Tuesday

It was viewing week at gymnastics, obviously with netball for Ned, they didn't make it until the very last minute.

But at least we got there in time for a bit of it.

Wednesday

Strange events today, Mum picked us up from school.  Well, she picked me up anyway.

Not me, I decided to stay on and cheer on the football team who were playing against Falkland.

Which meant I got to play on the adventure playground for ages.

Thursday

We got told what part we had got in the end of year (indeed end of infants) school play of the Jungle Book.  I'm going to be one of the comedy Vultures.  We get sone great funny lines to say, i'm really pleased about it.  I wasted no time starting to learn my lines with Dad.

After school dance club has been focussing on our end of year production, which was good, especially if you like line dancing!

After tea we had a 'meet the teacher' gathering at the junior school.  My teacher next term will be Miss Stubbs!  

I went along too, even though I know all about juniors, just as well too, there were biscuits available!

We learnt a lot about whats in store for us in Junior school,and despite having a few minor concerns I am rather looking forward to it.

When we got home, quite late, we had baking to do for go-givers charity bake sale at school the next day.

Dad declared himself out of the running to help, he said it was too late and we ought to just buy some. He's also got a right bee in his bonnet about the fact that school send letters home instructing us to not have any sort of cakes or sweets in our packed lunches, only to encourage cake binges with these sort of events.

Anyway, the upshot was Mum would have to help instead.

This pleased Dad no end as she makes even more mess than we do!

The end result brownies were of course, exquisite.

Friday

It was go givers day at school so we proudly took our brownies in, to many admiring glances.

It meant we got to spend a good portion of the day with the year fives which is always fun.

I rounded the day out selling what leftover cakes we had to parents on pick uo duites with Louise, Robert and Corey.  Mrs. Tichband said I had been very enthusiastic all day, well, my two favourite things, cakes and finance!

We were under strict instructions from Mum to go and get haircuts after school.

Dad added further enticement by saying we could go by bike if we wanted?

Of course we did!

We loved riding into town and locking our bikes up.

The haircuts were swiftly done so we had ages until we had to pick mum up from work.

We decided we'd ride back home along the canal.

We carried on past our usual turn off for home until we got to a bridge and a lock.

We loved walking across the top of the lock gates.

We then noticed a path off to Speen Moors Walk.  We'd never been off that way before so decided an exploratory mission was a good idea.

It was ace, there were rivers and bridges,

Cows, cygnets and doggies on walks.

We went miles, but had to turn for home before we reached the end of the path, which we think was at Northcroft.

So thats a mission for another day.

Saturday

We had a day out with Alan and Hayley, Tankfest 2014!

They even had the pleasure of our company all the way to the tank museum at Bovington.

I wonder what Mum and Dad found to talk about all on their own?

We finally got there, with very little help from Alans sat nav, which is seemingly programmed to avoid the most direct or quickest route.

There were loads of tanks about!

There was indeed.

We made our way to the arena where there were tanks driving about and doing there thing.

The bridge builder one was pretty epic it must be said.

Alan was very excited about it all, he was like Mum in a cake shop, or Dad watching the Downhill racing.

Aside from the park, which although was busy, was brilliant, the best things were the mini tanks:

They were seriously cool, with two handles to steer and go, just like real tanks!

There were old tyres sprinkled around the place, running over them was brilliant, it made the whole thing tip up and then down again.

We kept managing to miss them, so the man running it threw some directly in our path.

We watched some more tanks in the arena, Alan maintained his high level of excitement throughout.

We strayed off for a bit, another go on the packed park and then the climbing wall which was ace:

We even skeaked out the back to the pits area:

We got to sit in a few of the armoured cars and stuff:

This one had a cool seatbelt, but I was told by Dad not to buckle myself up in case I never escaped:

We saw the only remaing operational Tiger tank (a german one) in the arena before we made our way back to the car.

I was not happy at having to miss the Mustang P51 flypast.

But as luck would have it, the plane appeared just as we were walking back along the road.

And even better than that, it did it's whole display right over our heads, swooping along the tree line before climbing up, stalling and then diving back down towards us.

Throw in a few loop the loops and barrel rolls for good measure and we were well happy.

We had a bit of a kip on the way home.

We needed to recharge our batteries, it was party night!

