Tuesday:

Well this apparently the only hot summer we've had since i've been born! 

It has been proper hot for a while now, in fact i'm surprised that they didn't cancel sports day as it was too hot!  I was in a bit of a funny mood about this one, I didn't really want Mum or Dad to come and watch.  I came second in my sprint race and second in my hurdles race (which I reckon I could have won if i'd heard the starter shout go)  I did really well with my throwing events of course!  Sadly, Dad didn't manage to stay away, but at least he only turned up once everything was finished so he got sent away again pretty sharpish.

I had three new classmates for a visit and got to show one of them around for the day.  Big responsibility or what?  Then it was gymnastics club, and my goodness it was hot, even with the big doors open! 

It was pretty good with the doors open as we could watch what she was up to....well, inbetween playing our new favourite Ipod game, Downhill Supreme.

Yeah, we're loving it, can't believe Dad kept it to himself for so long.

Wednesday:

We had a sports day practice day, very enjoyable but very, very hot work!

We had our class treat after amassing 100 good behaviour marbles as a class.  We voted to go to Fifth Road park for a picnic.  Brilliant, well it should have been had it not been for one of teaching assistants managing to break her leg chasing what was thought to be an escaped pet rabbit.  Cue a visit from the ambulance and everything, high drama indeed!

We also had a special afternoon assembly given by the current year 5's to tell us and any parents who could make it along (I let Dad come) all about next terms visit to Ufton Court.....two nights away with our mates!  It's supposed to be educational I think?  We have to dress in period costume for a banquet, which according to the year 5's involves shovelling massive amounts of bread into your gob, not using a fork, and avoiding the stew.....I should be epic at that!

We went straight to team Kennet from picking Mum up, it was club championships night.  Truth be told, I didn't really fancy it much.  I tried to convince everyone it was because of the heat, i'm not sure they bought it though.  Anyway, once I was there I made the best of it and we had a pretty good picnic to plough through.

It was quite a pleasant evening actually, sat in the evening warmth, eating crisps, cheering Ned on and watching the cows and horses on the common.

I actually rather enjoyed myself, although having just gone up to the under 11 age category I was really up against it.  Particularly because we now have to do the 75m sprint instead of just 50m and the 600m run instead of the 400m run which is what I have been doing all season.  Anyway, enough excuses, I reckon I did pretty well, finishing 11th overall out of 28 in my category.

It was quite a late finish but we were very good going to bed....

Thursday:

And we got up nicely too.

It was our end of term dance production after school.  It was another sizzling hot day but we kept to our costume choices of tracksuit bottoms and baseball caps, we looked dead cool.  It went very well and we too got awarded medals for our year long efforts.  Up unitl today I had been giving some thought that I might give up dancing for next year as i've been getting quite tired lately due to all my extra curricular activites, but I really enjoyed it and I may have to have a re-think over the holidays.
It was my parents evening later on in the day.  After my good school report I wasn't too worried, although it did turn out that maybe I should have been, just a little bit.  It would appear that i'm still rather prone to do what I really want to do, rather than what i'm supposed to be doing.  It's not as common as it was and my teacher thinks it's great that I have strong views! 

Friday:
It was my sports day today, and like Ned earlier in the week it was a scorcher. 

Unlike Ned though I was more than happy for Mum to come along and watch. 

I loved it, even though we only had one proper race.  Mum did well in hers though!
In the afternoon it was the annual family picnic, Mum hung around for that too, which I didn't mind.
Not that we saw much of her, we ate, then cleared off to play with our friends leaving her on the blanket until everyone else had drifted off home.
Then it was time for swimming lessons.  Good news this week, I passed!!!  So it's big pool for me next term.
We had another outdoor pool session once she was finished with her lessons, most refreshing after our hot week.
Then it was off to McDonalds for tea, it was like the school holidays had started already!

Saturday:
Suggestions had been invited for our days activities....I suggested the Maize Maze i'd seen advertised in the Newbury Weekly News. 
Seemed like a decent idea to the rest of us, so off we went!
It was only in Basingstoke so it didn't take long to get there.  There was more to it than just a maze though, we started off (a little nervously) feeding the goats, before moving on to hamster cuddling:

We also got to cuddle a rabbit and the cutest little baby chick ever, it was sooooo soft and fluffy.
There were various playgrounds, bouncy castles, trampoilnes, a big inflatible slide and some go-karts to ride around on too.
Before the main event, the maze itself.

