes movies because Dad likes them, or if there is something to the focus of going to the cinema that she enjoys too.

While Puff was at church learning about what membership might look like, Huff was back to feeling unwell again but toughed it out while Mum and Dad had lunch together with the dog.

It seems that there are still a few places left in sydney where it’s possible to read on a bean-bag chair, but still have to wear a mask.

Oh, and Puff is learning how to do the sound at church too; it’s encouraging to see him finding different ways to contribute.

That’s all we have photos for; there were some chances to hang out with the various baby nieces for birthday awareness day, and we had a couple of meals with church families, which was nice. Yet again, Dad has been out at meetings or on zoom a fair bit, so there just aren’t that many photos.

The kids continue to grow up and have different experiences. Our backyard fence has now been returned to useful service, after the builders next door, who had damaged it badly, opted to pay for a replacement. The dog is much happier being able to roam the backyard freely again.

Puff continues to grow in stature – here he is having a glass of milk in the morning.

We have had some amazing weather for taking the dog for a walk in the nearby park.

Huff took her phone to a youth group activity, and managed to leave it behind in a friend’s car, which made for some anxious moments until it was returned to us!

And we reorganised the lounge room a bit, so that Puff may now have to share the couch he had previously claimed as his own.

See you next week!

After putting off the experience for a long while, Dad and Puff went to the movies to watch Avatar 2 on a school night; both enjoyed it, and Puff donning the 3D glasses for the first time since Flight of the Butterfly five hundred weeks ago with a bit of trepidation.  

Saturday we went out for breakfast on our way to a birthday surprise trip for Huff. Here’s Puff, patiently waiting to start his French Toast.

We certainly picked a good space for Huff; a Harry Potter themed store, where we spend a long while looking at all the different merchandise that was on offer.

We tried the non-alcoholic “butterbeer”.

And then after a family yum cha lunch on Sunday that no-one took photos of, Huff was suddenly twelve. Mum visited a party shop this week (much better choices than a late-night run to Big W or Kmart) and so we had this amazing candle thing that spun around in a circle and played a weak electronic “happy birthday”.

And there was confetti.

This was the second confetti cannon of the day, and just as surprising as the first one.