Yeah, Uncle Slim and Auntie Trace have been married for 25 years! 

That seems like, forever to us.

Anyway, a good excuse for a get together.

We loved it, especially starting off dancing with Darcey, and the later on with Mum and Laura in particular.

Even Dad and I got involved and threw a few shapes.

We hope they liked our messages in the guest book:

The party bags were seriously top end as well!

Sunday

Well after a late night last night, it understandably a bit of a lazy one on Sunday.

Yeah, mid morning bacon sandwiches for breakfast.

Followed by a short shopping trip to get Mum a bike helmet.

Where I had to tell Dad that there was no way on earth he needed a new bike.

But I managed to get myself some nice new cycling gloves.  It's about time really, i'm sill using a pair of Ned's old action man ones.

In the afternoon I rounded up Hugo and Ali, we went up to my room to play Fifa on the Xbox but ended up watching funny cat videos on youtube and laughing our heads off.

We rounded the day off watching catchphrase, my favourite programme.  I was allowed to stay up pretty late to see the end of it.

Monday

I had another Year 3 visit today, i'm getting well used to it all now and we still have plenty more visits scheduled.

We did Secret dancing after school, in preparation for the end of term performance.

I made good use of the quiet time at home doing my reading.  I'm currently into a new range of football books the school library has just got hold of.  I much prefer the fact based stuff to stories.

We did bike riding before tea.

Yeah, and got the ramps out.

I made it over them safely on my new bike.

And I kept pushing the landing ramp further away and further away to see if I could clear the gap.  I came in and got the tape measure to see just how big the gap was, it measured 1 metre.  A good start, but theres plenty more to come I reckon.....

Tuesday

We were both up early today, no particular reason for it.

Nope, none at all. I was happy my scab had dried up though and I wasn't stuck to my duvet or anything grim like that.

I had to do my reading test at school, we've all done an individual one, I didn't struggle with it really so I reckon i've done okay.

After school I told Dad I really didn't want to go to gymnastics on account of my scabby knee feeling a bit stiff.  He reluctantly relented, so I don't think he was too impressed when I skipped off to the adventure playground to play with my friends.......

We had a netball match against St Nicholas school, down at their place.  It was brilliant and we loved it, no doubt our 7-0 victory helped!

When we went to pick Ned up we bumped into Auntie Gail who was off to the dentist.  She had my birthday present in her car that she had been trying to deliver to us for ages (but kept missing us). Hope your appointment went well and thanks for the present.

We were a bit early to pick Mum up so we had a wander around town, i bought some football stickers.

And I got one of those animal rubbers from Temptations, a panda one, with some of my birthday money.

Wednesday

I woke up feeling a bit poorly.  Headache, sore throat, generally a bit meh.  I made it to school but by lunchtime I was feeling a lot worse ans school phoned Dad to come and get me.  He took his flipping time, but I suppose he was on the bike.  We spent the. Afternoon watching kids TV and snuggling up on the sofa.

While all this slacking off was going on, I had to redo my reading test at school.  My original attempt hadn't gone at all well, in fact I apparently got ablower score than when I did it last year....oh dear, obviously something wasn't right first time round.

After school I had my first session at Mr Gilhams football club, it was wicked.

Thursday

Well I was off again, which meant Mum in the morning then Dad in the afternoon.

Mufed me up well with one of her luxury cheese toasties for lunch.

For after school dance club we had Surfin' USA by the Beach Boys.  We were allowed to wear 'beach clothes' too.  I decided to ignore dads suggestion of wearing my wetsuit and plumped for a far more sensible swimming hat and goggles to go with my shorts and t-shirt.. I really went for it and loved every minute.

I knew a load of my classmates were headed down the park after school,so as soon as i'd got rid of my hat and goggles and picked up my bike I headed down there to see if they were still there...they were!  We stayed down there for ages, Louise, Dylan, Rebecca and Tilly were all there.  I ended up getting invited to Tilly's for tea with them all, we stopped off to tell Dad on the way past.

Which meant I got Ned's helping of sausage and mash at tea time!

Friday

Well after two days off school I was raring to get back! I convinced Mum I was good to go, even though she thought she'd be getting a phone call to come and get me by mid morning.  No chance, I stuck it out to the end of the day no problem!

We had an early tea, before Mum came home....

.....which we found most peculiar, even if it was for a good reason.