I took charge and headed the party into the maze.

And I took position at the back to make sure everyone stayed together.

We had 8 piggy based facts to find answers to whilst we wandered around before we could make our way out.

It was a pretty long walk....

But not as long as it would have been if I hadn't been there, my sense of direction is really rather good and I had us round to all 8 information points and out of the maze altogether in time for lunch.  Mission accomplished.

After lunch there was a lovely tractor ride out into the fields which were full of butterflies, they were lovely skitting about on the breeze.

We ended up doing quite a lot of colouring too, whcih was weird, considering that it was a nice day and there was plenty of adventure to be had:

We went home for a bit of a recharge before heading off to the Halfords for a BBQ.
Awesome, we sat around whittling sticks, riding bikes, shooting water pistols.....
.......and playing with the super cute Hartley!
As if that wasn't enough we also had a visit to the local pub for some playground and fruit squash action.
What a lovely day all round.
It was a late night though.....

Sunday:
So Sunday was a bit of a slow start.
We eventually left the house and went to Basingstoke for a little shopping.
I know, us in a shopping trip shocker!
We got a few bits and bobs of clothes.
A little jewellery of course....
But best of all we got a monster haul of DVD's in readiness for the holidays.
We came home and watched the final stage of the Tour De France, i've been rather captivated by this over the last couple of weeks and couldn't wait to see Chris Froome win the race overall.

Monday:
I had a special awards assembly today....I rumbled I might be up for one after mum had not too discreetly written 'assembly' on the calendar for today.  Anyway, I got a certificate for contributions in class (Enthusiasm, good questions and empathy towards others).  I let my gaurd down a bit and even allowed Mum a sly smile as I went to sit back down again after picking up my certificate.



Tuesday:

We did circus skills at school today.

We did, a great big circus big top had appeared on the juniors sports field.

Yeah, all over our running track!

Never mind Ned, it's worth it.  We had a great time learning some circus skills.  I especially liked the 'devil sticks'

And I think I may have had my name put down for some ribbon twirling action, hopefully marking me out to perform to the whole school on Friday.

Sadly, we didn't get to have a go on the trapeze though.

We also had another rounders session, I did rather well, smacking the ball off into the bushes.  I was one team captain, Alastair was the other.  We emerged victorious by half a rounder.

As an end of season treat we had lollies after netball, just the job on such a hot day, lovely.

I wish we had ice lollies at gymnastics, I was cooked!

Mum and Dad came good on the trip to pizza hut in recognition of my excellent school report.  I knew they'd come good.  It was lush, or rather it was well Epic, as all good things are at the moment.

 For once I was allowed an exotic sundae for pudding, but sadly I missed the sparkler as I was in the toilet and it had burned out by the time I came back.

Mum and I missed it too, we were also in the toilet.  

I'm sure Dad enjoyed the spectacle, alone.

Wednesday:

I managed to swerve school dinners today, yes! Sandwiches for lunch and tea, Mum and Dad didn't really approve though.

I found out that I had indeed been picked for the circus.  There were a few remarks made at school about the nature of the act I was involved in.  Apparently ribbon twirling isn't particularly cool?  Whatever, I reckon they were just jealous anyway.

I came home and made a load more origami dogs of varying sizes to keep the original one happy.

Thursday:

Unlucky ribbon twirling haters, all the while you were doing boring old literacy or something I got to hang out at the circus instead, working out our moves for the show.

I did some more origami dogs, and showed them to the Tesco delivery man, I think he was rather impressed with them.

It was my parents evening that night.....I knew I had nothing to worry about after my report.

We had a great time playing games in the ICT suite.

And we did't want to come home when Mum and Dad were done.

Friday:

It was circus performance day, we got to spend the morning practicing too, yay, yet more literacy dodging.

I was a bit disappointed I didnt get to perform, but there were very few picked from the infants, maybe next time.

It was a packed house (tent) come show time, there were loads of parents, including Dad as well as the whole rest of the school.

