Last week of term!
Yay, we're on countdown to summer holidays and we can't wait.
Things were pretty hectic in the run up.
Especially as I wanted to make Mrs Douglas a cake.  Ever never gone in for end of term presents before this year but I figured Mrs Douglas was worth some effort.  I made the cake with Mum, she's a much better baker than Dad and it tunred out fantastically well.
Seeing as Ned was making cakes for teacher I thought I ought to get in on the act as well:

So here's my 3HD cake, freshly decorated by my good self:

And here's my smiley faced tribute to Miss Zimmerman's class:

It's not all been fun and games though, in fact, it was no games at all really as sports day was cancelled due to a waterlogged field. Such a shame, I was so looking forward to it as well. Mr Armstrong did rustle up a scaled down indoor affair in the hall which was really good but none of the parents could come along.  It was open class room on wednesday afternoon though and Dad managed to come along to that. I got to show him all my work, I think he was most impressed by my art actually even though there were a few stories that i'd written that were almost a whole page long (amazing for me)

We had a dancing lesson open to Mums and Dad's to celebrate the end of term too. I was so excited that Mum was going to come along.

I was excited as I cold watch Ellis' dancing instead of having to read!

Anyway, I loved having and audience and really played up to them.

We took our cakes in Thursday for last day of term.  I spent some time telling Mrs Douglas the various combinations of fractions she could divide the cake up into but she wasn't having any of it.....she said it was staying as one piece...all for her!  I think she liked the look of it.
Mis Zimmerman was very pleased with mine too. A good start to the last day of term all round then.
And it was only a half day as well.  Actually, I was pretty glad as we'd spent most of the week tidying up and clearing stuff away...booooring!
So Dad came to pick us up just after lunch, we said our goodbyes to all our friends.
And I had not one, but two cuddles from Mrs Douglas.  I also got a bookmark with a photo of me holding a real Olympic torch on it and a book as a present (A local torch bearer bought it into school for us to have a look at, cool or what eh?)
So we were free from school.....it was a nice enough day outside and it was only lunchtime....what to do?
What to do indeed...how about a trip to the BMX track?
Great idea Ned:

My poor little bike struggles with some of the bigger jumps you know.  Not that I mind a bit of scrabbling about in the dirt and dust of course.  I was pretty much unstoppable on the rest of the track though: 

I was most definatley stoppable.....with a puncture!  Dad was devastated as it was probably the first time he hadn't bought the pump and spare inner tube with us.  I wasn't bothered though, I just played a little Ipod and then stole his bike.  I was better on it than him anyway:

It had taken a while but we finally had our 'good school report treat'....a trip to Pizza Hut!

Lovely lovely Pizza Hut, what a great way to finish the school year!
So with only actually being a Thursday we broke up on, we still had a friday to have without Mum and Dad....thank goodness for Auntie Christine eh?
Indeed, a lovely quiet day with her was just the job after out hectic week.
Even if I did have to go for a swimming lesson still in the afternoon.
Something realy weird happened on Saturday, the sun came out.
And it was nice and warm.
Unbelievable stuff this year eh?
We made the most of it by spending all day in the garden.
We did, Dad didn't take much convincing to get the new paddling pool out either.  He bought it during the driving rain and hose pipe ban at a reduced price so he was well smug about his purchase now!
We also got the water slide thing out too, as well as the water pistols.
It was a brilliant day.
Topped off with a trip to the local shop for a few sweets...perfect!
Sunday Mum had some business to attend to with Anne to do with Grandad, so Dad had us to himself all day.
His initail plan of going BMX racing fell through when I decided I didn't fancy it after all.
So we hit the pool again!  It was marginally warmer than yesterday so that was a welcome outcome.
Then the Laws came to the rescue with an invite to a barbecue at their place.
We had a quick detour via Decathlon in Reading where we tried out all the exercise machines,
Boxing stuff.
And had a game of table tennis.
Then it was more sports for the rest of the day at the Laws, I love going over there.
Yeah so do I, especially their rabbits and this time their cousins hamsters as well to coo over.  I want one!
Then today it was back to Auntie Christines.
But this time with Darcey too, more the merrier eh?
We made the most fantastic butterfly cakes ever (as verified by taste testers Mum and Dad).
I reckon it must have been the glitter icing, thanks for that Laura!



Well we have genuine exciting stuff to report this week.

We do indeed, how about we start off with the Olympic torch coming to Newbury!

Yeah, how about that?  We were allowed a day off school to go and see it which was obviously brilliant.

We didn't even have to go with boring old Mum and Dad either, no, instead went with Darcey, Laura, Auntie Trish and Auntie Christine.