Yes, it was camping time!

A new venue as well, with Croyde being fully booked for a surfing festival and south Wales having zero waves forecast for the weekend we were off to Weymouth, Littlesea holiday park to be precise.

Indeed we were, I helped Dad load the car up, well a little bit, but I gave in to the lure of the telly pretty quick.

We went to get Mum from work, got her changed, then went to pick Andy up (he's very helpful when setting up the tent and all that) before we hit the road.

It's a good deal closer than Devon so we made good time and were very soon there, despite a rather lengthy and eventful toilet stop. (Big queue, no toilet roll, you get the picture).

We were like a well oiled machine setting all our kit up, well, we were once Dad had considered at some length exactly where tp pitch the tent on our pitch.

To be fair, he did a good job, not we'd ever let him know of course.

I made friends pretty much immediately with a girl a couple of pitches up, they had a caravan, and a dog.

It had been a long day, and the sleeping quarters were looking super cosy.....

Saturday

We were awoken by bright sunshine coming in to our bedroom, it was lovely and warm and quiet outside.

Until the sound of our bacon sizzling filled the air.

Once that was done it was time to hit the pool, the main reason we booked the campsite.

And as I was rather late getting dressed, Mum made me go in my onesie.

Although it wasn't quite as big as it looked on the internet, it was a rather lovely pool.

Indeed it was, Mum had made a picnic so we stayed until the afternoon, swimmng, lounging about then more swimming.

There was an indoor pool to explore too.

Andy decided he wanted a coffee, and offered hot chocolates...we can't refuse one of those, even in hot sunshine.

Sadly I had a nightmare with mine though.  Cup one I dropped trying to take the plastic cap off the top of the cup.  Cup two slipped out of my fingers halfway through the arcade.  It was third time lucky though and I managed to finally get a drink back to my sunlounger. 

Dad and I shot some hoops, my netball training certainly paid off, I whooped him:

Then we had a session on the Playground:

About mid afternoon we took a trip out, we made our way to the Isle of Portland and stopped at the top of the hill, overlooking Chesil beach:

It was where the sailing was held during the 2012 Olympics, hence the landmark:

Just over the road was Tout quarry, which we didn't know exisited:

It was pretty cool though, an old disused quarry from the 1700's thats been left to nature and the work of sculptors.

We had a great time wandering around, exploring and finding hidden sculptures in the stone:

Some of them were very interactive:

We carried on to Portland Bill lighthouse, right down on the point before making our way back to site.

Where I got re-aquainted with my friend.

I played shut the box.

And Dad sorted out the barbecue for tea.

Which culminated in a near riot over the Chorizo!!!!  Bring two next time Dad....

We had a few games of Jungle Speed alfresco before I turned in for the night.

While I stayed up a bit longer for a game of nommies, making the most of the longest day of the year.

Sunday

Another sun soaked wake up for us.

Yeah, but we had to get up and start packing up our stuff.

It didn't take too long, even though we had to unpack the tent again when we heard a trapped insect buzzing inside it....we thought it was a bee and it ought to be released, even if Dad didn't.

We said our goodbyes to our friends in the caravan and made our way back to the pool again.

We spent the morning there again before heading into Weymouth town centre for lunch.

We found a Pub and enjoyed a lovely meal before heading off to the seafront to see what was what.

We had to give pussing a miss as the food wait was an hour by the time we left.....not good.

It was brilliant, there was loads of lovely sand, loads of people about, and loads to do.

First off the swing boats:

And then the most excellent thing of all, donkey rides!  I was so excited about this, especially when Ellis and I got assigned the biggest beasts on the beach!

Oh yeah, it was brilliant, they were soooooo cute too:

There was a couple of sand sculptures that were seriously impressive.

And certainly inspiration for our Cornwall creations!

There was also a display of old military vehicles on the beach too, we loved them, especially the ones with massive guns mounted on them.

On our way back to the car we went back to the pub for a late pudding and a nice cold drink.

Which pleased me no end, cookie dough cheesecake!!!!

We made our way back to the car for a nice snooze on the way home......

Monday

After such a cool weekend we were a bit sleepy, but not too bad really.

Last thing in the afternoon we had an assembly by the year 6's on our Rhos y Gwaliau residential trip early next year.  It looks awesome, a whole week away doing cool outdoorsy sort of stuff, I can't wait!