Yeah, I was surprised to see Dad hanging about, I gave him a wave and took my seat to be dazzled and amazed by my big brothers skills.

All us performers sat together on one of the stands close to the stage, the team spirit amongst us was very strong and we were having a great time.  The perfomrance went really well on the whole and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I was so glad I got picked to take part.

Once it was all done and Ned had finished milking the audience for all it was worth in a series of very theatric bows we had to go back to class.

Us performers were allowed to be signed out early to our parents if we wanted...result!  Although when we wandered back out of the school grounds I noticed that all my friends were playing 'King ball' in the playground for their golden time.....I decided to stay on and let Dad sit and baste in the afternoon sunshine.

When I came home from school, I had my school report to take home....but good news this year, i'd done really well!  Of course, a treat was in order, but seeing as Ned had already done Pizza Hut last week, I decided I wanted a trip to JJ's.  This was accepted as a suitable outing, although not until the weather was so nice as it gets really hot in there.  I decided this was pretty reasonable, so will have to make sure I don't forget.  Then it was on to swimming, I was on a mission this week, and completed my front crawl width of the big pool without touching the ground once.  This apparently drew plenty of compliments from the other watching Mum's by all accounts.

And instead of Mum arriving and us going home, Mum arrived with a picnic and we headed out to the outdoor pool.  It was most refreshing, even if it was a little tiny bit manky.  The best thing was that you were still allowed to dive in at the deep end!

I loved it, it was cool to have my lesson and then go swimming with everyone.

Then to top off a good day, I once again took the title of Lord Of Catan.  How cool is it when you have 2 vistory points hidden away as development cards?  Brilliant.

Saturday:

Bit of a lay in and then.....STRAWBERRY PICKING!

We hadn't been for years, so it was brilliant to go.

Indeed, as I wandered up the field I proclaimed it the best day ever (I use this quite a lot truth be told).

We only 'sampled' a few before we paid too.

They were lovely though, hiding underneath the leaves ready to be picked.

We had a lovely lunch at home, finished off with masses of eton mess!  

Then in the afternoon we went to watch the circus proper, not us kids performing.

We got great seats at the front.

Although it was rather hot in the big top.

The acts were great, particualrly the ones where the ladies went very high up in the tent on the trapeze or whatever.

And the juggler was very good too.  I even got to join in a bit again as I was chosen as a stand in acrobat.

Hence another very theatrical bow session when he was finished.

We went home and had a session on the Wii (even though the grown ups wouldn't play), before we decided we should go to the pub for a nice cold drink in the evening.

Yeah, it was lovely, even if we were billy no mates and no one else we asked could make it.

Sunday:

Work finally got underway on the house for my cuddly monkey, it's been long enough!  We made a good start though so I can't complain.

While this was going on I had to do my homework....boo hoo!  Still, it's nearly the end of term I suppose.

It was another hot day so we decided to head to Legoland to try out the new waterpark area.  I thought it was totally brilliant.

I wasn't quite so convinced, truth be told it was far too busy and noisy for my liking and I also think I might just have been a little bit old for it.  Having said that, standing under the massive bucket when it emptied with Dad was seriously refreshing.

We dried off, had a picnic under the railway bridge and then came home.

Without even going on any other rides.

It was still rather warm when we got home, so we managed to get Mum to have a water fight with us.

It was awesome of course.

Monday:

I got another shell for doing over a whole page of writing....it was under threat of not being allowed out for playtime though.

In the afternoon we performed three routines for our end of show dance performance, great fun, although I did take it rather seriously at times (as you could see from the concentration on my face apparently).  At the end we were all presented witha lovely shiney medal for our efforts this year.

And we had our final week of quad kids club.  With the added bonus of water pistol races and rocket lollies.  A great way to end a most enjoyable season.

Tuesday:

I caused quite a shock on Tuesday when I issued a full run down of my school day in fairly great detail.  This made a massive change from my usual replies that range between 'nothing' or 'I've forgotten'

It was gymnastics day, still the only day of the week I actually seem to know what i'm doing after school.  Probably because I love going.

I got told I did very well at netball after club had finished, I was pretty pleased with the compliment.

