I've taken to applying a little bit of lippy and some eye shadow every now and again when we go to pick Ned up from school, well, you never know who you might bump into do you? I've also been making loads and loads of pirate treasure maps recently at nursery. I'm not quite down with the proper lingo though, X marks the Spencer according to Ellis.

Another thing i've been doing a lot of lately is finger clicking. I love it even more as Ned can't do it. I like to precede a finger click by saying 'check me out' and then wafting my hand through the air with a nice crisp click.

Nursery must have been feeling particularly brave on Wednesday as they took us all on a group outing to the park at Northcroft. We had a great time of course, especially when we al rolled down the big hill.

I was a lot happier at multisports this week as firstly it didn't clash with a cake sale and secondly we were playing tennis. I love tennis.

We hit the shops hard on Thursday as we had to get all Ned's requirements for tea, he had a friend coming round.

Yes, I did, Tegan. She's really cool, has a BMX and a collection of those mini skateboards. When we got in she produced a bag of sticky lizards that stuck to the roof really nicely. We did making, we did Lego, we played in the garden for a bit and then we had super long spaghetti, garlic bread and super gooey chocolate cake and cream for pudding.

I couldn't work out why she wasn't interested in my pink sparkly ponies?

We took her home after tea and got to invade her house, she even has a Nerf gun!

We went to see Mum at lunchtime but we didn't go anywhere for dinner. I was not happy about that especially as it was pasta for lunch at nursery and our dislike for pasta is well known. Mum came to the rescue though and got me a cookie from Marks and Spencers no less. We went to pay Auntie Christine a visit at her shop. She was pretty excited with it being her birthday and all, so we timed that really well and got to take some of her birthday cake home with us.

We went to the park after school, the new bit still wasn't open.

We still had a good time though.

Yeah, loads of our friends were there to play with as well.

Sue came round to look after us on Friday night, we hadn't seen her for ages.

She bought us some comics and my Scooby Doo was so cool i've barely let it out of my sight since. I've particularly loved all the brilliant monster pictures to colour in.

The weekend started with a trip to trampolining on Saturday morning as I didn't get to go on Wednesday.

But this time I was allowed to come along too.

We both loved it, I got to show Mum and Ned all my tricks.

And once i'd calmed down a bit I did some really good controlled tricks. I hope we get to go again soon.

Once that was finished we headed into town for haircuts.

We LOVE haircuts.

I really enjoyed sitting in the chair and being brushed and trimmed and generally made a fuss of.
I sat with my trademark stern face throughout the whole thing and couldn't wait to get my hands on my lolly.

We headed home for lunch and five minutes calm before Luca came round for the afternoon.

Yeah, thats right, Hugo's little brother!

It was nice to have one of my friends round, I got to show him all my toys and best of all my lovely cat. We played out in the garden and even helped do some gardening with Mum and Dad before we had a bounce on the trampoline.

Yeah, Dad set the trampoline up for the summer season again.

We went to the Wash Common park, but Mum overdid the pushing on one of the roundabouts and poor old Luca didn't like it. In fact, he wanted to go back to our house for something to eat. This time it was my turn to feed my friend super long spaghetti.

His mum and Dad came back to get him halfway through though, so Hugo and Matice got to come in and play until he was finished which was brilliant.

Auntie Christine was babysitting in the evening so we had a nice quiet one with her.

Then in Sunday it was Legoland day! Things didn't look good when we arrived and had to park further away than we ever have done before...it was going to be busy, busy, busy!

It certainly was, there was a lot queueing to be done but we made the best of it and had a good time, even if we did vow to come back soon once the weather wasn't quite so nice or something?

Yeah, It was well worth it just to see how wet one man can get on the viking river rapids. No one is ever going to sit next to Dad on that again, he's a water magnet or something!

We went to the park again tonight after school, but finally some good news, the fence has gone!

Which meant we could really get into the new stuff. We love it, especially the slide, it's tall and really curly. I soon decided it wasn't exciting enough though and decide I should go down it head first and on my back. It was quite a brave move and by the time I got to the bottom I was somehow the right way round. It was so risky in fact that Ned decided having a go himself.

