puff and huff

School holidays are over so quickly. Dad is still on holidays for a few days. Quite a few highlights. The kids spent an hour each day in the first week doing swimming lessons. We celebrated the end of swimming lessons with a family breakfast.

At the end of the first week, it was time for Pippin to have an adventure of sorts. Huff was very brave in looking after him.

Dad and Huff went to explore a museum, which netted huff a new red coat, and we explored the past. This is the kind of classroom that was common in western Sydney in the 1940s and 1950’s.

IN the second week of the holidays, we went down the coast for a few nights to have some time together; we even took the pets along with us. Pineapple travels pretty well in his tiny travel cage.

We had lunch at a place where there were these outdoor beanbag chairs.

Puff enjoyed the wind in his hair on the white sandy beach.

Huff was keen enough to re-visit the beach that she insisted on being woken up to see the sunrise, which was largely obscured by a lot of clouds, but was still a little visible.

There was a lot of screen time, but a lot of non-screen-time as well.

Like this time spent cooking marshmallows in the fireplace.

We also had a sleepover for one of the cousins. Huff did a great job looking after her cousin.

Finally, on Sunday night, to make the most of the remaining holidays, Dad and Huff went and saw a movie, and then had a quick exploration of Burwood Chinatown. The free sample of a durian roti was quite a surprise.

And now we’re back to the regular routine of school, with some end of year exams looming.

Lots of adventures thus far (and lots of home days) in the end of school and start of holidays). Here’s Huff delivering her lines as Scarecrow to a couple of her friends.

Realising that huff is in year 6, and the number of times she wants to play on the swings is very limited, Dad took her past the swings on the way home. She still loves them, but the days are getting shorter.

On the Queen’s memorial public holiday, both kids wanted to visit (different) friends for somewhat overlapping times, so Mum and Dad could have a meal together without kids. On the way back, Dad and Huff had a chance to stop for some naan and catching up.

Friday night the youth group had a dress-up night, and the kids went as a princess and abstract Scrooge McDuck respectively.

Sunday after church we had lunch with new friends after Dad was guest preaching. Puff ordered an epic milkshake.

And now we find ourselves in the middle of another set of school holidays!

We are nearly at the end of another school term. The passage of time continues swiftly on. Pippin is a key part of family life; Huff took him for his first walk; he seemed to enjoy it. It was good to be a proud Dad watching her look after a little life and give him careful instruction.

On Sunday Huff was in an end-of-term play for Sunday School. The costume was impressive.

We had some family time after church having lunch together. Puff’s hair is growing out a bit: this may be the longest it’s ever been!

His prowess with chopsticks is increasing too.

Oh, and Huff now has a feature phone, and is adjusting to that. We all are.

Now that the recorder performance is over for the year, Huff gets to branch out and try some new recorders: this one is about half her height!

Counting down to school holidays now.

The week of Huff’s year six camp! We were up early in time for some pre-camp photos.

It’s encouraging how well they get along.

Huff had everything she needed in a giant bag.

She came back tired but happy, filled with stories.

Saturday Dad and Puff went down to Bundanoon to visit a camp. Puff had heaps of homework to do, so he managed to make up a space for getting some work done.

Lots of other adventures with cousins, church, and some family time together.

Busy week; Mum had covid, so Dad was doing some extra chores and looking after the kids more than usual.

Plus we had some extra time in the city as Huff had a recorder concert in the city:

We filled in the time admirably, pausing for some sushi train for dinner

The kids were excited to have sushi for dinner (as was Dad).

Huff performed really well and enjoyed spending the time with her school friends, but it was a very late night (especially stopping for a late night Naan bread snack on the way home).

 

Even Dad was quite tired during the week, with the puppy continuing to provide us with early morning starts.

We then had more musical performances from Huff at the school spring fair (despite the rainfall there was a good turnout), and a trip across Sydney so that Dad and Huff could move some plants around for Aunty S and Uncle N.