When we got home things in the kitchen were not as they should have been, two of our jacket potatoes had exploded all over the inside of the oven.

Yeah, it was quite a mess.  Still, the pizza suffered no such fate.  Owen arrived shortly afterwards to out out cycling with Dad, he reckons even Uncle Ian can cook a jacket potato properly.  They keep going out on their bikes to all these cool places without me, I can't wait until the summer holidays when i'm allowed to go too.

Wednesday:

Well we were feeling rather tired by the middle of the week.

Yeah, so much so that I was quite tempted to spend the evening on the sofa rather than running round an athletics track.  I decided against it in the end though and I was glad I did go to athletics as i really enjoyed it.

Thursday:

I came home from school, fired up the PC and after hassling mum for a bit about the correct spelling of the word Origami I found myself a website and set about following the instructions to make myself a doggie face.  It was nothing short of brilliant by the time i'd done my folding and some colouring in.  I think I amazed everyone with it actually.

It was decided that I really ought to knuckle down and learn my lines for our class assembly.  What I hadn't told anyone is that we'd been doing a bit at school and I pretty much had them down already. 

Friday:

So we got to have a lay in and didn't have to go to breakfast club on Friday.

Due to Mum coming to my aforementioned class assembly.  I was well excited about this, mostly because the parents were allowed back to our classrooms for 'refreshments' afterwards....cake!  Biscuits!  I was also pretty excited as my bits to say in the assembly were all about Hoplites and Phalanx's. It went really well and we were soon enough back to the classroom for the main event.  I managed to do quite well on the refreshments front.

It was good not going to breakfast club, I got to play in the playground before we went into school.  Having said that, I did miss the oppurtunity to do something creative before we started proper school for the day, on balance, I think i'd rather go to breakfast club.

Swimming was a bit rubbish when Edward failed to materialise.

And I didn't do too well in the pool, the old familiar failing of putting my feet down during front crawl.

The big news was our camping trip though, after a bried kerfuffle regarding our attire we met up with Andy and Owen and heaed west.

I slept pretty much the whole way down.

While I devoted some serious time to the Ipod.

The great thing about going to Croyde at this time of year is that it's still light when we get there, it makes putting the tent up so much easier.

But not as easy as having Owen and Andy on hand to help.  We were like a well oiled machine and soon had everything set up and ready for bed.

The weather was glorious, and after spending the best part of the day on the beach, digging, surfing and playing boule we headed back up to base for a rest:

Then it was BBQ time (three different varities of Tesco disposables, all of them rubbish) and a game of cards for money.  I had the genius idea of going accross to the arcade to get change for our 10p 'lives':

I nearly won as well, would have been nice to pick up the winners pot....hope you enjoy your new found wealth Owen.

There was a little bit of sunset football/throw and catch too:

Before we turned in for the night.

Sunday:

We had another beach session on Sunday morning as once again the weather was still lovely.

But the main highlight of the day was a spud gun each and a packet of rather large baking potatoes....brilliant.  

How have we managed to not discover spud guns up until now?

It was time to pack up our things soon enough.

But not before we had an ice cream though.

Monday:

Our secret dance preparations have carried on, I didn't get to use my smart animal ears that Dad had made for me, i'm keeping them for the performance next week.  Which I have divulged one secret of, it's going to be on the satge, not on the hall floor as we usually do.

As we went down to pick Ned up from the juniors, Dad fell off Ned's scooter and made a right mess of his knee and hand.  Silly old fool, he'll be milking that for days I expect.

Yeah, I hope he hasn't scratched my scooter.  Quad kids was a pretty hot afffair this week.  I was a very good boy though and remembered to apply sunscreen all by myself.  This is as rare an action as me washing my hands voluntarily!  While i'm on the subject of good news, I also got my school report for the year.  Although it was addressed to Mum and Dad I decided to open it and have a look first.  It was pretty good, although I had a couple of B's to blot the run of A's!  I'm apparently beyond my age level in English, Maths and Science and the comments from my teacher at the back painted a glorious picture of my attitude to school and others.  This has got to be worth a trip to Pizza Hut surely?

