puff and huff

A day late this week. The family is still recovering from having Mum’s birthday party over the weekend; we had a great time celebrating together. There was even face painting. Here’s Huff’s butterfly.

Puff, predictably, went for an angry bird, but it was a pretty great one!

Aunty C made an amazing cake.

And then the next day, Puff had a birthday party to go to. Dad and Puff went shopping for a birthday present; the party was soccer-themed, and so these panda masks jumped out (maybe from too many days playing Wii Soccer). 

Puff had a great time at the soccer party, and even saved a couple of goals, and scored a goal! Dad was very proud.

Not many photos this week – we came straight back from holidays and into the throes of busy regular life. 

Huff is increasingly a reader. Even when read to, she will incline her neck to see the words, and correct Dad’s deliberate (and accidental) errors when reading to her. Dad read her chapter one of Winnie the Pooh, and she was polite, but not massively engaged. Need to try a later chapter instead.

Puff is increasingly up early: not sure if it’s daylight-saving related. Some mornings when Dad goes for a walk, Puff wants to come along: sometimes we talk endlessly about video games, other times about what challenges are in his world.

On Saturday evening we were home doing household things and Mum produced the modelling clay kit she had bought some weeks before. 

Huff in particular had a great time making shapes and pencil toppers. Puff made some angry birds. Even dad made a couple of items.

We’ll try and remember to take some bonus photos next week.

Back from holidays! Lots of adventures, a great chance to spend time together and be disconnected from much of the distractions of life.

Here are the kids at church while Dad was away working over the weekend. In school holidays, they tend to sit in the service and doing some drawing or paper folding.

With Dad back from the long weekend, it was time to catch the train to the airport, and fly to Tasmania! The kids haven’t flown in quite a while, but they did well. If anything, economy-sized seats are a good size for kids.

Huff had some butterflies before flying, but ended up pretty excited about it all.

Once we arrived at Hobart airport, the kids were keen to explore and take pictures. Puff made a mistake fiddling with his camera and deleted most of the photos he’d taken on the trip.

Nonetheless, he was keen to capture what he could for the trip. The first thing I want to wean him off is the use of digital zoom, but having him keen to take photos is a good start.

On our first morning in the Tamar valley, we went for a short walk together and noticed the different birds and the beauty of the fog over the valley.

Later in the day, we went for another walk, this time around the dam at a cherry farm. It was good to see him more cheery and upbeat, and less distracted by screens.

Huff was enjoying having some other people to spend time with, and posing fora bunch of photos here and there. Here she is with her dessert at a raspberry farm.

We went to a hedge maze place called Tasmazia (great name for Dad-joke fans), and explored their mazes and other attractions. If you’re ever there, start with the biggest maze, and work your way down; the one we started with was probably the most difficult!

After the mazes, we went toward Cradle Mountain to explore a bit: we were there too late in the day to make a day-pass worthwhile, but we managed to see some wildlife anyway: our keen photographer saw an echidna and a few wombats!

Make sure you fill up with petrol when driving around in Tasmania at dusk.We were relieved to find a 24-hour kiosk in Sheffield, and made our way home.

The next day we went to a museum called QVMAG; and the kids were big fans of the stuffed animal collection, and the science activities.

Dad and Puff practiced our sleepy faces, to see if there was a family resemblance. There was.

It was really great to spend unhurried time with the kids: I think that was one of the best parts about the holiday.

Huff had a great time with Mum too.

We had a chance to tell jokes, and enjoy each others’ company. Dad read almost an entire book (the Green Ember) to the kids in the course of our travels.

After a few days near Launceston, we headed to Hobart for a couple of nights. Our first night we went out for dinner, despite the cold.

The kids were keen for room service, and it seemed wise to feed them before trying to go to Salamanca Markets, so we relented. It took them a long while to eat all the food!

The markets were great: there are over 300 stalls, and you can spend hours just looking at things.

Puff found a musical instrument called an ocarina, which you may recall from Nintendo games. He was quickly figuring out notes and how to play.

With all our shopping done, the kids could relax on the grass a little bit.

That afternoon, we drove up to the top of “cloud mountain” (Mount Wellington), and had a look out over Hobart.

Huff in particular was a fan of scrambling over rocks.

The kids spend most of the trip (almost all) getting along famously, which was a big help.

On the way back down, we stopped for a coffee, and a short family walk.

We went to a couple of different church services, caught up with old friends, and then managed roasted marshmallows on the deck for breakfast on our last day.

It was an excellent time.

We are on holidays! More details next week.

And just like that, we’re into the school holidays. We started off with a birthday party for a friend, where there were giant blueberries and we played in the park for a few hours. We are drifting ever closer to where the kids don’t want to be pushed on the swings anymore. How quickly did that happen?

Dad went for a morning walk with Huff on Sunday; she was in the mood for some climbing.

Huff had a cannoli, which took more than one go for her to finish.

Dad had a physio appointment, but because it was holidays, Puff came along too. Under duress, he started reading the magazine Dad recommended: about science, and with a cover story on mars landings. On reflection, he probably didn’t know that magazines have things that are interesting to read in them – he mostly reads books instead.

Today there were a few other health-related trips, so the kids had the chance to spend some extra time playing on screens.

It’s a balancing act in the holidays between physical activity and screens.