After what must have been a rush of blood to the head I managed to get myself re-enrolled in swimming lessons.  It was my first one on Tuesday and I found it all a bit of a struggle if truth be told.  Well, I hadn't been for what must be nearly a year and the first thing I had to do was front crawl across the big pool (which was FREEZING).  I'm not good at front crawl though, had it been backstroke I would have been well in there.  I picked up a bit towards the end though and was really good at retrieving things from the bottom of the pool and of course my backstroke width.  Hopefully next time won't be quite so traumatic.

Hmmm, I wasn't too great at trampolining this week either.  In fact I decided having a kip on the side of the trampoline was the way forward instead.  In fact I was feeling pretty under the weather and hadn't had a good nights sleep.

It was multi sports club in Wednesday after school again, but this week I was not so happy about it as it clashed with our charity cake sale.  I had to miss out on cakes!  We'd spent two days making them at school and everything.  I kept on and on about it all night, Dad was really sympathetic but I knew I could rely on Mum.  She had a word at school next day and there just so happened to be more than enough cakes leftover.  I was mighty pleased about that and managed to stuff myself and even get one for Ellis (with a pink Mini Egg on top no less).

Dad also found some of my race pictures out on the internet, I was pretty pleased with them too, much better than his and Mum's efforts:

https://picasaweb.google.com/gosportbmx1/ClubRace270211#5584629286684446290

https://picasaweb.google.com/gosportbmx1/ClubRace270211#5584631913323158482

https://picasaweb.google.com/gosportbmx1/ClubRace270211#5584633661546694034

https://picasaweb.google.com/gosportbmx1/ClubRace130311#5584622264505215186

I felt a lot better on Thursday, no doubt due to the Calpol Mum was feeding me. 

Excitement central for tea time, Andy was round!

There is of course a downside to this, parents evening...AGAIN!  I had nothing to worry about by all accounts though, i'm doing pretty much as well as I should except in maths, where i'm even better!

We had a game of build a beetle while Mum and Dad were gone which was nice.

And we didn't even resort to any shouting or squabbling.

The weekend was soon on us and yet again we had to go to Wantage for cars.

At least this time we actually got one though, even if it is pretty much the same as the last one, albeit a bit nicer....

.........and it doesn't smell of Ellis' cheese sandwich sick which is nice.

There was a bit of flaw in Dad's plan for the afternoon, the boat yard in Abingdon hadn't opened yet for the season even though it was a lovely sunny day.  So our plans of  a leisurley afternoon cruising the river Thames became an afternoon in the park and an ice cream.

There was a pretty big slide by todays standards:

It got Mum and Dad talking about when they were kids and there was a huge slide in Victoria Park or something.........yawn.

Biggest news of all though was that I finally managed to get on a swing and get it going really high with no help at all.  Atter all these years i've finally achieved what looked to be impossible.  Jumped off it from a pretty impressive height too!

And I got to show off my climbing prowess on stuff that was meant for much bigger kids, i'm getting like Spiderman these days!

Grandad and Anne and Alan and Hayley came round for dinner on Sunday. 

There was obviously a massive fuss over who was going to sit where and mum managed to broker a deal to keep all the parties concerned happy.

After lunch we forced Alan into going for a walk in the sunshine.  We went to the park for a bit, he reckons he hated it.

I didn't as we managed to find a hole in the fence of the new park equipment and test it all out.  It was brilliant and it's a shame it's all still fenced off. 

I hope we don't get into trouble for going on there.......

Had a few issues last Tuesday.  First of all, Mum came home from work at lunchtime as she was poorly.  Unluckily for her, Dad had taken the bike to work so when she rang him at lunchtime the best he could offer her was a ride on the crossbar of the bike home.  It was lovely to walk home with her though, dad pushing his bike with me in the back and Mum with the empty pushchair.

And at school I fell off the climbing frame and bumped my head a bit while I was hanging upside down.  I had a bit of a stiff neck too, but nothing to worry about.

To give Mum some quiet time to be poorly in style we headed off out to the pet shop to have alook at the rabbits and the fish.

And to try out all the squeaky dog toys.  Most satisfying.  We had to go to Sainsbury's too to get a few things for pancakes.  We needed a lemon and some ice cream but I decided that a nice bunch of flowers would help Mum feel better so we got some of those too.

