Blimey, seems like ages since we were on here doesn't it?
Easter holidays and all that, we had a games morning on Tuesday (Mum was off all week). We had Kerplunk, Draughts and then stuffed mum totally at build a beetle.
Even though she spent most of her time making the window fitting men coffee.
I went to Alastairs for the afternoon which was great fun.
And I went into town with Mum and Dad for a bit, we helped Mum pick some new glasses and then went off to sneakily buy her a birthday card while she went throught the paperwork and what have you. We got her some cool cards, one with a massive dog sat on a woman on the beach and one with someone with their bum out (that one was for Ned). By the time we got back to the opticians, she'd chosen another pair of glasses that I hadn't even sanctioned!
Wednesday was a bit of a lazy morning again and then a trip to the cinema in the afternoon when Dad was home to see Pirates!
We were really excited about it.
We loved it of course, we always love the cinema.
Thursday and the Window men were finally finished.
We went to the holiday club at school for a little while as there was a two hour street dance session on. We both went along and we really loved it.
Ellis really was very good and it was great to see some of my school friends for a bit.
We went to the park in the afternoon which was nice.
And then we had a family trip to Tesco, which wasn't....so much.
We spent the morning with Auntie Christine on good friday while Mum and Dad went out somewhere.
Well it was supposed to be the morning, but as Auntie Christine herself told Mum and Dad, we were having too much fun to come home until well into the afternoon!
Saturday then....Mum's birthday!
We got her up reasonably only to present her with her carefully selected cards and presents.
And then we went on holiday! Heaeded East this time for a change, towards Kent.
It was all going really well as well, until Mum decided to consult the map even though we had the sat nav on. The only trouble was that I had sort of removed a couple of pages from it, and it just so happened that it was the couple of pages we really needed at he time. Oops.
Luckily we spotted the signs for Hever Castle from the motorway so we decided to follow those instead.
Yes indeed, Hever Castle, it was really rather good actually, even though it was all history and that.
There was an Easter egg trail as well, history and chocolate....me and Mum were in our element!
There were really good grounds to explore, with mazes. Including this rather magnificent water maze that squirted you when you took the wrong direction:
It was great fun, until I took a bit of tumble and ended up with my foot in the pond. It was very wet indeed. Everyone seemed to see the funny side except me. I blamed everyone else of course:
Once we had seen everything on offer (great park, easter chicks, inside the palace, more mazes and claimed our easter eggs) we headed off to our hotel in Ashford. Due to the map malfunction we hadn't realised quite how far we still had to go.
But it didn't take that long and we were soon checked in and up to our room.
Our room was cool as well, I had a double sofa bed all to myself.
And I had my very own single bed, pushed up against the wall, just how I like it!
We got changed and headed out to the pub that Dad had booked for Mum's birthday meal.
Then it was back to the hotel for bed bouncing and take me out on the telly.
Sunday, easter egg hunt in the hotel room...brilliant! I'm sure the video will emerge here soon enough.
Then it was hotel breakfast and out to a place called Dungeness. Apparently Dad used to go here as a kid, he must have had a deprived childhood or something, it was like the very end of the earth down there.
But the lighthouses were very cool.
Out of the fog and the mist emerged a really cool little steam train with loads and loads of coaches behind it.
I really took an interest in the trains:
We got out own little coach all to ourselves and chugged out of the mist and murk and headed up country.
It was a very comfortable arrangement, especially with a bag full of easter eggs to graze on:
We went all the way to the end of the line in Hythe before making our return.
Stopping off at Romney for a look around the model railway exhibition which we really loved.
We were soon back at Dungeness, It looked a little less grim than it did in the morning:
On the way back to the hotel we stopped off to see our Great Uncle Brian and Great Auntie Mary.
Last time we saw them I was apparently a baby?
Yeah, it must have been nearly five years ago, unfortunately we didn't exactly give a great account of ourselves.
