With all the older kids leaving nursery and ned having such a good time i've decided that what I really want is to go to school. It's a bit of a shame that I have nearly a whole year left at nursery then isn't it?
We went shoe shopping in Newbury for me on Wednesday lunchtime, that was a mistake. Unless of course you wanted hideously over the top pink sparkly sandals. I ask you, what good are they for climbing trees and riding at the BMX track? We gave up after three shops. I went to the park to see Leo instead, it was a lovely sunny afternoon.
We're still hanging around the playground for hours after school. We get up to all sorts of stuff we're not supposed to do during the day. Thursdays activity was a boys against girls tug of war using a massive leaf covered tree branch. The boys won out in the end although it was a hard fought battle.
We've been doing cooking at school, apple crumble with the apples from the trees in the playgound. I don't really like apple crumble but enjoyed making it anyway.
And then when we came home we did yet more cooking for the charity cake sale at school on friday.
Yeah, we made chocolate butterfly cakes....expertly made by me of course. We had a great production line running to ice them and add the 'wings' too.
We kept a few back as samples of course.....
With all the excitement of the cake sale our post school playground time was greatly reduced, we had cakes to buy!
There were loads and loads of them, even so I still bought sweets instead.
Saturday, trip out.....Finkley Down Farm.
Despite Dad's best attempts we managed to get there (why does he insist on over-ruling the Sat Nav lady?).
We got our bag of animal food and headed straight for the playground.
Yeah, a great playground too, loads to explore.
And then it was on with the animal feeding. First stop the Llama's:

Then it was off to hold some baby chicks:

They were realy soft and tiny.
And very cute indeed:

There was a novel method to feet the little goats, involving a tractor/trailer combination and a winding handle:

What I was really interested in though was the go-karts:

I was of course super fast on these and put in some storming laps.
And i got the hang of them really quickly and wasn't far behind Ned.
I milked a (fibreglass) cow:

We held some lovely little bunnies:

We tried our arm at horse shoes:

But we weren't very good at it. Still, when else do you get to throw a big lump of metal at a wall with a loud clattering bang?
The best of the animals had to be the chipmunks though. They were great fun, darting around, climbing, chasing each other and generally putting on a show.
I named them Alvin, Simon and Theodore of course...
The big cars and trailers were fun too, especially with a chauffer:

We had a picnic for lunch and shared some bread with the peacocks. I loved calling them...PEEEEEEAACOOOOOCKS!
I didn't go much on the really big slide though. I made Dad take me all the way to the top and then decided i didn't like the look of it. Dad didn't like the look of the steps back down again either so he convinced me to sit on his lap and go down. Should have taklen no notice of him. It was the fastest slide i've ever been on and completely terrifying.
Auntie Trish came to babysit Saturday night...we were well excited!
Yeah we were!
We had a cool time, we watched a program about the sweres under the ground. Perfect for me, all about poo and wee!
And we saw a programme about a really tall man from China who could barely even get in a car!
Sunday we went to buy Dad and Andy some new shoes but the useless twits couldn't find any they liked in what must have been the biggest trainer shop in the world!
I didn't mind, I got to have a lovely walk about with no sign of the buggy.
And we got to have a McDonalds for lunch!
Hmmm, back to school Monday. I'm loving school at the moment and i'm really racking up the golden time too.
We've got new books called Learning Logs where we're supposed to do all our home work projects in future. I probably won't go in for that too much but I certainly went all out for our first task of covering the book:

A Go's-Go's poster that goes right around the back too. Covered in sticky clear film no less. It was a whole family effort as well.
Hmmm, today I decided I didn't want Aliens Bum for tea, I told Mum and she must have tipped dad off as we had fish fingers instead. I also planted a tulip seed in a little pot at nursery...I can't wait to water it and see if it grows!

