I went reading mad on Wednesday and made sure I finished my current book from school.  As soon as it was finished I was going up a level to red/black.  I'm going through them at a rate now.

I had an ace time dancing as well.

I got a sticker for good skills at Thursday after school dance club, I was very pleased with myself.

Yeah, he was giving it plenty when we saw him.  We got there dead early so I had loads of time to ride my bike around the playground in front of my friends.  I was pulling some mega skids.

It was our now usual Friday rush around session after school.

First off we had pizza and garlic brerad for tea, almost as soon as we got home from school, how cool was that!

Then it was off to the pool for my swimming lesson.  I did very well this week as it was mostly backstroke.

Then it was a quick change and time for my athletics club.  It was my last week of taster sessions before we have to join up for real.  I'm still dead keen and really enjoyed it this week.

Dad had gone out by the time Ned got home to play cards or something.  We made good use of the time by doing a bit of making, possibly something to do with an upcoming birthday?  Anyway, shame I didn't read the box here really:

Oh yeah, I bought my steam train project home as well, it got a bit smudged in the rain which is a shame but it still looks like it's worth every bit of the three house points I got for it:

I've also been given a few lines of the script for the upcoming school Christmas play.  The idea is we were to learn the lines for auditions to be held the following Monday.  I was dead keen on this, and read it through again and again before starting to pracice reading it out aloud.  After a shaky start and some good tips from Mum, Dad and Auntie Christine I really got into it.

By the time we'd got up Saturday morning Dad had already been to collect our..............wait for it.....................make sure you're sitting down...............NEW TV!

Yes, we now finally have a proper thin TV, we don't need to be ashamed when our friends come round anymore. 

Sadly, it still doesn't get Sky.

We went to the cinema to see Madagascar 3 mid morning.

I loved it.

So did I.

Then we took a detour to the market for more fancy cheesecake before we headed home for lunch.

I had Matilda's party in the afternoon at Northcroft, we had bouncy castle and bumpers and it made a change to Eddie Cats thats for sure.

We took a load of old telly's to the tip and then dropped in to see Laura and Darcey.  Darcey was great fun and I really enjoyed playing with her.

Auntie Christine came to babysit saturday night, with a special treat for us....a massive Lindor chocolate!

It was the most amazing thing we'd ever seen I think.

We even managed to fit a few board games in before bedtime, how cool.

We helped make sunday dinner this week.

Yep, peeling, chopping and mixing.

And we've still got all our fingers!

I had another party in the afternoon, this time for Maddie and it was in the school hall.  When we got there Matilda was wearing the present i'd given her the day before (clip in rainbow coloured hair extension thingys).  I was really pleased about that.  I was having a bit of an uncharacteristic wobble and wanted Mum to stay with me rather than clearing off home.  It didn't end too well though, I was a bit of a monkey and after two and a half hours of helping out on a cake decoration activity I think Mum was ready to kill.

Yeah, cheers Ellis.

I felt proper poorly when I got up today, no school for me.  I rallied very well though and felt much better by mid-morning.

Yeah, nice on Ellis, I had to go to school on my own, had no PE kit (so instead of playing football I had to stay in and read).  I also had my audition today.  I arrived a bit late as I didn't know it was going on and forgot a line on my first attempt.  I was told to seetle down and try again and this time I nailed it.  I was told I was the loudest boy to audution, not sure whether thats a compliment or not?  Anyway, we should find out before the end of the week who's got what part so it's fingers crossed.

Hello again, we're back for another update.