The only slight downer was that we had to walk all the way to town from Auntie Christines, as we all know, I don't do walking.

I've never seen town so busy, it was mad!  There were people everywhere and we couldn't even get accross the market place!

We made the best of where we were though:

Caught a peek of the torch, waved some flags and generally got into the spirit of the whole thing.

After things had calmed down a bit we met up with Mum for a picnic lunch in the park.

Before I had to walk all the way back again.....boo and indeed hoo.

We had a great time and are now totally hyped for the Olympics coming up.

Yeah, thanks for taking us!

As if I hadn't done enough on my feet for one day it was dancing day as well.  Still, another lesson, another star sticker for me for a great piece of dancing I threw down.

And then in another milestone event it was my lasy parents evening of reception year.  A full half hour appointment it was as well.

Yeah, Ellis and I had a lovely time playing in the Reception playground, it seems like ages since I was there.

Anyway, it sounds like i'm doing really well and Mum and Dad were very pleased with my progress. 

We took Dad shopping again on Thursday, and again it went surprisingly well.

How could it not?  We're so helpful after all!

Friday, we packed up and headed west for a sneaky weekend in the caravan, a starter before the main event if you will later on in the 'summer'

Yeah, how exciting.  We had the usual late night to bed but we were soon tucked up in bed, getting charged up for a couple of days on the beach.

To add even more excitement, Finley was down as well, with Chris and Kate and Bailey the dog!

Oh we loved Bailey.

We really loved Bailey.  So much so we even borrowed him to take him for a walk.

We shared him really nicely and I reckon he had a lovely time:

Once we'd worn him out (well he only has little legs) we hit the beach.  The sun was out and it was just like summer.
Yeah, at last.  It was wetsuits on and climbing, diggging and splashing time for sure.
Weirdly, I also got seriously into my body boarding as well.  Like really into it.  I haven't been that bothered before but for some reason I couldn't get enough of it!.
We rounded the day off with a barbecue and a bout of Tom and Jerry cartoons.
Tom and Jerry...brilliant!  Can't believe we'd never seen it before.
Sunday then, more sunshine...better get back on the beach!
Yeah, I was chomping at the bit to get back in the sea again.  I was asking about tide times, wind conditions and all the rest of it.  I even suggested we take a packed lunch down with us so we could stay all day long.
I was happy with that arrangement, plenty of time to get into my climbing, I love climbing:

I made friends with another boy my age and we went off surfing together, I didn't even want Mum or Dad to come with me, we had a great time.

And then John put in a brief showing, he showed us some really cool climbing routes up the rocks with his extensive local knowledge.

We stayed on the beach all afternoon before heading back up to pack up and leave. 

Stopping off at the pub on the way home for a meal and a drink to tide us over on the journey home.

Cheers Andy and Owen, great fun as always chaps, can't wait until next time!

We didn't get home until pretty late at night so it was straight to bed when we arrived home.

Monday, we were all pretty sleepy....especially Mum.....

We had a day off school on Wednesday, which was good.

But it was for Grandads funeral, so that was bad.

We gave him a very fitting send off though, we had a sing song, heard some of his favourite music and heard some really funny stories about what he used to get up to as a little boy.

We've got a long way to go before we can live up to his level of mischief thats for sure.

But most of all we had a great big get together, there were so many people there there wasn't even enough seats for everyone inside the crematorium.

Seems like he was a really popular and well loved man, we sort of knew that anyway of course!

We went to the pub afterwards, there was food and drink.

And our cool cousins who even let us have a game of pool with them.

And I got to sit at the bar and have a lovely chat with Uncle Trevor.

It was also a bit of a novelty to have Mum with us on  a Wednesday to take me to dancing afterwards.

So, some of you may have heard that they've finally caught up with Dad and got him to work a bit longer during the day as of last week.  I think he was quite emotional about it all actually as it really hit home that we're growing up fast and don't really need him so much anymore.  Anyway, the upshot is he doesn't have time to go to Tesco on his own in the afternoons anymore.

No, he has to wait until we finish school so we can go with him.

It was our first trip on Thursday and it went suprisingly well actually.

We got everything on the list, and a few things that weren't (Moshi Monsters, ha ha)

I got my school report on Friday, it was a really good one too.  I appear to be doing really well at my reading, writing, Maths and creative stuff, i've made loads of new friends and apparently i'm a pleasure to have in class!

Our bike ride in the evening was rained off.  Not surprising at the moment of course, it has been raining rather a lot hasn't it?

So instead we all sat and watched the Little Mermaid together.

