We had our junior school carol concert at a big church in town on Tuesday afternoon.  We were pretty much the last class to arrive (we had to walk all the way from school).  Mum and Dad had both turned up and hidden at the back, I reckon they must have known about the year three guitar recital and taken suitable evasive action.  Once it was done and dusted we had to walk all the way back to school.  I didn't mind, I got to walk with Mrs Douglas and we had a good old chat.

It was my last week of swimming, which meant fun week.

And the one week of the term I was jealous of Ellis' swimming lesson.

We had balls, hoops, big floating mats and also swimming teachers with a hose pipe.  Because it wasn't a proper lesson I could play with Neave as we.  Mum topped it off nicely by turning up to watch.

It was also my last dancing lesson on Wednesday.  The three youngest that took exams each got a special medal awarded to us and everyone who had passed their exam got a really smart looking certificate.  As if that wasn't enough we also got a little present as well.  We got to show the grown ups our small group dance we had to do for the exam as well, which was obviously a treat for them.

It was all rush rush rush after dancing.  We had to eat tea and get me to school for  six o'clock for the opening night of our school play, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

I wasn't allowed to go, so Owen came round to keep me company.  We had a cool time, well I did, not sure how he felt after i'd talked at him for nealy two hours non stop.

The play itself went very well.  My class all had a part of wedding guests (as well as general singers of course). 

I really got into character and enjoyed the dancing too:

Here we all are, 3HD enjoying our own little finale:

It really was great fun and we all did really well. It was also pretty cool because Mum and Dad sat right on the front row do I got to give them a cheeky wave or two.

Massive excitement on Thursday, we got letters from the actual real father christmas.

Yeah, he seemed to know a LOT, even our friends names?

I had another performance on Thursday night, I was pretty tired out by the end of it to be honest.

Friday night we finally went and got ourselves a christmas tree.

About time too, even my teacher thought it was too long to wait.  In fact my only requirement for this years tree was that it was to be taller than Mrs. Douglas.

I loved being greeted by the singing dancing Santa on the way in:

So we selected this one in about thirty seconds and then turned our attention to the man running trees through the bagging machine:

We put it into the back of the car bteween our seats and made for McDonalds, well, it was too late to start cooking.

We had to frop Dad off at the pub for his work Christmas party as well, we knew Saturday morning wasn't going to be action packed.

No it wasn't, we had a very  lazy day and watched Wall E, which was universally liked.

We headed over to Grandad and Anne's for tea as a late birthday party for him and an early christmas party for all of us.

It was rather good as well, we had party poppers and crackers.

I did loads of colouring with Dad.

And I drilled Alan for histoy facts.

Never ones to rush anything the Christmas tree went up on Sunday.

Everything went up very smoothly as well, no drama's with the tree falling over or anything:

The net from the tree made a rather good wedding veil/train when attached to my head with hair grips:

Even Poppy got caught up in the Christmas spirit:

Once we'd emptied the box of decorations onto the tree it was time for the cherub to take her place at the top:

I was made to go to the stupid park in the afternoon because of Ellis.

Sorry Ned but I really wanted to go, even if I did run Mum over on my bike and it may have been really freezing cold.

We helped Mum make some chocolate brownie, we didn't make any mess of course and it all ran really smoothly:

Once the bowl was well and truly empty, Ned let me finish licking duties:

We decided to pose for a seasonal shot with the cat as well:

 We had to finish of writing our cards too:

Monday was pretty cool at school, we had our visiting pantomime performance of Ali Baba. I loved it, even if it was only in the hall.  After that it was party time. I didn't think it much of a party though really, there was no dancing?  Just eating.  I was also told not to wear my party shoes outside by Mum on the morning but seeing as we had a fire alarm I had to make an exception.

We also had our paty today as well, I was much more happy with the school definition of a party.  The cakes that Dad bought me to take along went down a storm and I even helped the grown ups set the food up during lunchtime.

Well I got my swimming report back and i've passed level one with flying colours, roll on level 2 when I get a yellow swimming hat and go in the deep end of the swimming pool. 

Hmmm, yeah great, I get to resume my lessons as well after Christmas, deep joy. 

We'll both be in the pool at the same time as well, but in different pools.

I don't know how Dad will manage to watch us both.

Dancing was back on this week and Mrs Groves had bought us all a pair of tap dancing shoes to wear.  How exciting!  The noise levels were certainly up while we tried them all for size.  

I was glad to leave them to it and do reading in the car, even though it gets dark very early at the moment and we have to have the lights on in the car.

I'm making quit a swift exit from school most nights now so I can get a bit of a go on the skateboard before it gets too dark.  All my practice paid off when  managed to pull very first ollie last week (when you pop the board up into the air).

We went to the Anvil to see the Panto with the school on Thursday morning.  I sat with Tom on the coach and i'd made sure I had loads of sweets to take with me.  The show itself was really brilliant, especially when Peter Pan flew out over the audience dropping glittery bits on us all.  Even silly Jake couldn't put me off with his endless chair kicking from behind.