I refused the pancakes outright and settled for a load of Jaffa Cakes.

I really liked the idea of the pancakes, but decided I didn't really like them that much.  Dad arrived at a similar conclusion so we set about the ice cream instead.

Wednesday trampolining was super busy again.  I love it when there's loads of others there and I didn't even mention Bumpers once.

I had my multi skills after school again, I love it.

When we went to Tesco on Thursday we saw Ned's friend Tegan's Mum.  I thought that was really cool and a real one up on Ned.  She thought I was being a really good girl as I was quite happily walking round the shop helping Dad buy things.  Some of them he even actually needed.  Like the bright pink and purple dish washing brush, very him.

Friday night we went to play with Kimi and Marny for a bit while the grown ups did some boring stuff or another.  Was great fun and as it turned out a very late night.

Which meant we weren't supposed to be up to much on Saturday.  We had a slug-around morning and then headed off to look at cars again.  AGAIN!  Boring boring boring boring.

We went to have lunch in Sainsburys cafe afterwards and had a wander around Wantage town, exciting stuff eh?

We loved the jewellers shops and we got some new books though so that was good.

And I also got some free samples of some fancy cat food for my beloved Poppy, she loved it.

When we got home I wanted to put a little idea I had into practice.  I'd made a kite at breakfast club and wondered if the two fans we had in the garage would generate enough wind for me to fly it indoors:

And it did, of a fashion....once we'd put a weight in the bottom to stop it from spinning.

It was race day again on Sunday, I think you'll find this is how most premier athletes prepare for a big day of competition:

I couldn't wait to get on the track and do a few laps.  I did a few with Dad but shouted at him if he overtook me.

Another cool thing was seeing my name at the top of the table for the series after the last event, Ned Atkins, Male 7 years, 50 points, position number 1. 

I couldn't wait to get to the park!  I love the park, there's always other children to play with and loads of climbing to do.  Having said that I did insist on wearing a lovely dress so had to try and keep a bit clean.

Once i'd bored Mum and Dad senseless with the park my saviour arrived...ANDY!

I loved showing him round the place and took him on a track tour.  I had a bit of crash in practice, well I say a bit of a crash, I was t-boned by another boy when I sort of pulled out onto the track in front of him.  We both went down pretty hard and I was pretty upset with myself.  He was okay though so it was okay in the end.

We were soon up on the gate for the first race, but I was in for a hard time as I was in with the 8 year olds this time:

I was pretty well beaten in the first race to be honest, everyone tried to explain that there was no one in my category in the first heat and that I was still only six.  So I was okay with it and couldn't wait for my next one.  I did much better in that and came second, I was very pleased.

I shouted for Ned again of course, from before the race even started until well after it had finished.  Well, when i wasn't in the park anyway:

In my third heat I think I came 4th or fifth against another batch of eight year olds, so I was still pretty happy.  This was enough to see me through to the A final in the 8's, I put in another good race and finished well in front of the other seven year old getting myself another 50 points for the standings.  Another succesful trip I think.
We came home and had a monster hot chocolate session.  That put us off our tea a bit so it was a good job Alan and Hayley popped round to finish it off for us.

Big exciting grown up stuff for me on Tuesday when I got a new car seat.  I'm too big for my baby one now and i've got one just like Ned's.  I was seriously pleased about this and squealed with delight when I got it out of the box and parked my bum in it.

There was a world record ten children at trampolining this week, where do they go all the other weeks?  We can't work out whats going on with this one, but i'm always glad when theres plenty of other kids there for me to show off to with my bouncing skills.

We had art week at school last week, plenty of oppurtunities for me to get messy and creative as well as take in the mountain of 'recyled' materials we'd been collecting for a few weeks..  Multi sports club has also started again on Wednesday after school. I loved it this week, we played dodgeball outside, in the sunshine.

Friday then, once I was picked up from school the car got packed and we went to the Pasty shop to source some provisions before Mum finished work.  We hit the road for Colchester in readiness for Saturdays zoo trip.

That's right, a day early so we had to stay in a hotel!  We were proper excited about that one, we could lay in bed and watch telly and eat the sweets that we had bought with us...perfect.