I had dancing after school, but line dancing to achey breaky heart really didn't do it for me! 

Riding my bike home did though, still loving it, with my weepy scab just a small memeory.

I had a big old homework binge when I got home, Maths, literacy and even a bit of reading too, it felt good to have got it all out of the way afterwards thats for sure.

Tuesday

Here's some of my art, a portait of my skateboarding dog:

Wednesday

As usual we had a deep and meaninful conversation around the dinner table, we got onto Jesus.

Mum said one of 'friends dobbed him in'. I corrected her, pointing out he was actually 'Betrayed by a disciple'. Every now and then it is like i've swallowed a dictionary.

I'm still ploughing through the sweets I won at the school fete, it's a tough job.

I came home from school with a rather red and swollen bridge of my nose.  I was just about to score when one of my 'friends' pulled the goal post over, it came down and the crossbar hit me right across the face.  It hurt.  A lot.

Thursday

After school dance club was cancelled, so instead we went out for a bike ride with Dad.

We did, it was dead exciting as I got to take my new bike out on a proper ride for the first time:

We headed out towards the countryside from home, the poppies in the fields looked like a lovely red blanket:

We went miles, I got on really well with my new bike, even if the gears are still a bit of a mystery to me.

I've got to say it, she did really well.

Except for a brief brush with some stinging nettles.

We made it all the way out to the bridge over the A34.

The traffic thundered by underneath us.

We got plenty of toots and waves, especially from the lorry drivers!

We made our way back home in time to go and get mum from work.

After tea I did a little gardening with Mum, but got bored of it almost instantly, just like Dad does.  The new pegs mum had got were much more fun:

Finally the world cup started today, how exciting!  We got to watch the opening ceremony and a little bit of the first game at least.

Friday

Well it was yet another sunny day, we could get used to this.

Fired up by the world cup, we played football all afternoon at school, I was pretty hot and sweaty when I came home.

You would have though he would have been footballed out wouldn't you?  But no, it was Fifa on the Xbox as soon as he got in from school.  Still, at least that means I get the run of the telly.

We had tea (our new family favourite, Chorizo, chicken and potato bake) and the Mum declared it was far too nice an evening to do nothing.

So after a few suggestions we decided to ride down to the canal with some old bread we had hanging about to feed to the ducks.

Yes, what a brilliant idea.

Mum's bike is brilliant, it's got a big sturdy basket, we put the bread in it, a few drinks and a string of loom bands!

I was so happy I almost burst, i'd been wanting to go out for a family bike ride for years now.

We fed some hungry birds and some lovely little fluffy baby moorhens before moving on, up over the bridge to Northcroft.

We swerved the park though and headed for the top of the hill instead.

I wanted to zoom down again!

But we had a few laps of the weird track thing first.

I loved it, I could actually make it up and over the biggest of jumps with my new bike with ease.

We rode home through town which felt really exciting.

And made our way to the city playground for a bit of a play.

Yeah, it was prety cool, there's some new bits and bobs there.

The monkey bars which had me beat for years were really easy now!

Saturday

Quad kids competition time. 

I wasn't looking forward to being dragged along until Dad reminded me Ella would be there.

I certainly was looking forward to it, Robert was in the team this year too, brilliant:

My first event was the 600 metres. It's fair to say it isn't my favourite, but I was determined to put in a good performance.  I just about kept in with the main pack all the way until the last straight where i'd kep just enough back to put in an impressive sprint finish that no one really had an answer for and made up a load of places:

The 75m sprint was next, I did okay at that too.

I did really well at lounging around eating ice lollies in the sunshine!

Vortex next, my specialist subject, but like last year I didn't quite do as well as i'd hoped I would.  You get two measured throws, the first one was okay but nowhere near what i'd managed during training and the second one went outside the measuring area.  Whoops, there's always next year I suppose.

At this point I got to finally escape to go and play with my friend Amy at her house.  We had a great time, I stayed for tea and everything.

The last sporting event was the standing long jump which went pretty well.

Being a year 5 and 6 combined team event we were never going to bother the top spots (we had no year 6's taking part) but we did win loudest team of the day by a landslide: 

Once we were all home Ned took me down the shop to buy some sweets.

I am good to my sister you know.