We did our nativity play last week, a practice on wednesday then a real show on Thursday and Friday mornings.  Mum and Dad came on Friday morning and sat on the wrong side of the hall, I told them where to sit and it made perfect sense to me?  Anyway, it didn't matter too much.  They loved it of course:

And here's my close up, Ellis the 'Binky' (Innkeeper):

 I broke ranks at the end to go and give Mum a cuddle before I had to go back to class.
We got put to work on friday afternoon after school, making pigs in blankets for christmas:

We got them all nicely rolled and tucked away in the freezer, we can't wait to eat them!
We had a lay in on Saturday morning, playing christmas snap in Mum and Dad's bed.
Once we'd finally surfaced we got dragged to the beach.  Reluctantly.
But of course, once we got there we loved it!
We had chips on the seafront at the Witterings:

Took in the fresh sea air:

And of course, collected some rock samples:

Does this remind you of anyone?

We had a trip to the surf shop too of course.
And then we headed home for Sue to come around and babysit.  She has also joined the club of not reading Harry Potter, but we'll forgive her as she'd come out in a bit of a rush and forgotten her reading glasses.
I had Milly's party on Sunday morning.  It was good, there was a bouncy castle and massive dance floor for me to perform my moves.  The catering wasn't to my liking though, hot dogs (yuck), Flump sweets (yuck) and birthday cake with jam in it (yuck).
I was quite happy to take the cake of her hands....
We went to Rich, Oli and Joshuas on Sunday afternoon for a bit of a gethering with all the gang.  It was great fun, Max and I made ourselves at home and tucked into the impressive spread.
And I played with the younger ones, the wooden railway was a particular favourite.  As well as nearly one years old Finley!
Back to school today and we're getting bucketloads of cards.
I had a rather interesting one from Tilly, which she chose to inform me that she hated me with. Nice I thought?  Anyway, it got intercepted by one of the teaching assistants so we'll see what happens there.  We do generally manage to wind each other up though....

I had my last week of school swimming lessons...yay!  It was fun week as well so I quite enjoyed it.  The bad news is that i have to go back to proper lessons, after school one evening as week.  Re-enrolment isn't for a little while though so i'll have a few weeks off.

I had my assesment week and quite honestly if I haven't passed with flying colours it will be the biggest shock of the year so far.

I was so glad the teachers were on strike on Wednesday, especially after Ellis had her day off for teacher training the other week.  I got to spend the day with Auntie Christine.  We went to Sainsbury's of course and I discovered the joys of the coin counting and changing machine, my new obsession!

I got to go to school as usual, but dancing wasn't on in the afternoon as the school that it's at was closed.  I was pretty disappointed about that.  Seeing as we'd made the effort to go all the way over to Thatcham, we thought we'd make the best of it and go through the car wash!  Great fun.

The advent calendars came out on Thursday...yay!

Yeah, it was all very exciting, of course there was also the fairy truck and penguin drawers for the little chocolate deposits.

I seem to have got this years crackpot calendar, the first door contained a rather odd looking mouse on ice skates.

We had a surprise trip to Reading on Friday afternoon to rescue Uncle Alan after the train network ground to a halt.

It was great actullay, we sang Frank Turner songs all the way there and then grilled Alan mercilessly all the way home again.

We had another low key weekend, which is suiting us just fine at the moment.

Saturdays main event was the Christmas fete at school.  This was the first time it had been on a Saturday so it was great that Mum could come along, even if she did volunteer to help out on the tombola stall:

It was the best stall at the fete by a mile.

It was so easy to win a big jar of sweets (and it wasn't just because mum let us cheat or anything either).

We made sure we gave her plenty of help, until we decided we ought to go and have a proper look around.

We did the outdoor treasure hunt which we loved.

I got to show Dad and Ned my classroom:

There was all sorts of fun and games in the queue to see Santa. Ned's friends Ella and Tilly thought it was hilarious that Charlie was my boyfriend. They said I should give him a kiss, so I did. We also got to meet Charlies Dad who was oblivious to the whole situation, I think Mum filled him in.

Anyway, after all that nonsesne we got to see Santa: 

I asked for a 3DS.

And I asked for some cars, which surprised everyone I think. If truth be told, it surprised me a little too. Then it was face painting time, Rudolph anyone?

When we got home we watched Pocahontas, this weeks DVD club offering.

For the first week ever, everyone stayed awake throught the whole thing, I don't know what that says about the film?
Sunday we had to go out for a walk.
As usual, we were in a frenzy of excitement to go out...NOT! I almost had to go naked as I refused to get dressed.
And as usual, we loved it as soon as we were there.
Especially as we took a route that billed itself as being super muddy....it was as well:

We found cool little bridges, great big sticks to wave about and super slurpy mud that got your feet stuck and tried to steal your wellies...great fun!