Very weird scenes on Tuesday, Mum was on a course in Bristol and had to leave really early on the train.
In fact, she was gone before we even got up. This could only mean one thing.
Dad would have to get us ready for school!
Amazingly, things went really well, in fact so well we were sitting about for ages before it was even time to go to school.
Things went well on the whole, except we forgot my PE kit bag. Which was doubley dozey seeing as we'd packed it the night before and everything. We did parachute games with Mr Gilham after school, I loved it.
We went to pick her up in the evening from Didcot railway station which was pretty cool.
Yeah, we loved the power station chimneys.
And the longer drive meant we could play on the Ipad for even longer.
We were very pleased to see her when she got back even though she'd only really been gone a few hours.
The same thing happened Wednesday, except we didn't have the spare time waiting for school to open as we got up a bit later.
I think Dad enjoyed the lie in actually.
And I got a bit of a headstart on my project about transport, i've decided to go with steam trains this week.
I was back at ballet this week with a renewed vigour. It'll be exam time soon and having found my medal out from last year, I really want another one.
We picked Mum up from the station again, she said that two days travelling was quite enough for her and she was very pleased she only normally has to walk into town for work.
We agreed with her as well, we did miss her in the mornings.
Thursday was a really rainy day, which suits me fine. I'm still loving my new wellies so any excuse to wear them is okay by me. I'm also not at all bothered about getting wet, so when it was time to go and collect Ned I wanted to ride my bike.....in just my shirt! I got soaked and my hair went all curly. Mum was a bit worried about this as it was school photo day the next day.
Friday was pretty much the most exciting day of the week....our class pyjama party! We'd had a vote on what to do when we filled our marble jar and this was the clear winner. I made sure I had my full outfit of pyjama's, sunglasses and flip flops. I looked more like I was on a lazy morning in cornwall than at school. We had sweets as a midnight snack and took a teddy in too (little Roo for me, spent all day with his head poking out the top of my sports kit bag).
After school I was back at swimming lessons, brilliant! I was looking forward to it, and when Eva and Lois turned up I was over the moon.
Then it was time to pick Mum up from work, rush home, get changed and go to Team Kennet.
Mum took him so dad could stay home and cook my tea...poor old Ned had to wait for his.
I didn't mind. I loved it again and made easy work of learning standing triple jump even though most of the others struggled a bit. I was really proper tired when I got home though....
We were up and about reasonably early on Saturday morning.
So we got off to the Oasis in Swindon for some more swimming.
I was keen to get in the water again, I haven't been for a while and with holidays coming up I wanted to make sure I hadn't lost it.
I love the pool so much and didn't stop smiling or laughing the whole time we were there.
We came home and helped Mum and Dad do some tidying as Abi, Faye, Kimi and Marney were coming round with their respective grown ups later.
Yeah, the grown ups were all eating I think, we stayed upstairs, all on Ellis' bed watching DVD's.
It was really cool, I had my Hello Kitty lights on and the big light off and all my cushion collection to slump on.
We watched Honey I shrunk the kids and most of the Lion King before we could could smell some really good cooking coming from downstairs. I had to investigate. Andy was making proper, real doughnuts, awesome! I helped him dredge them in sugar and then served them for him. I of course had to charge a handling fee....they were lovely. So lovely in fact I was still talking about them on Monday.
After our late night, we weren't really grumpy at all on Sunday.
No, we did okay actually. We went to some shop or other and got ourselves a few bit of clothing.
Yeah, Me and Mum actually agreed on a few things too which was a pleasant change.
And then we moved on to the real meat of the day, Ikea to get stuff for my new bedroom. I'm really excited about this so getting myself a coupe of new duvets and a chest of drawers should be just the kick to get things started. But first I apparently have to have a massive clear up in there?
We came home just in time to see the repeat of Take Me Out from saturday night, cool.
Then it was Monday again. We danced to 'I like to move it, move it' at after school street dance club, we loved it.
So did me and a couple of the other big brothers who had our own little dance club going on in the back corner of the hall.

I decided I didn't want to go to ballet last week, too tired again was my reason.  This time I stuck to my guns though and didn't change my mind and we stayed home instead.

Usually I would have taken this as a great oppurtunity to sack the reading off, but not these days, not with all new, improved super studious Ned.  I got to spend even longer reading with Dad instead.

I had my first session at Team Kennet Athletics club on Friday night, I was glad it wasn't outside as it was chucking it down and dark, looks like winter is on it's way for sure.  I was a bit nervous on and off before we went, well I didn't know what to expect.  Once I got there though I loved it and couldn't wait to get stuck in.

And I got to sit and watch with Mum and Dad.  He did very well actually, I was impressed!

Yeah, I was certainly keen and wanted to get stuck into everything.  We had four zones to work through, throwing (indoor javelins and a basketball), agility (things to do with footwork), Jumping (standing longjump and a high jump-hand slap-on the wall sort of thing) and then relay running.  Alexandria from school was there too, so it was nice to have at least one familiar face.  I can't wait to go back next week!

Mum had to go to work on Saturday, booo.

Yeah, buit at least she had sorted us out with some entertainment.