Needless to say, it was quite late before we finally fell asleep.....

So in the morning we were up nice and early and made a visit to the restaurant area for our breakfast.  It was amazing, we could have whatever we wanted, I told the chef that it was brilliant and that we normally get what we're given in a caravan on a tent when we're away.

There was allsorts to choose from, but I started with coco pops and then followed that with some toast, a few slices of ham, some cheese and then some fruit.

I also went for the coco pops, followed by a pool of baked beans and then the most exciting thing of all....slices of brown bread.  I love brown bread and never get it at home so this was a real treat.  I was almost tempted to toast it as the toast machine was seriously cool to watch.

So once we were fed and watered we headed for the zoo, it was only three miles away so we were there really quickly which made a pleasant change from being stuck in the car asking are we there yet over and over again.

Pretty much the first animals we came across were the penguins, we love them because they remind us of Nanny.  She would have loved these ones, a right lively lot they were, darting all around the pool.

We compared ourselves to the relative size of penguin species:

Next up was the sealions I think, they had a really cool pool with a glass tunnel that went underneath them where you could stand and watch them swim over you.

As well as some lovely big windows. 

We just so happened to be there at their feeding time too, they put on quite a show, fetching like dogs and jumping right out of the water to catch fish.

The Orang-utang enclosure was pretty impressive too, even though I couldn't escape from it:

The most impressive thing about the zoo was probably the other things you could see, like these fish in the Orang-utang house:

Yeah, there were even little monkeys in the reptile house, just hanging about from the roof.  The best little monkeys were the ones that invaded an empty push chair though.  There must have been at least four or five of them in it, the lady who was pushing it was terrified of them.  We all thought it was hilarious of course.

I like to take some pictures on such outings, this was one of my best:

The anteaters were especially lovely, the Mummy one was giving the baby a ride round on her back and then they snuggled down together in their hole, she used her big bushy tail as a blanket for the little one.

There were also a couple of my favourites, flamingoes (pink) and of course the Meerkats:

There were three lions, one boy and two girls.  They were really big, I loved them.  The were also quite active, scratching their big tree trunk like poppy does at home against the end of the sofa.

There were loads of baby piggies hassling their mummy for milk, they were really cute.

I almost got eaten by a crocodile:

Made a joey of myself:

Tried out a turtle shell for size:

Probably the coolest thing of the day was feeding the elephants I reckon, it's not every day you get to do that is it?  They were of course huge, really really massive.  So massive in fact that I dropped my morsel before the trunk managed to get it:

After an initial refusal, I gave it another go and was really pleased with myself for going through with it:

Even if I did end up with a hand covered in elephant snot for my trouble.  It soon washed off though.

The giraffe house was cool, they had a viewing gallery up high so you could watch them eating their hay, they had really long tongues and would no doubt be brilliant at eating the super long spaghetti we have at home.

There was of course a train to ride on, it took us all round the lemur enclosures and past some Wolves and African hunting dogs.

That I particulalrly liked the look of.

Then it was on to the Tiger area which I loved.  I loved watching them pad past, especially when one had a big stretch right up against the window showing everyone his lovely fluffy tummy.  I decided I wanted to give them a cuddle.

That was until we got to see the Leopards and one of them took a dislike to us all peering at him and decided to come at us with a big scary growl.

I think we all decided it was the best zoo we'd ever been to, I was well and truly tired out and fell asleep in my buggy.

Leaving me to have a play in the adventure playground on my own before we headed back to the hotel for some more snuggle up time, saturday night telly and sweeties!

We went to sleep a lot quicker this time round though!

Sunday morning and the delights of another hotel breakfast for us before a trip to the swimming pool.

There were no slides or anything but there was a rather lovely hot tub that you could make foam bubble beards out of.

I was on a right mission and was doing whole lengths of the pool with my armbands.

And I managed a length of backstroke unaided.  I was pretty impressed with that and decided that I ought to resume swimming lessons......

Then it was back to the room to pack our things and check out.

Which gave me one more chance to creep along under the reception desk to avoid detection by the lady behind it as we left.  I'd been doing it every time we came in or went out, she loved it.

No one wanted to get up Monday morning.

I wanted to be back at the hotel........