I bought some bubblegum and finally managed to blow my first bubble!

I tried over and over again and just couldn't do it, despite lengthy coaching.  Not happy.

Sunday

Fathers day, and seeing as we ended up having a blazing row over who would give what present to Dad and then things going from bad to worse I think it's fair to say it wasn't quite the lovely day we'd envisaged for him.

No, it didn't go too well really, I think we'll leave it at that, but I will say that seeing as our planned trip out for the day was called off, he did actually get to do what he was no doubt happiest doing.  Watching the Mountain bike world cup downhill race live from Austria on the Ipad with his headphones in, ignoring our carping and whineing.

We took pity on Mum in the end who really wanted to go out for a bit.

So we had a walk at Donnington castle, a little game of hide and seek and some rope swing action in the woods nearby.  

Not bad then, really.

Monday

Having racked up the miles on my new bike last week you would have thought I had the measure of it really wouldn't you? Sadly not, I had a big off on the way home from after school dance club and did a rather good job of removing all the skin from my knee.  I was borderline hysterical by the time we got home, all the while Dad was telling me it wasn't that bad.  By the time he got to try and clean me up he had to concede that in actual fact, it wasn't that great after all.  His bedside manner isn't that good to be honest and after a few harsh swipes of the cleaning wipe we decided it was too big for any of our plasters, so he taped a dressing (badly) to my leg in a bid to catch the worst of the drips and ooze.  You can tell Mum is the trained first aider round here for sure.

We had a roast for tea, and after Mum's recent request for more varied veg, we had red cabbage with apple bits in it and leeks!  Well, what on earth is that all about? 

Exactly, it was a step too far for us and both items were roundly rejected!

I made my way to bed, hoping my oozy knee wouldn't stick to the bedclothes after it was uncovered to 'let the air get to it'.........

Tuesday

Well it had finally arrived, my birthday at last.  I'd been counting down since Ned's in April.

I got up early enough so I could open my presents before Dad went to work.  I thought that was very good of me.  I had some cool stuff too, as well as the new trainers i'd bought myself back in Cornwall at Easter (yes they really did make me wait for them) I had some knee, elbow and wrist pads for my roller skates, a journal, that only opens when I speak my password at it, oh, and a nice new bike:

So no more bumping myself in the chin with my knees any more.  I was really pleased with it, especially as I really wanted a black bike!  I went to school with my massive I am 7 badge that Mum made sue she got me.

I had gymnastics after school, they gave me the bumps which was cool.  What was even cooler was getting my level 3 badge.  I didn't even need to do the splits as i'd feared.

I had a bit of a meltdown after lising my swimming hat and goggles during school swimming lessons.  Mum said I had to pay for new ones out of my own money.....

I had netball, i've been going for a whole year now.

Once we'd finished our sporting activities and picked Mum up, it was on with the main event, the birthday trip to Pizza Hut.

Once the garlic bread, salad bar and Pizza waere all done, it was time for pud.

Mum and I had a big old cookie dough sharer platter:

And I had an ice cream sundae, because I wanted a sparkler.  The trouble was that by the time it got to our table the sparkler had burnt itself out.  The waitress managed to find another one and lit it at the table for us!

We went home for a purely ceremonial cake (no one wanted to eat any after Pizza Hut)

My day was nicely rounded off by a video of Darcey singing me happy birthday that Auntie Christine sent us!

Wednesday

There's loads of dogs tethered to the fence theses days outside juniors when we go down to pick Ned up.  It's brilliant, I know all their names and have asked all the owners if it's okay to give them some fussing while we wait for Ned to come out.

When we got home I sorted my password out on my journal, it's so cool.  It's also got an invisible pen that   you can only see with the special little light thats inside it.

It was seriously annoying listening to her repeat the flipping password over and over again.

I took my bike out for it's maiden voyage after tea, although it might be very slightly too big I rode it really well and am looking really comfortable on it already.

Thursday

As if I wasn't having a cool enough week already, it was school trip day as well.  We went to Marwell Zoo, so, a pretty good prospect. The coach travel was obviously well exciting as were the animals, particularly the Amur Leopards (my current favourite)  and the meerkats.  What wasn't so great though was the lack of park or little train action!

Dad and I went to collect Mum's new bike after tea from a collection depot in Thatcham.