No, we were a bit naughty really.
Not that they minded, they were just pleased to see us and made a whole load of excuses for our questionable actions...you can tell they must have been Nannies family!
We heaed back to the hotel with a bit of a frosty atmosphere from Dad and especially Mum. Oh dear.
She was soon over it though and we ventured out for a luxury tea in a near by McDonalds, where we had much fun and laughter defacing the 'Pirate of the Year' hats they were dishing out to read 'Prat of the Year' instead.
Next morning was out big trip to France. So we were up and down for breakfast at the hotel before packing up our stuff and getting a Taxi to the railway station.
A taxi, we'd never been in a Taxi before so it was pretty exciting.
What was even more exciting was the speed the said Taxi drove off at as soon as we were sat down in the back...!
It was only a short ride to the station (not a surprise seeing the warp speeds we were travelling at), Mum was particularly pleased it was a short trip as I was really enjoying watching the trip meter ramping up and telling her all about it.
There were two really happy chaps on the passport and ticket control desk and we were soon through the metal detectors into the departures lounge. It was a world away from the airport thats for sure.
We had a good time waiting, we read some Harry Potter,
Built some Lego.
Made friends with some other kids.
Mum checked us in on the Disney Desk, which gave us all our park tickets and hotel vouchers before we'd even left Ashford, cool or what?
We even got a little bag each with a jigsaw, a cool multicoloured pencil and an activity book to tide us over for a little while until the train arrived.
We walked down to the platform just before the train arrived, got on, actually had a seat to sit in (which is a novelty for us on our usual trips to London) and set off for France.
We were very excited at the prospect of going through a tunnel under the sea to France.
We were, even it if it turned out to be a pretty boring black tunnel that only lasted just over 20 minutes or so.
And we popped up in France, it looked much like England really, except all the cars were on the other side of the road. In just about two hours and a couple of earlier stops we arrived at the station for Disneyland.
How cool, all we had to do was check our luggage in at the Station (to be sent of to the hotel for later) and then we were free to go into Disneyland, and it was only just after lunchtime.
The full set of pictures can be seen here:
But here's a few highlights as well. The first ride we headed for was Mum's favourite, Autopia:
It was brilliant, especially when all the traffic came to a halt and we smashed into the back of Ned and Dad's car. He was whineing about putting in a whiplash claim or something or other...ha ha!
After that it was a whirlwind of rides and character meetings until we headed back to our hotel for dinner.
We picked up our bags and our room keys and headed up to our room....in the lift.
Our room had just been decorated and was really rather nice.
then we headed down for our dinner....the restaurant was a help yourself buffet, brilliant, all the cucumber and sweetcorn I could eat.
And all the pizza and chips I could manage, don't even start me on the pudding selections, yum yum!
All the excitement soon caught up with us and we decided it was time for bed.
After an early morning and hotel brekfast (again, help yourself, but no pizza or chips sadly) folowed by the days meet and great with a character in the lobby (Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse on the first day) we headed back out to the park.
The castle was pretty good too actually, it actually had some stuff inside to explore as well as a bit out the back:
We had a hit list of stuff we wanted to do including the Runaway Mine Train (which was a bit noisy for me truth be told) and it's a small world (much more like it in my opinion).
We went on loads of other stuff too, so much in fact that I can't really remember it all.
By mid afternoon the weather was closing in and it started to rain...really rain.
By the time we got back to the hotel we were soaked right through. So it was a good idea to head to the pool for a swim. This was probably my highlight of the whole trip really, I love swimming. The pool was realy good with loads of intertesting nooks and crannies and a really smart slide.
You could even go down it on the provided swimming floats, some of which were the size of bodyboards. They zoomed accross the water really well at the bottom of the slide.
The other highlight was the hot tub...it sure was hot....we didn't want to get out.
Dad and I found another heat source in the changing room though and had a relaxing session in first the steam bath and then in the sauna.