Indeed she had, we went to the Corn Exchange to see the Selfish Crocodile with Dad.

It was brilliant fun, we got sat down a bit early and all three cast members came to see us, find out our names and crack a few jokes.

Then the show itself started, we got namechecked a few times during the performance.

And the crocodile himself came up to our seats to try and eat Dad, before declaring him 'Too meaty'

The whole placed laughed their heads off.

We met Mum for lunch afterwards and sat by the canal with a pasty before I took her round to the bakery stall at the market that we'd clocked on the way out of the Corn Exchange.  It looked amazing, bread, bread, lovely bread!  But even better than bread, fancy cheesecake...I had to have a bit.  It was gorgeous, I love cheesecake!

We had a totally lazy afternoon before going to pick Mum up.

Then it was time to watch telly as 'Take me out' has started again.

Which I jibber jabbered all the way through.

I've started a marble jar at home as well as the one we have running at school.  When we're good, we get a marble in the jar and when the jar is full we have a treat.  I'm installing the same system at home, which obviously means a lot of talking from me. I don't think we have enough marbles in the house to fill the jar i'm using though.  Maybe I should try and find a smaller jar?

I had Adriajne's party on Sunday at Eddie Cats, obviously brilliant albeit with a slight disagreement about what I should wear.  Turns out that short sleeves and no socks isn't such a great idea when going down fast slides after all.  Not that i'd ever let of course.

We had a sneaky trip to McDonalds while she was at the party although we did have to go to some shops too.

In the afternoon we did a little bit of school work and then played some games.

First of all was the treasure hunt we devised (check the video).

I gave mum plenty of help to find mine.

I thought she was finished quickly.  I gave Dad the right run around to find his in some really devious hiding places i'd come up with.

After that little success it was a couple of board games, first up my Doggie bone game.

And then we had a go at Junior Monopoly.  This normally ends in tears and all sorts of arguments.  This time we introduced a 'crying tax' if anyone used any less than sporting behaviour.  It seemed to do the trick though, the game passed off without incident.

Mum came last, horribly last in fact.

And I won!

Back to school today, it was lashing it down as we walked in and there were rivers flowing down the paths in the playground, was really exciting!

I've been running everywhere, to school, home from school, back to school to get my book and reading diary, back to school to get Ellis after dancing, home again after geting Ellis from dancing....all training!

Dancing, I love dancing, well, I love getting to mess about with Lillie anyway!

I decided things needed livening up during the performance so joined in t the back.  I was really going fo rit too, Dad thought I was becoming a bit of a distraction though and gave me the acknowledged glare of 'stop it now'  Shame, I was getting in to it as well.

My endless jibber jabber has continued unabated. Dad asked me if I was ever quiet....of course I said....when i'm asleep!

We had a trip to the dentist last Tuesday.

We've had to change the man we see as he'll only take Dad private now, so to keep things simple, we all go to the same one as Mum.

He was very nice actually, he said we brush well and have nice healthy teeth.

Yeah, that was very good to hear.

After that we had a little time to kill before Mum had finished work so we visited the bookshop, which we loved.

And HMV where I tried out loads of those really cool big headphones that the swimmers wore at the Olympics.

After that we wandered down the park for a bit of a play as well, was very lucrative for me as I found about £1.70 in change under one of the swings.

Yeah, I was gutted i missed out on that!

I was also nearly blowing a gasket in my attempts to get either of my parents to get me enrolled in Team Kennet athletics club as well.  Mum made some calls, Dad sent some emails.....will have to wait and see I suppose.

I didn't want to go to ballet on Wednesday, the line I tried was that of tiredness.  Dad said okay then, don't go.  He didn't much like my idea of going down the park instead though.  Apparently if i'm too tired for dancing, i'm also too tired for the park.  I decided dancing wasn't such a bad idea after all.

All my fretting had proved to be unfounded as i've got a place at the athletics club, starting this friday night.  I can't wait to go and get stuck in.

I did my dancing after school on Thursday night.  I got right to the front in front of our teacher a dn really gave it everything this week.  I'm hoping to win dancer of the week for my efforts but won't find out until class this week.

And while he was prancing about I got to stay late in my playground and play.  I had a brilliant game of hide and seek with Molly and grossed her Mum out telling her all about a dead bird we'd found in the playground.

Tegan came round for tea on Friday night.