Another week has flown by: we’re nearly at the end of the third school term for the year, with the spectre of some holidays edging ever closer. Puff remains focused on getting a pet bird as a (belated) birthday present, and we’re trying to work out the best time to make that happen.

Puff is continuing on with his interest in origami, and has started teaching Dad, and Huff how to do such things. He’s still developing his skills as a teacher.

On Sunday we went to a farewell for some friends who were moving interstate. Puff and Huff were a bit oblivious, and just enjoyed some time playing in a park for the afternoon. Puff met some new/old friends and enjoyed spending time with them.

Huff also bonded with some new/old friends and enjoyed running around.

She’s increasingly getting too old to be pushed on the swings, but condescended to a few pushes. She still loves the swings.

After the farewell, Dad and Huff headed out for some father/daughter time. We had ice cream and cake, bounced on a bouncy castle (well, Huff did), ate ham and pineapple pizza: we did whatever she wanted to do, and it was great.

School this week had an all-day incursion (where the excursion comes to you) for the whole school, where they could learn about Aboriginal history and culture. the kids had their faces painted, and learned a lot.

Dad had two days off to try and restore the work/life balance a little after a busy season, and it was good to be able to sit down and watch some of the public speaking speeches (Puff came second), run some errands, and try to take the longer view.

It was a huge week for Puff – Opera House concert, school camp (overnight), and then on Friday, spelling bee.

Puff made it through to regional spelling bee. Here he is wearing one of the school blazers they keep for such occasions.

It was quite nerve-wracking watching him try and spell increasingly difficult words (he ended up in third place overall for his age group).

He was a good sport, even encouraging some of the other contestants on the way through. That was the thing Dad was most proud of him for.

Saturday we had a family fun day. First we went to the fire museum. Here’s Huff checking out some balancing logs before we headed to see what was there.

Both kids enjoyed the museum, albeit quickly, and we didn’t seem to have any nightmares afterward from overactive imaginations.

There was a large display of different fire-fighting gear, going back to the late 1800’s, and even some lost ancient technology.

After the fire museum we had a BBQ and played some aqua golf.

Puff enjoyed it: huff was struggling to find her right form, but worked out how to enjoy the game in the end.

See you next week!

We spent a quiet weekend as a family with a laid-back start to the weekend (the kids made their own breakfasts, which was impressive), then we headed to Enmore for BBQ and gelato. Puff was contemplative.

Huff, having survived several different odd eating adventures was starting to run out of patience with Dad testing out his camera.

Puff was pretty happy about the gelato.

Huff cheered up eventually.

The kids (well, Huff) picked out some lollypops from a health food shop, and were pretty disappointed with the flavours. Life lesson learned – not everything that looks like a lollypop is delicious.

And Puff had his second Opera House concert tonight (hence the lateness of the hour for this update) – he played violin this time. Huff tried to stay awake for it, but fell asleep not too long after intermission, despite Mum’s attempts to keep her awake by taking selfies.

It was good to have both grandmothers together at the event, able to watch their grandson perform (and be photographed by their granddaughter). 

Puff turned 9 this week! It was also book week at school; Puff re-used an old favourite costume to be a pirate bird from a maths book, while Huff combined some old and new pieces to be Meg (of Meg and Mog fame).

Dad made birthday crepes for Puff; both were pretty happy with the result. Huff was also keen to try them.

It was a great morning. The kids had a great day, actually.

Dad took Puff out for an overdue haircut.

We then had a game of Putt Putt golf with a couple of Puff’s friends, and then raced to an early dinner – Puff wanted to play teppanyaki. The chef was really kind to the cousins in particular, as they dealt with the sound and the fiery heat.

Huff was pretty excited to take the leftover edamame beans home in a specially folded foil bag.

And after spending all that time with Puff, Dad took Huff out for Sunday breakfast: just her and Dad.

We also had a bonus birthday cake for Puff at grandma and doc’s house, which he shared with his uncle, who has a birthday the following day. 

This week I watched a video of a 3-week-old Puff kicking his feet as he lay on a blanket. Where did the time go? Now he’s getting his first strike at ten pin bowling. Sunrise, sunset!

Puff was such a fan of the train-ticket origami that we went to the MAAS DIY day in the powerhouse museum to have a look at the origami display. As it turns out, there were a lot of other things to look at and do as well, but this train made from train tickets was pretty impressive.

There was a raspberry pi hooked up to some vegetables, lights and sounds, and kids like Huff could use them as a percussion kit.

 On the way back to the train station, we went past one of the famous buildings at UTS, which Huff saw as an opportunity to test out her climbing skills (she made it a bit higher before Dad rescued her).

After that, it was a train trip and then a drive to see cousin E for her birthday. There were sparklers.

The next day, after church, we went to Auburn for the cherry blossom festival (one of Mum’s favourite flowers). Puff wasn’t entirely convinced, but was a good sport about it and didn’t complain. It was incredibly crowded, and an effort of photo framing to make this work.

Huff was keen to take some good photos of cherry blossoms with Mum’s phone.

There was enough there to enjoy (including seeing some peacocks and a peahen wandering around).

Everyone had a good time of it.

Having ice cream and fairy floss didn’t hurt the experience of the day. You can get just a taste of how busy it was here in the background of this family photo.

And now we’re just counting down to Puff’s 9th birthday: something for next week!