We had a quick trip into town on saturday morning, the Spider Man demo running on a 3D telly in John Lewis was pretty brilliant!

Then in the afternoon it was my school fete!  I was so excited and couldn't wait to go.

I was pretty up for it too, especially with the Olympic theme as well.

It's a shame it was quite so wet, but we still made the best of it and had a brilliant time.

Even if we didn't win any more jars of sweets on the childrens tombola.

Mum did a stint as a helper on that stall, we loved helping her out, giving out prizes and re-stocking the table.

But it was so popular we soon ran out of prizes and had to help her pack up.

Dad on the other hand had plenty to do on the bbq stall, flipping burgers for all he was worth!

He obviously developed a taste for it as he fired our barbecue up when he got home, even in the pouring rain!

We had a trip out on sunday, well, it had been a while!

Yeah, we went to Milestones in Basingstoke, I just about managed to get there without spewing up.

It was really cool inside, all streets and that made to look like the olden days.

There were loads of lorries and things as well:

Here I am during a uncharacteristicly late lunch stop, shortly after stuffing a whole chocolate chip muffin into my mouth after being egged on by Dad:

And here I am in a weird bit tucked away in a corner that looks more like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory:

The queue for the war rationed sweet shop was pretty long, authentic no doubt!

The service inside was good though:

But we didn't think much of the things on offer in the toy shop:

And much preferred the musical offerings:

We came home and had a game of junior Monopoly.

It went well, until I started getting well beaten....I had a minor meltdown.

Minor???  Are you sure Ned?

That takes us right up to Monday, todays exciting news was the arrival of our Olympic tickets!

Now all we have to do is work out how to get to London early enough....

Right i'll kick off with a warning this week, if you buy a big gooey chocolate pudding from Tesco, you know sort of like a trifle in a big plastic tub type of thing...those white curls on top of it are not, I repeat not parmesan shavings.  Very disappointing for a cheese lover like me!

Yes Ellis, if you say so.

Well this weeks big news at school is that our class is getting mixed up with the other class before we go into year 1 after the summer holidays.  Only one of my proper girl friends seems to be in my class for next term.  I'm not too bothered about that, after all, i'll still have Charlie!  We've also found out that my teacher next year will be Miss Srickland!

And i've found out that i'll be getting Miss Walsh in place of my beloved Mrs Douglas.

In further massive news I went on my first sleep over on friday night at Abi and Faye's.

And while Ellis was away, Dad and I headed off out for a bike ride.

Poor old Mum was left on her own for the evening!

I'm sure she was okay, we went to a new place on the mountain bikes, Croft Woods in Swindon.  It was a proper bike trail, all around the woods.  There were rocks, berms, bridges and all sorts of stuff to ride.  We did two laps of the 5km loop and then tried the easy blue loop to finish the night off.  That turned out to be a mistake as I took a bad tumble and hurt my leg.  It was a long way back to the car and Dad didn't have a clue where to go. Good job I have a great sense of direction and got us back via the most direct route.  I also gave him a lesson on how to behave around the deer we spotted, by telling him not to kneel down as the knees produce the most scent on the human body which can scare mothers away from their young permanently.  Anyway, it was a great trip and i can't wait to go again.

I had no such dramas with Abi, we had a lovely time and I wasn't even that late asleep....really.

I was, we didn't get home until 10pm!

So it was lay in time on Saturday morning.

Yeah, we finally got going after lunch though.  Due to our late start we went swimming....to Northcroft!

Yeah, no usual trip to one of the exciting pools of Swindon or Bracknell this time.  Having said that, it was pretty good fun.

Yeah, we actually played with each other rather than just bombing down slides on our own.

On sunday we had a very civilised mid morning bacon sarnie brunch.

In readiness for the school fete that started at 12!

We were soooo excited about it, this level of excitment increased several fold when both Aunti Trish and Auntie Christine turned up (especially Auntie Trish with her bag full of 10p's she bought for each of us...thanks!)

It was really good, I won loads on the kids tombola, Dad won a coconut on the coconut shy and when we left Mum was heading up the leader board of the adults netball competition.

And what did I win?  Nothing.  I stil enjoyed myself though!

Here's our haul of winnings:

We managed to convince Auntie Trish to stay for tea as well, brilliant!

Yeah, we had a good afternoon out in the garden, I decided Poppy might need some snuggling material though as she is getting a bit old these days:

There were a few trampoline related injuries, but I think tiredness was the major contributor in all honesty:

Back to school on Monday of course and it was all change. 

The whole school seemed to go up a year for the day.

So I had a visit to year one.

And I had a visit to year 4!

We both rather enjoyed as well.