I think I only put Ned's nose out of joint a little bit playing with her.

Yeah, whatever Ellis, I showed her proper entertainment by setting up a scalextric track in my bedroom without any help from Dad.  We even did our homework together without being asked!

On the subject of homework and what have you, I took a massive haul of house points for my spelling, times tables and daily reading.  I was so pleased with myself.

Saturday was a rather special day.

Indeed it was. 

We'd had Grandad to stay for a few days lately in readiness for a special train trip.

His best friend was driving an engine that Grandad had helped mend and keep running called Tangmere.

It was going from London, through Newbury and on to the seaside at Minehead.

And arrangements had been made to put his ashes in the fire of the engine as it powered along the track.

So, not yor usual day out but very, very cool indeed.

We had quite a party to wave us off on the platform which was lovely and we got shown to our very posh fist class seats along with Anne, Uncle Trevor and Hayley.

Alan though had a special job to do.  He rode on the footplate, helped pull some levers, toot the whistle, shovel some coal and most importantly, to load Grandad into the firebox.  I'm not sure he didn't actually put himself in there as well as when he came back he was covered in soot and looked filthy.

He also said it was about the coolest thing he'd ever done and loved the noise, the heat and the speed.

Inside the carriages it was a very different scene:

It was, we got really well looked after too, nothing was too much trouble for the chaps working on the train. 

In fact, it seems Grandad was pretty famous in railway circles and everyone seemed to know who he was and said what a great chap he was. 

It was lovely to hear.

It was a lovely sunny day and the countryside rolled past the window.

There were so many animals to see, it was lovely.

We loved buying raffle tickets (even though we didn't win anything)

And we were soon in Minehead, it was a lovely sunny day.  This sundial was a brilliant find as we've been doing light and dark at school this week.  This picture of me stood on a sun dial will do very nicely for my homework.

After a bit of a climbing session (with Ellis needing to be rescued after she got stuck between two rocks) it was on the main event, the arcade:

We loved it, there were loads of 2p fall machines, our favourite!

We rinsed them for money and even better than that, tokens!

With the help of Alan, Hayley and Uncle Trevor we soon had enough tokens to get ourselves some very tasteful prizes:

A lime green skull with it's very own crossbones for me.

And a little pink dragon hatching out of an egg for me.

One last scenic shot before we boarded for the return journey:

We even let Auntie Christine and Maurice (Owen and Laura's Grandad) come and sit with us.

Yeah, we felt sorry for them slumming it in cattle class on their own little trip out.

The trip back was just as lovely, as it got darker outside our little lamps made a lovely cosy glow for us to snuggle down in.

Yeah, we got Dad to finish fantastic Mr Fox for us.

And then something really unheard of happened.  A random bloke on the train came up to Mum and Dad and asked if he could make a comment.....

Yeah he did, you'll never guess what he said....

He said what a pleasure it was to see two such well behaved and pleasant children all day!

We were all stunned into silence momentarily.

All too soon we were in Newbury, I didn't want to get off and could quite happily have stayed on for London.  As soon as we had got off I charged up the platform to the front of the train to see the engine again.

I did too, it was all so cool and exciting.  We saw Grandads friend again and thanked him for a lovely day and a great send off for Grandad.

The engine itself loooked even cooler in the dark, the glow from the fire was awesome!

Here's our own video edit of the day:

And of course, being a steam train event, there were plenty of other people who were interested enough to film us chugging along.

Yeah, we'll call them 'enthusiasts' I think, not Train Spotters or anything like that, oh no.  Anyway, here are some videos these keen chaps took and then posted on the internet themselves:

Sunday then, and a trip out for Ben's birthday to the Gurkha Chef restaurant.

Our first trip to a curry house!

We didn't know what to expect but the music was pretty groovy.

And I loved the pictures on the walls of the mountains in Nepal and the ornamental weapon selection above the bar.

We did pretty well with the food too.  I particularly liked the starter selection of marinated chicken, on the bone of course.

And I loved the hot chicken curry.  Well, I loved the taste of it much more than the mild one, but it was a bit hot.  Maybe a bit too hot to eat too much of.

We had a walk up town and ended up in HMV to get a DVD to watch.

And remarkably we agreed on one, 'Diary of a wimpy kid Rodrick rules'

It was ace, almost as ace as Dad's massive bar of chocolate he got out of the cupboard for us to share!