Help me plan a holiday in the house!

[Jones3A]

We were planning 3n/4d away in a cabin or similar next week for half term, kids 9F and 12M, plus me and DH, plus new puppy.
However realising the puppy sleeps 20h ish a day, that likely everyone will be bored, and it's not like pushing a sleeping baby round in a pushchair.
So we're thinking to take the budget (say, £500) and spend it on a holiday at home.
How do we make this actually fun, and a break, and not just an elongated weekend where we all do chores (ha, just me and DD) and get bored/spend too much time on screens?!!
Obvs we can go out and about, we're not housebound.

Ideas so far incl -

Family bake off
camp in the garden
no chores rule
no "cooking" rule (chippy, pub, Cook meal, takeout, etc.)
Trip out with one parent at a time (can't really leave the dog for more than an hour) - cinema/bowling
Nat Trust property with playground
home cinema / movie night with popcorn (not much of a treat, since we do this often...)

Can you put the dog in a kennel and go on holiday?

often dogs can’t go in playgrounds remember

Yes agreed - our local NT is mostly dog-permitting, but one of us would have to sit and have a coffee with her when the kids are in the adventure playground

No, she's too little. We do have friends who might have her for a short stint, if we want to go a bit further afield for the day, one of the days

I would use some of the budget for a one off clean of your house before the week off so you don't have to clean

This is a good shout, luckily we already have a weekly clean which will top and tail our "holiday" !

How about a breakfast or brunch out or a slap up breakfast buffet spread at home?

You can't put a puppy in a kennel. They need their family at that age. They're just a baby.

During Covid we did a bonfire night campfire with the kids - we got a fire going in our little fire pit / bbq-without-the-grill-bit, and toasted marshmallows, had hot choc / mulled wine, and we’d cooked mini baked potatoes (where you scoop it out and mix with grated cheese butter and ham and put it back in again) and sausages. Also made toffee apples and cinder toffee. On reflection it was too much sugar but it was v funny! We all sat around the fire with blankets like camping and poked at it with sticks. You could just do heated up sausage rolls and potato wedges, or hotdogs or something easy.

Also getting a big game competition going with a card game or something. We got into playing shithead (aka “silly goose” with the kids 😁) over this summer.

Maybe bowling or a trampoline park? Or topgolf or something?

as a child my favourite part of this kind of holiday was when we each got to pick what to do and as we got older more responsible for planning it all.

enjoy. It sounds great.

depending on size of dog but can you get a dog rucksack or hire a dog pushchair so that it’s more portable. Means that it get socialised before finishing off vaccines and allowed on the ground

Don't you do those things anyway at weekends and in holiday time? It doesn't seem much like an actual holiday to me. A large part of the fun of a holiday is going to a new place and being away from home.
Why didn't you plan to get the puppy at a time when you weren't going away?

Clean sheets on beds.
Favourite foods in. (Batch cooked before or ready prepped food to bung in oven)
Fancy breakfasts. (Croissant, posh jam, fancy sausage etc)
Take aways/deliveries.
Tidy house to start.
Board games or crafts or hobby you don't normally get time for.
A drive out to somewhere pretty . Eat fancy lunch in car overlooking a view. Take turns staying with puppy.