Yeah, while Mum and I had to wait for them both outside the changing rooms.
A hot chocolate and a game of cards in the hotel before dinner was definatley called for:
Before we turned in for the night. Which wasn't entirely without incident.....I fell out of bed with quite a thump and woke everyone up.
Except me of course. Wednesday and we went to the Studios park, which is still Disney, but another park right next door. This is the one I was most excited about as it had the Tower of Terror and Rock N Rollercoaster.
Tower of terror sounded great to me, I was well up for it too. I made the height restriction easily enough but the spooky bits and bobs on the last bit before we got on the ride were enough to put me off. I cleverly disguised this as a sudden and irresistable urge to go to the toilet.
Tower of terror was brilliant again of course, I love it.
It wasn't all scary stuff though, we loved the Cars ride:
We completely loved Stitch Live, a live interactive video screen show. Stitch actually talked to me, he asked me my name and age and whether I had a girlfriend! I was soooo pleased, Stitch is my favourite.
There was a new Toy Story area too, we loved this. There was a slinky dog ride but slinky got dizzy when we got on him and we had to come back later with a special ticket that meant we could jump the queue.
I loved jumping queues, either with this ticket or the Fast Pass tickets we sorted out. Also brilliant was getting into the parks themselves earlier than everyone waiting at the gate because we were hotel residents.
Anyway, back to Toy Story, there was a parachute drop ride that I loved.
And an RC racer ride that I went on with Mum. Mistake. She screamed like a total lunatic for some reason. I had another go with Dad, he was much more dignified.
Then my main event of the day...Rock N Rollercoaster. I was pretty excited about this one, even if I was a little bit scared. Well, only a little bit...but it did go upside down three times. I went on with dad and unlike normal rollercoasters it didn't go up a great big hill to start off with, it fired you out of the station at warp speed. It was amazing, all in the dark, loud music, flashing lights and lots and lots of speed. By the time we'd finished the first loop my hands were in the air making devil horns. Mum came on with me next as we used Ellis' for a 'baby swap' (even though she isn't really a baby anymore). Here we are getting off:
I was quite happy with Rex while all this was going on. I was also showing my Tigger all around the place, his old home infact, we bought him here last time we came:
I still had my pen and activity book from the train with me, so I took the time to do a little writing and what have you as well.
Having already had a full day in the studios park we headed back over to Disneyland to watch the parade.
We love the parade, and unlike yesterday the sun was blazing so we set up camp on the pavement with a lovely ice lolly (For all the ice cream spotters out there we all had a Twister. It was much like our version in England but longer and without the creamy bit. It was also on a much smarter stick).
We also did a little bit of souvenir shopping, I plumped for a cuddly stitch toy which I have snuggled at bedtime without fail every night since.
And after a few near misses found the most Ellis' present anyone had ever seen. A pink, light up, spinning dress princess, wow:
Here's our massive hotel, around the lake:
It had the waftiest key system of all time and very often took at least 8 tries before it would actually let you in:
And here is my bedtime snuggle up Stitch, holding my muzzy all ready for me:
Later on in the evening we were pretty worn out, but there was the evening laser and firework show on.....I wanted to go.
And I could barely keep my eyes open. We decided in the end that it would be best if I went to bed....
....and Mum and I went to the show. She did a brilliant job of giving me a piggy back so I could see even if she was pretty much crippled the next day from the effort.
So our last day, booo. It wasn't as rubbish as normal last days though, we had until 5 pm to enjoy it.
We headed off to the studios for Crush's Coaster, Mum and Dad's absoloute favourite. I love Nemo, how scary could it be?
I had my reservations actually, I didn't like it last time I went on it and I wasn't sure now. Still, I had to look brave in front of Ellis.
I got the jitters and tried the toilet trick but it didn't work this time.
And I had to get on the backwards facing seats for Ellis' benefit.....