We were so excited about it, we've wanted her to get a bike for ages and she finally has.

When the bloke pulled it out of the warehouse it was in the biggest box I think i'd ever seen.  The man laughed and suggested we might like to take the bike out of the box before trying to get it in the car, which we duly did.  I had to crawl down inside the box to get the lovely basket and pedals out as they were stuck right down the other end.

When they got it home we helped unwrap it and build it up for Mum before she took it out for a spin around the block.  She seemd pretty pleased with it....

Although she lacked the excitment of Dad, Ellis and myself.

Friday

My swimming hat and goggles turned up on a chair at school, what a result!

We had Mufti day and I got to look cool in my new birthday trainers.

Cricket club only ran last term, so Dad didn't bother coming to get me after school.

Nah we stayed in the adventure playground.

I was greeted with a 'what are you doing here' comment from him when I made my way up there, caring parenting that is!

We had a barbecue for tea, Andy came to do a little electrical job so he joined us.

And so did Alan eventually, he was at a loose end with Hayley going out.  He bought some board games with him too.  We played Zombies!!!!! and I was allowed to join in.  It was epic, even though it did go on a little bit.  It was worth the late night though, I won!

Saturday

We went party shopping in the morning, food, drink, sweets, biscuits and small gifts for a luck dip in the place of party bags.

Yeah, it was a good trip, it went pretty well actually, we got some cool stuff.  Especially the giant marshmallows!  

In the afternoon it was the school fete, Anne came along too which was nice.

My last one at the infants.

I'm sure we'll find out what day it's on and keep going for a good few years yet though.

There were the usual fun and games on offer.

I won loads on the childs tombola.

I didn't.

Then I won guess how many sweets in the jar (560)

And I had my face painted:

Some of the sweets made my mouth and teeth very blue indeed as you can see above.

Mum had a stint on the adult tombola, that we loved helping her with.

And then Dad did his bit cooking on the barbecue, but just as his stint had started they had a load of undercooked sausages by the previous chef's bought back by unhappy customers.  He wasn't impressed that it made it look like he'd undercooked them!

The stall got a little light on helpers so I pitched in, manning the cold drinks station.  One of the other ladies asked how my maths was, Dad told her it was better than his....

When we got home I just sort of somehow managed to do the splits!  After months of trying, it just sort of happened:

Sunday

Dad and I were up early for a bike ride at Swinley forest.  We decided to tackle the blue and then the red trail today.  I certainly enjoyed the silence and total stillness of the woods in the early morning sunshine, it was lovely.  The ride seemed pretty hard work though, we were both pretty puffed out it has to be said.  There were some really good sections on the red trail, I got loose on the downhills and managed to keep it rubber side down, Dad was well impressed my skills.  He frightened me with his, he's a maniac if I don't keep him under control, screaming down the hills and doing jumps all over the place, at his age!!!!

I on the other hand had a lovely lazy morning, keeping myself fresh for my party that afternoon.

I had a quick power nap before lunch time.

Then it was a burst of frenzied activity to get everything ready for my party.

Ellis had chosen a good menu, pink wafers, chocolate fingers, crisps, sausages, sausage rolls, sandwiches, pizza, shame she also wanted carrot, cucumber and little tomatoes too.

We made our way to the gymnastics club, met up with Auntie Christine and Auntie Trish who were coming to help and then waited for my friends to arrive before heading into the gym for the warm up:

Then we got stuck into the real stuff:

Yep:

Dad did a good job rolling my friends around in the big tyre:

Amie and I loved the bouncy tumble track:

Auntie Christine pretty much stole the show with her ribbon floor routine it has to be said.

After an hour of this and with very red faces indeed it was time for food:

And then cake and candles and a good loud singing of happy birthday:

I loved it.  Thanks to my Aunties for all the fun and help we really appreciated it.

We went home and I made my way through my sack load of presents and cards.

But sadly there was no Catchphrase to watch as there was some celebrity football match on instead.

Monday

I'm getting seriously excited about the World Cup, it's been a hot topic at school thats for sure.

I've got another wobbly tooth on the go, it isn't quite ready to come out yet though.

We had our last Quad kids training session before the competition at the weekend.  We ended it with a serious waterfight, I was soaked!

The weekend had caught up with us, we were both proper tired in the evening.

So it was an early night all round....yawn.