Back from holidays, and school term starting up again. Here’s what we’ve been up to in the meantime.
During the holidays, the Powerhouse Museum had a minecraft exhibition on. The kids had the chance to play real-life Minecraft, making stacks out of cardboard cubes. Puff played Minecraft, and Huff had the chance to play Operation on a adult-human-scale board.
Saturday morning we checked out a new cafe, and Dad played Puff at chess again.
The road trip started off on Monday after a leisurely morning packing, and we drove up to visit friends in Gloucester. After staying there, we headed further up the coast to see another cafe Mum wanted to visit in Wingham. The kids enjoyed having a break from being in the car, and then we kept heading up the coast to Bellingen.
This is a look around the place we were staying – it was a farm-stay, with no internet access and free-range chicken wandering around.
The kids enjoyed playing with the chickens (and collecting eggs).
There were three (tame) horses living on the farm.
We had a day trip to Dorrigo to look at the skywalk.
The kids enjoyed a little bush-walk (and, with the promise of ice cream at the end of the loop if there was no whinging) behaved themselves admirably.
The trees were pretty tall at Dorrigo – here’s Puff as a point of reference.
One of the physical challenges with the place we were staying was the cattle-grid. Puff was big enough to walk across without much trouble, but Huff took it very carefully (perhaps too confidently, but there were no mishaps).
All too quickly (there were board games where Huff insisted on being called by her name, with the suffix “Bank”, or she wouldn’t hand over the cards) the stay was over, and it was time to head north again. We stopped for coffee and gelato in Dorrigo. The kids were still in high spirits.
We spent a relaxed few days with friend in Queensland, where the kids played various games that were probably a little too stretching for them. Uno was a consistent favourite, with many requests for Uno Snap.
There was some cupcake decorating.
The purpose for the trip was a big family reunion event, but there are so many photos, and it’s hard to gather permission for all of them, so we’ll have to leave it for the next reunion next year.
Then it was time to head home. Huff is a big fan of moustaches, so this promo cut-out was too good for her to resist.
The kids travelled back from Queensland amazingly well. We stopped at Woodburn, Nambucca Heads, and Taree. There was a lot of looking out the window, reading and drawing, some sleeping, and – for the final leg – some screens.
And then it was a lazy day at home to recover from the driving. The kids watched most of Empire Strikes Back with Dad, but were asking a lot of questions all the way through it (and it seems that Puff has already figured out the key spoiler from all the supporting literature he’s been reading).