We were off, and almost straight away I didn't like it! It was too fast, too dark and went sideways, backways, all sorts of ways.
I wasn't too sure either although I put a brave face on.
So, kids, don't let your parents drag you on this ride. They might love it and all the adverts and posters for it in the park itself make it look so lovely, but don't be taken in!
After that we headed for the stunt show. I loved the stunt show.
Lets get that straight right away. I totally loved the stunt show. Especially the motorbike jumps and the man who fell off and set himself on fire.
Lets get that straight right away. I totally loved the stunt show. Especially the motorbike jumps and the man who fell off and set himself on fire.
Dad and I particularly liked the appearance of the real Lightning McQueen!
After that we had a chance to meet Ariel:
But Mary Poppins had to leg it before we got to her as it started to rain a little...she had a lot of make up and a very white outfit after all.
Dad got another four fast passes for Rock N Rollercoaster....brilliant I got another two goes!
And while Ned was on that a cool game of hoop/jump/basketball was set up in the street which I loved:
There was another parade in the Studios park, this time with the characters in cars:
Then we managed to track down a couple of the main players for out autograph book, Minnie Mouse (Uncle Alan, are you reading?):
And then Mickey:
I think that just about covered everything. We'd had a great four days.
If a bit tiring!
We headed back for a bite to eat in the Disney Village before collecting our bags and settling down in the wrong seats for a the train ride home.
We eventually found our actual seats and settled down again for the train ride home. Where Dad actually saw the Eifell tower out of the window, thus validating my claim on the outward journey that was scoffed at!
The train was pretty comfy actually, but tired as we were we jibber jabbered and mucked about all the way home.
Well, nearly all the way, of course we dropped off about 10 minutes before the train arrived back in Ashford.
So after a fun packed week of excitment and culture you'd have thought hwe'd have come home and taken it easy yeah?
Oh no, it was my birthday! I didn't get up that early though, I am quite considerate. I had some seriously cool presents to open, the main one being my very own TV/DVD player for my bedroom. Wow, how cool is that?
Pretty cool Ned, especially if you let me come and watch it with you.
Once that was all done and dusted and Dad got it working it was off to the station for another day out to London.
It has to be said I wasn't that keen. I'd been a bit under the weather for a couple of days at Disnelyland and was pretty much tired out. Still, seeing as it was Ned's birthday and Mum and Dad promised me lots of shoulder carries I decided i'd soldier on.
We had lunch booked at the Rainforest Cafe, it was sooooo cool inside. Moving animals, rain, thunder, a starry sky......
Another character to meet and greet:
And a special birthday Sundae with a rousing chorus of happy birthday sung by everyone in the vicinity, I loved this bit in particular:
Once we'd finally been prized out of the shop upstairs we made our way towards the London Eye.
It was a right old scenic route too, we went past Leicester square, the head office of the MOD,
Trafalgar square, the Cenotaph and the other end of Downing Street. Oh and a brilliant statue of Queen Boudicca, one of our favourites from Horrible Histories.
We then turned the corner to see Big Ben, the houses of Parliament and on the other side of the river (I thought it was the deep sea) the London Eye. It was very high indeed.
We couldn't wait to go on it. It was so cool, it didn't even stop for you to get on or off as it moved sooooo slowly.
We soon started to climb up, the people below looked like ants in no time:
You could so much from up there, mum was a brilliant tour guide, pointing out all sorts of interesting stuff for us.
After that we headed for home in plenty of time for me to go to Tom's party at Eddie Katz (I know on my actual birthday!).
Wow, what a week!
Some excitement for me on Saturday when I got to go round to my frined Lillies for the day. We had a lovely time, Pizza Hut for lunch (don't tell Ned and a trip to the park in the afternoon.
I had a trip out with Mum and Dad to tesco...wow I know, you envy me. I did have a bit of a spend of my birthday money in the DVD section getting the Lion King and Cars 2 (on a buy one get one free offfer no less, I love a deal). I Retreated to my room to watch the Lion King and left them downstairs watching the Grand National build up.