I made a triumphant return to trampolining club last Wednesday, we hadn't been for ages. Now most of the older ones have gone off to school i'm one of the bigger ones which means I can bounce the highest. Everyone was impressed with my bouncy-ness.
After not having any reading books for ages from school I got two on one day! Not happy with that at all. I'll put off reading them as long as I can of course.
We went shopping on Thursday and I managed to persuade Dad to buy me a proper grown up sleeping bag all of my own, of course it was nice and pink and I think the much reduced price tag helped to convince him. I am of course really pleased with it and couldn't wait to use it on our forthcoming camping trip.
Yes, a trip away always means home baking so we got busy with the fairy cakes after school. I did it all, even cracking the eggs (much better at that than Dad) and gave them a super powerful Ned stir to make sure they were delicious.
I helped decorate the icing on them!
We went out for a walk after tea and I did lots of 'cat charming' with the local moggies. I love the cats I do.
So it was Friday and we hung around for ages in the school playground after school.
It was a good job Dad and I had spent all afternoon packing then Ned wasn't it. We were off camping to Croyde in Devon.
Brilliant, another chance to go skimboarding. With this in mind I decided to get plenty of shut eye on the way down and was fast asleep by the time we arrived at a pitch black campsite after 9 at night.
I'd had a power nap and was wide awake and ready to 'help' put the tent up.
I woke up just as it was finsished (great timing) and we soon got ourselves tucked up in bed with a good story:

As you can see our quarters were luxurious. Even if the supplementary duvet did cover up my new sleeping bag.
Soon enough it was morning and time for an al fresco breakfast. Boingy bacon for me and crispy for mum.
Weetabix starter and a yoghurt for me.
It was lovely, the sun was out and there was no sea breeze so it felt nice and warm. We headed off for the beach:

I'm not sure why I look so sad in this picture as I loved it on the beach again. Maybe I was brewing up one of my massive Ellis belches?

I had a good old go on the skimboard of course and then once i'd had enough of that I stole Mum's super fast bodyboard and had a go on that. I loved it, it was so fast that i'm not going to let her have it back any time soon,

We did some digging of course:

And collected some water from the sea:

And let Mum indulge in a few close up shots:

I also took Dad on a really long wander around the sand dunes, I love the sand dunes, you can run down the slopes and find some really cool shells. I'm not so keen on the spiky grass mind you and had to be carried a few times.

We headed back to camp for a spot of late lunch before heading off to the swimming pool on site. It was a great pool for us little ones, slides, water jets, rapids and loads and loads of ear piercing shrieking.

There was even a cool flume slide that timed your trip down. I think Owen must have got stuck on his go as the clock finally stopped at 39.99 seconds....the rest of us were down around 14 seconds for comparison.

Swimming done and dusted it was back to the tent for a rest before heading out for the evening. Well the boring grown ups had a rest, we played football with Hannah and Owen:

Once we were done playing football I got into Hannah and Owens tent and told them some of my best jokes.....they lapped them up of course.
Once the oldies were fully rested up we headed off to the pub for tea:

It was a cool walk down behind the sand dunes and through the fields. There was a playground on the way which we quickly explored and we saw a few of the famous Croyde rabbits in their field.

I did really well and managed to stay awake and keep my drink upright all night:

But the sea air had taken it's toll on me, and once I got sat down at the table I zonked out. Right out:

They did just about manage to get me to come round in the end though, just as well, or I would have missed out on pudding:

And here we all are, just look at those scary pink faces, in fact the glare was so bright Andy had to shut his eyes:

I even had enough left in the tank to go and play in the pub garden once the meal was finished:

But Dad couldn't get a photo of my mega swing jump. I was asking him to push me higher and higher and didn't bother to tell him I was going to jump off the swing. So he gave me an almighty push that I wasn't expecting and I leapt off the swing from a great height and plunged to the ground, laughing my head off. I was way over his head height apparently and wanted another go straight away.

We had to walk all the way back to the tent by torchlight which was pretty cool.

Even though I didn't get a carry for aaaaaages.

We were pretty soon all tucked up in bed again and fast asleep.