Then it was Fathers’ Day. With Mum still isolating, we went to church without her, had delicious lunch that Mum ordered and then visited Doc before spending some time watching a movie on the home TV together. 

And lastly, we had ten pin bowling with Puff’s boys group, while Huff put the finishing touches on the packing for her school camp. 

Now that Mum is out of iso, family life is a bit easier again. It’s great to have her back, and looking a bit healthier again.

We are getting toward the end of primary school. Huff wanted her year 6 book week costume to be Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. She made her own cork necklace and dirigible plum earrings.

Huff is continuing to do the early morning care for the puppy, at least after 6am. There’s a lot of unhappiness at that time of morning, but she still really cares about the wellbeing of her puppy.

And then suddenly it was Puff’s birthday – he is now 14!

Mum made him a cake to his specifications.

The dog is making himself a part of family life.

On Saturday we went out for a very late breakfast.

Puff was really keen to know more about capsule hotels, having read about them, so we went to have a look at one of the rooms. They had a chipboard-print lift, to reinforce the idea of how affordable it is a place to stay. Puff is too young to stay there, but the kids were impressed at the efficient use of space.

Dad managed to surprise Puff on the way home with a lift the rest of the way home.

We also helped run a book launch event as a family, each with our own tasks, but there are no photos of us.

A bit late this week; mostly quiet, with some extended family news.

We visited a friend’s birthday party on the Saturday night, and on Sunday after church visited a gallery where the cousins (and their parents) have some artworks showing. Puff looked at everything, and then took a breather to check some updates using Mum’s phone.

Huff and the cousins had a good time looking through the artworks as well.

And Dad and Huff stopped on the way home to have dinner together.

Coming up: Puff’s birthday. See you next week!

Another quiet week for photos. Dad still recovering from being unwell, and going away to basecamp at Katoomba.

Church was back in-person again. Huff had only five words to summarise what they learned in class!

 

After church we found a couple of public-space hammocks in Narwee which were fun to climb on!

 

Even Dad tried it out.

Puff had a bunch of assignments and his maths trial exams this week, which was a further non-photo event.

A double week this post because Dad unexpectedly caught COVID this past week. Hopefully Dad will be back to entering the world again soon, but in the meantime, Mum has been doing a spectacular job keeping the house running and looking after everyone.

Before isolation, we managed to visit some people; here’s Huff with her cousins enjoying some milkshakes.

We even managed some time next to a fire pit.

Huff was particularly enjoying light drawing with a few sparklers.

There was also a school open day for parents:

Mum and Huff were in a three-legged race.And we all competed in a couple of maths-themed kahoots (a type of online quiz).

While the bird continues to grow in personality (even appearing in a photo in the newspaper), we are making more and more time for our new puppy, and he’s learning how to live at our place well. He’s mostly an indoor dog.

But occasionally he dreams of the backyard. Puff is also a fan of the puppy, though he is pretty busy studying at the moment.

Hopefully we will be back to single weeks again next time.

A reminder this week of the value of balancing work time and family time; lots of later night work at the moment, so trying to make time for the school run where it’s possible. It only took a few minutes but it was amazing for Dad to be able to download the whole day from Huff’s perspective, and be able to give her some focused attention.

Sunday afternoon was hectic, but both kids were keen to go on an adventure with Dad in search of ice cream. As it turned out, the shop we were looking for was closed, but we managed to find this amazing sky, and a few dessert-ish treats nearby.

Here is Dad with the kids at the water’s edge only 20 minutes or so later. It’s great to see them engaging with the world a little, and get a break from the screens.

Oh, and on Tuesday night, Puff had a chance to head back to “swag” and further refine some of his skills.

Saturday we had an amazing chance to spend time with one of Dad’s old uni friends and his family. Their daughter started the day pretty concerned about dogs, but after a few hours with our puppy, she was feeling much more confident.