I was home in time for the big race but sadly even though we'd all picked a horse and placed a bet, none of us won anything.
Alan and Hayley came round for a birthday related visit in the afternoon, we loved showing them our disney Autograph book that Dad had actually got proper printed photographs done for already.
Printed photographs? You can print them can you? I thought you could only see them on computer screens?
I also had my belated birthday cake:
We went out for Chrissy's 40th birthday on Sunday.
Yeah for lunch, very nice.
And a great meet up for the grown ups and all us kids. We had agreat time hiding under the tables, firing off party poppers and blowing bubbles.
Monday, last day of the school holidays. What could be better than a lazy day with Auntie Christine?
A lazy day with Auntie Christine and Darcey perhaps? Oh yes.
We had a great time trying to get her to crawl...she's nearly there I reckon!
It was back to school on Tuesday, quite honestly I was about ready to go back. I'd missed my friends really.
I'm still keeping up that I don't like school. Although I do really. I think.
Dancing started again on Wednesday as well. I'm loving it at the moment, especially after they changed the classes and times. There's a lot fewer of us now it's little ones only and we get a lot more done.
And because Mum was off sick, I didn't have to go with Dad and read in the car. Result for me, but obviously bad for Mum.
No multiskills on Thursday yet either, that doesn't start until next week so it was cuddle up time with sick bay Mum with the telly. Easily as good as running round a muddy field with Mr Gilham I reckon.
We've started learning subtraction this week, so feel free to shoot me some quick fire sums...I love it!
We've both started a new topic about growing this term.
Yeah, and we've both been out digging and weeding and getting very muddy indeed.
But we do love it.
As if that wasn't enough gardening, we actually did some at home on Saturday morning too.
Yeah, after years of lobbying from me, we might finally have some lovely flowers to look at in the summer!
With Mum still being ill, uncle Alan and Auntie Hayleys babysitting session was cancelled, Dad went out alone (well Uncle Slim popped round for a birthday visit and took Dad with him).
This left Mum to watch Saturday night telly with us which was lovely.
Even if you've been framed was missing something without Dad howling with hysteria in the room.
Sunday and there was even more gardening (I know!!!) before the main event.....MY BIRTHDAY PARTY!
Yes, even I was lookng forward to this one.
Bowling and Laser Tag no less. Here we all are getting our bowling shoes on:
We all played very well actually:
Except me, I didn't do very well realy, well, I certainly didn't win!
Ha ha, I did okay, in fact I was the only one to get a strike! I loved hanging out with Ned's friends:
Then it was off upstairs for a game of Laser Tag. It was so exciting, I was one team captain and I made Ellis the other. We had to pick teams and then we were off (Tegan my first pick of course). The lights were turned off, the music was turned up and we engaged in combat.
Ned's team looked a little bit more competitive on paper so I enlisted Dad to help us out for a bit. He didn't need much encouragement I can tell you.
We loved it, we had the whole of Krazy Klub to ourselves and had the best time ever. It was just so awesome. I think everyone else thought so too. My team won in the end apparently, not that anyone really cared as they'd enjoyed it so much. It was then time for food, cake, party bags and going home.
With very, very pink faces!!!
I'd like to say a massive thank you to all my friends who came (for reference, Dylan, Maxim, Liam, Louise, Ella, Ali, Rebecca, Tegan, Hugo and Robert). They were all great fun, great company and all of them got me a great present. I'm a lucky boy.
It was certainly the talk of school on Monday.
And when we got home, mum was still off sick. She's been to the doctors and been signed off for a week so we can get used to some cosy afternoons with the telly this week......
Thats about it then, back up to date, all except the videos, which should appear shortly. I'd also like to add a massive thank you to all my other friends and family for the very kind birthday cards and presents and indeed visits. Can't wait until next year!!!!
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