Tuesday

I got to go on the special chair today, it wasn't even my birthday or anything.  Thats one up on Ned, I don't think he ever got to sit on it all the while he was in infants.

It wasn't all good news though, apparently, you aren't allowed to shout during 'quiet reading' for some strange reason?

We have been told who's class we are in for next year, as happens every year I didn't get the teacher I wanted (Mr Armstrong) so at least it's consistant I suppose.

Wednesday

The school dinners on Wednesdays is still proving to be a bit of an issue with me.

Not with me, i'm loving my jacket potato with cheese, i'm even eating the potato skin.

I've been in a rather creative mood lately, i made an entire zooblies village which I was very pleased with.

Since i've decided i'm not quite so bad as I thought at running i'm doing really rather well.  Even Mum, my harshest critic things I did a couple of really good 400 metre runs at Team Kennet in the evening.

I didn't notice, I was too busy taking my panda family for a ride round in my dolls push chair.

Thursday

My creativity has continued and before school I made this rather fantastic structure:

A full on flag flying panda family home.  We better get Kevin Mcloud around to have a look.

After school dance club has now gone into secrecy mode in preparation for our end of term performance.

I finally started trying to learn my lines for the end of term play....theres a lot of them....oh dear.

Friday

The bad news, sports day was cancelled due to the rain....the god news? We spent all day doing art instead!  We're quite used to sports day being cancelled as it seems to happen every year. I think we're going to try again quite soon so fingers crossed.

Swimming lessons are still going well, we worked on butterfly this week, I was awesome at it.  I really enjoy doing butterfly, even if Mum cannot see the point of us learning it.

I took to my room to spend the evening watching DVD's.

And I played the booby trap game with Mum and Dad and endured a number of comedy hair bunch styles, the best of which was judged to be the 'pineapple'  Although both Dad and myself were very impressed with Mums platting skills.

Saturday

Coral Reef alert!

Yeah, we hadn't been here for ages.

There was a new slide off the pirate ship.

Which hurt my butt upon landing so much I didn't have another go.

But the outside section was open and the flumes were brilliant as always.

In the afternoon we were hurried into town for haircuts.  Rather unusually we didn't have to wait at all, brilliant.

So seeing as we were smart looking and presentable, it was a god time to go and get my passport photo taken for my renewal now my original one is five years old.  The picture on it at the moment bares no resemblence to me at all.

My highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly going to Hugo's for a sleepover on Saturday night.  His Mum and Dad made me feel really welcome and we had a lovely time. Loads of X Box was played and lots of giggling was had.  We weren't even that late to sleep and had a moderate lie in on Sunday too.

So while Ned was away we had a lovelt tea of whinge free spaghetti! I asked Dad for lads, and it was loads I got.  One of our bowls full right to the top with spaghetti, topped with a moderate dollop of bolognese sauce and a lovely little bowl of parmesan all to myself. I ate the lt, my tummy was like a little bowling ball when i'd finished.

Sunday

I had Charlotte's birthday party at Bucklebury Farm Park, last time I went here I was a few months old apparently so it was all new to me.  What a great place, slides, playgrounds and animals, loads of animals.  We fed baby dear, collected chickens eggs from their field, had a Tractor ride and then had our lunch in a teepee.  It was really good.

Meanwhile we were rinsing the last few minutes out of the X Box before we had a trip to the park with our bikes before Mum and Dad came to pick me up.  I'd had a great evening and going to fetch Ellis wasn't too much of a hardship, there were various older siblings also on collection duty so we had a great time on the go karts, the bouncing pillow and the drop slide,  all without having to pay to get in.

When we got home we decided to give the roast dinner a miss and go for a barbecue instead, a much better idea considering it was such a lovely day.

We even got the waterslide and the water pistols out!

Monday

Monday was whole school shuffle day, I was seriously excited about this.  I went up to Mrs Jacksons class and got to be a year 2 for a while.

And I got to go up to my new class in year 5, Mrs. Titchband, I was quite impressed actually. 

Our dance sessions have also gone secret undercover style in preparation for our end of term performance.

Quad kids is still going strong too, we're really enjoying it, doing some track stuff and a few relays to mix things up a bit.  My good running form has seemingly continued and I got a number of compliments on my speed.