Uncle Shane passed away on Saturday.  Mum rang me while I was out walking Biscuit with Theo.

Uncle Shane to me growing up was one of the toughest people I knew.  Big, strong, muscles, tattoos.  He reminded me of Popeye.  I remember whenever we drove up to Devonport or Launceston, being on the lookout at each truck that drove past to see if it was Uncle Shane driving it.  I know a few times it was, or at least, that's what Mum and Dad told us.

When Beth was born, he took great delight in turning up about a month later at Peter and Mary's (we were still living there at the time) to say Hi and meet Beth and see how we were doing.  And then a couple of years later he turned up again in The Bus which Beth was fascinated with.

The last time I saw him...

I'm allowed out today, it's the official freedom day.  Though I BROKE THE LAW yesterday by going out at lunch to talk the dog for a walk and getting myself a pie and a chocolate milk for Lunch.  Sarah had taken the kids out to do a bit of shopping, Theo desperately wanted to spend his Birthday money.  Plus they went to Arataki Honey and made some candles.  Sarah thought it would fill up 15 minutes of time making the candles, it filled up about 32 second apparently.  Oh well they came home with some cool candles.

We then took the kids out to the see "Rise of Gru" which has to be the worst movie I've ever had to sit through.  The plot was terrible.  I mean I know it's a kids movie but most of them are usually pretty good, but this was garbage.  I don't know how...

Well first of all, Happy Birthday Theodore Harman for last Wednesday.  7 years old.  Can't believe how quickly time has flown my little man, from a tiny little baby who I held soon after you were born, to the funny, handsome, silly, smart little man that you've become.  We're always ever so proud of you.

So yea, last week was the first week of the two weeks of School Holiday.  Because I'd done so much work when I was pretty crook, and a couple of those were early morning work, I was given Wednesday off for Theo's birthday which was nice.  He woke up not too early and was happy to lie in bed until everyone was up and awake and ready to ply him with presents.  This year he got:

• A Space themed schoolbag
• Walking Boots (That were too big, so were given to Beth and new ones in...

Well last post I wrote was when Dad had arrived. But it's actually now been a week since we had to say goodbye to him again.  I'm going to try to remember what we did, which wasn't really a lot, but was still good fun.

His arrived a week later turned out well though because Friday was New Zealand's first Martariki Day, celebrated with a public holdiay.  We just hung out at home, Theo showed Pa his drone flying skills, Beth played Cluedo with Pa.  Friday night Beth had Tumbles and she got to show Pa some of her skills which was nice, the Cheerleading lady let us in special to watch what Beth was doing.  That was good.

Saturday I wanted to take the kids to swimming so Dad could come along too to see them learning and their skills.  Only Beth went though because Theo had a...

After nearly 3 years, or maybe longer than 3 years, Dad arrived in New Zealand yesterday!  The kids were very excited and made a banner the night before, which we held up at the airport as he got off his plane.  He bought some little presents for the kids, Theo was especially excited about the torch Pa gave him.  Here's a photo of Pa reading to the kids though as you can see, Theo's more interested in his torch.

After the kids went to bed, Dad and I went for a walk around the block with Biscuit which was nice!

Tim

It's been nearly a month since my last update and I'm struggling to remember what's been happening so I'll just have to give it a go.  Beth did the "Tough Guy and Girl" challenge on the 2nd of June.  She was very nervous about doing it, worried all morning.  The hype and size of the event didn't help either when we finally got there.  So many people and cars and kids.  But she looked really cool with her school ribbons in her hair, and one of the school teachers helped paint her face with a bit of war paint so she was ready to go.  Once the start gun went off she was away with quite a smile on her face, and we waved and cheered her on as she went past the various bits of the courses us adults could reach easily enough.  The course was only 1.5km for...

Stained the back deck this afternoon.  We've been meaning to do it for a while, finally got around to getting all scrubbed clean yesterday, all the kids and dogs footprints off it etc.  I did the same to the Pergola deck too, but I can't have done a very good job because when I looked at it this afternoon it still looked terrible.  Dirt and shit all over it.  Doesn't help that birds obviously sit on it and shit, little bastards.  Anyway the back deck is looking really good, we were worried that it wasn't a good idea to stain it because of the weather - it was a lovely day but it's been so cold the last few nights and it was still quite damp.  But it dried out OK in the morning sun and it even said on the deck stain that it's OK and even encouraged for...

Last Monday night I went for a walk, it was super foggy.  You could hardly see a meter in front, my super bright torch was actually useless because all you'd get is the light bouncing back when you turned it on, making things seem even worse.  It was quite eerie taking Biscuit for a walk, it was a full moon as well so the whole area seemed lit up when I was walking along the walking track.  Like being in a really huge warehouse with a dim light overhead.  I took some photos with the Pixel Nightsight feature but they don't really do how cool it was justice.  Biscuit didn't care, he still ran around and had a great time.  When I got home I was sopping wet, all the mist had been slowly collecting on my clothes.

Tuesday was a normal day, both kids seemed much better so off...

Theo's been saying about a sore tummy the last few days.  It's so hard to tell with him because he loves to cry wolf, especially if Beth's been sick (which she has) and he sees she's getting "special" treatment.  Anyway last night he said the same thing, my tummy hurts.  We talked to him about being serious when he's unwell and not.  He insisted that he was, but not with much conviction so we both sort of wordlessly agreed he wasn't being honest.  Fast forward 10 minutes later and when he said "Actually I don't want to play a game before bed, I don't feel great" then I knew he wasn't right.  He got out of bed to go to the toilet while I waited to read him a book, on the way to the toilet I heard a really loud burp.  He came back and then said "I think...

6:15am on a Saturday morning and I finally think I'd better get around to updating my diary.  I spend more time keeping the platform it runs on updated than the actual words within!  Anyway here's a recap of the last month!  Shit that's right a whole month.

So the second week of School holidays I took the Tuesday off from work as well, this time I took the kids to see The Bad Guys.  They really enjoyed the movie, even I liked it too.  It was much more interesting than the silly Sonic Hedgehog movie.  That was a brainless piece of trash compared to The Bad Guys.  Well maybe not even compared.  Anyway The Bad Guys was fun, had a good message, had some fun music and was overall a great movie.  Beth didn't even need to go to the toilet once, better than the two trips we had to...