It was speed breakfast and tidy up on Sunday morning:

As I had two parties to be at back home from 2 o'clock onwards!

Yeah, I was not happy about that I can tell you. I wanted another day down the beach, but no, we had to come home for stinking Ellis.

I slept nearly all the way home so i'd be radiant for my afternoon shift. We got home and it was a quick shower and change and then me and Mum hit the party circuit. First up was Ella's from nursery and then Leo's (which we were quite late for, sorry!) I enjoyed them both very much and came home with loads of cake and goodies. Happy birthday to both of you.

And while all this was going on? Dad and I made Panacotta and I helped him do the veg for tea. We also ploughed through my new favourite book from the school library, it's called 'Looking at history-from cavemen to the present day' The book itself is pretty historical as it dates from 1963. There was also a little bit of football thrown in for good measure in the garden and a good dose of lazing about on the sofa.

So that was our action packed weekend done and dusted, there's only one piece of super exciting news to divulge...Luca joined in for the first time ever during Stretch and Grow at nursery.

The run up to my friend Ella's party has been rather an up and down ride. She keeps falling out with me and saying I can't come anymore. She's also been telling Dad that i've been naughty when he comes to pick me up from nursery...but I haven't. The grown ups at nursery agree with me so thats okay.
All the dragon stuff came to a head at school and we've been looking after dragon eggs, writing stories and making pictures of dragons too. Me and Maisy made a quite brilliant dragon picture that has been blown up on the copier in preparation to go on show on the wall of our classroom.
We went to the park after school, rode some bikes, played on some swings, climbed some trees....
...played with my friends from the junior school, they're really good at tree climbing, i've learned a lot from them.
On Thursday we met up in town with Mum and had a spot of lunch. We went to the pasty shop and then sat by the lock watching the boats go by. Very agreeable.
And what about me? Stuck at school while all this was going on...NOT FAIR! Especially when I was hard at work, dazzling the rest of the class with my maths prowess (I had to stand up and tell everyone all about odd and even numbers and how it's easy to tell even when the numbers are thousands and thousands).
)
And as if I hadn't been tortured enough I had to go to Tesco with Dad and Ellis. How rubbish was that? I was pretty excited to see all the christmas chocolates out though.
We rounded the day off playing games with Mum, and a very agreeable one win each before bed.
Friday was 'Wear your pyjamas to nursery' day. I wore my best Peppa Pig ones and looked super cool. In another outing sure to rile Ned I went to Dad's work in the afternoon for the work barbecue. I was the only little one there and I got very well looked after. Apparently all Dad's colleagues decided I couldn't be his as I was far too lovely!
We hung around the playground after school and Dad managed to convince me that I could hang upside down by my legs with no hands. Turns out I could as well, although not as well as I thought I could...splat on my head!
In the evening it was Owen's 30th birthday do, Rock Band and Chinese take away!
Max and I rocked out of course, we did especially well teamed up on the drum kit:

While Aunty Tracey and I had a paddle in the ice bucket beer cooler.

It was a late late night......

I didn't get out of bed until 11:30 on saturday. So we didn't get anywhere until the afternoon, the BMX Track again. Had a bit of a false start when I snapped my chain on the way accross the field. Oops, Dad and Owen had to drive off to the bike shop to get it fixed. I don't think Owen minded too much though, he was a little delicate from the previous evening I think.

I don't mind a few laps of the track, but I much prefer the park next door:

We took Kin to Wales on the train, he didn't want to go, but we took him anyway. When we got there he didn't want to get off, but we made him!

Once the bike was fixed and the fresh air had kicked in for those suffering from the night before, we had plenty of good laps round the track:

We came home and watched Merlin all cuddled up on the sofa.

We made it all the way to see Grandma on Sunday without me throwing up again. It was a lovley day so we took her out to a park Mum had spotted on a previous visit:

We did plenty of climbing, swinging and sliding.

And played loads of football with Dad.

We got home and spent the afternoon in the garden, trampoling, chasing frogs and playing on the swing.

Mum did me a maths quiz, I love my maths at the moment. I got them all right of course. Dad worries about me I think.

I've decided it's still summer and have been demanding to wear my shorts and crocs to nursery. I was a bit cold this afternoon though when it was wet and windy on the school run.

Got a bit of a shocker this week for you...no pictures...at all!
Yeah, just words this week i'm afraid, so bear with us i'm sure we'll have something more visually impressive for you all next week again.
So the end of the summer holidays were upon us, just time for another day with Auntie Christine. I think we covered all the essentials, baking, a trip to the park and of course the sound of music.
Which we still utterly LOVE! We also finally got to see some pictures of Dad when he was a little one too.
So Thursday was back to school day for Ned and back to nursery for me. It felt like we'd been off for ages and ages but we didn't mind going back too much really. We saw our old friend Ron on the walk in, we hadn't seen him for ages so it was nice to catch up.
I had a new teacher for the year and indeed some new class mates as there has been a bit aof a switch around for this year. I still get to see all my old friends during break times, lunch times and after school so i'm not too bothered. Anyway, I really like my new teacher, she's also very arty so we should be in a for another good year......
.....or maybe not after all. Dad got called over to talk to her after school Friday, i'd been involved in a disagreement with my mate Alastair which resulted in me putting a rather neat little cut in his jumper sleeve with a pair of scissors. Oops, not the best start I could have had. Everyone was cool about it in the end though, except Mum and Dad who said I had to buy him a new jumper out of my own money.
We went down the park for a bit after school and I did a little bit more bike riding without my stabilisers. Fell off of course, but hey ho.
And after tea Mum made us go out for a walk of all things. I don't know where she gets these crazy ideas I really don't.
It was a lovely evening and we headed off around the farmers field for a long old stroll. We hadn't been that particular way before so it was sort of exciting to see what we would find.
What did we find? Some old tired bike jumps....result! I couldn't wait to try them out as soon as possible.
Saturday, Legoland! Yeah, even though we've been about 368 times we still get really excited about going. Aunty Trish was going to come but she got all poorly on us and managed to escape it. Hope you're feeling better now.
I'm getting much braver with my rides now and was well up for it. All except the fairytale brook though, I don't like that so I made Dad sit it out with me while Mum and Ned went on.
Turns out it was a good idea to give it a miss Ellis, one of the boats got jammed and we were on there for over half an hour! We did find it quite funny though, we could just about see Dad and Ellis through the hedge to keep him up to date with developments leading to our release.
I'm very glad we missed out on that.
I made a friend with a slightly older girl in the queue for the Dragon roller coaster and then, completely by accident we ended up in the same boat as her on the Viking river rapids too!
Sunday morning we we're off to visit Grandma in the morning when Ellis pulled a masterstoke and spewed up in the car.
Thats nice sympathy Ned, I was poorly you know. We had to turn around and come home where I made a miraculous recovery......
I finally gave in and let Dad start my scrapbook with me. I really got into it actually and we stuck all sorts of weird and wonderful things in there we'd kept from Italy, Wales and America. God knows why he thinks any of that stuff would be interesting to keep but I let him get on with it anyway.
We had a trip down to the jumps we found on Friday night, I quite liked riding over them.
But I thought they were actually a bit rubbish if i'm honest.
Back to school on Monday and it was excitment central! There was some massive bang outside at some point and when we got out on the field there were what appeared to be two great big dragon footprints. There was a lot of specualtion about what caused them ranging from dinosaurs to martians (or Aliens as i'd prefer). Anyway, whatever it was it livened up a monday at school thats for sure.
Who would have thought that cats don't like wearing Fuzzy Felt glasses then? Anyone? Not me. Mum and Dad did try to tell me but I pressed on anyway like some sort of demented feline optician on the hard sell and wallop! I copped it from her with both barells (well, paws). I was so upset, Poppy my bestest frined in the world, how could she? I went off to bed in tears, our friendship in tatters as well as my arm.
We were friends again by morning.....