Tuesday
High drama indeed at school today when there was a fire on the disabled toilet/lost property cupboard.
Yeah, full on evacuation, two fire engines and a police car turned up.
But Mr Jones had put it out by the time they arrived.
There were all sorts of stories about who had done it......
It meant we didn't get to visit the local church for some Easter themed thing or other, so I was pretty pleased about that.
Swimming carried on as normal though.  It was seemingly test week.  So after demomstrating we had the various strokes down it was a variety of jumping in tasks.  I think I did okay.....

Wednesday
I suffered a burst yoghurt at lunchtime, it was quite messy.  Somehow this enabled me to get a place at the 'top table' so that was a nice side affect.
We had a hastily entered tag Rugby tournament on Wednesday afternooon.  I told Dad not to bother coming to watch as we'd be rubbish.  We played four matches in out group stage, I forget who they were all against but I do remember Pangbourne and Whitleands were two of them.  We won all four games.  Hmmm, okay.  Next up was Spurcroft in the quarter final, knock out stage of the tournament.  We beat them too.  So it was a semi-final against Francis Bailey......and we won that.  So there we were, in the final!  
Dad had caught wind of all this on Facebook so we decided to get up to the rugby club quick.  We arrived in time to see the second half of the game.
Which we sadly lost to St Finians, but only just!  It had been quite an afternoon, i'd scored four tries and won myself a rather decent second place medal:

Best of all though, we had qualified for the Regional finals to represent Berkshire at the Sainsbury's schools winter games next week at Bisham Abbey along side St Finians as they had already qualified by winning another tournament.  A full day off!
 
Thursday

Finally I got to set up an Instagram account like all my friends at school.  So, i've filled it with silly cat pictures, supercars, a couple of selfies and cute animals.  It didn't take long to get loads of followers.  Robert was round after school, so I selfied both of us playing Forza Horizon 2:

After tea we had anothe game of Camel Up.  We're loving it.

Yep, we are.  Dad was struggling tonight though, with a new record low score of just 9!

For comparison my record high score is 42!!!

Friday

We found out the identity of the school arsonist, but we're all sworn to secrecy so no names here i'm afraid.

Even I couldn't get any details out of him.....

But in even bigger news, Mum decided she'd had enough of the new regime at work and decided to chuck her job in!

We couldn't believe it, in fact, I was pretty upset about it all, i'm pretty sensitive to change.

But once we'd talked it through and given it some thought we were all happy she'd done the right thing.

She'll be around a lot more for the foreseeable future thats for sure, so on that basis alone i'm happy!

Saturday

Mum had a shareholder meeting on Saturday morning, so once we'd dropped her off we embarked on a Mum free activity......Ice skating.

Yep, we decided to give Bracknell a go this time.  We were impressed by the size of the dry ski slope and certainly fancied coming back and giving that a go sometime.

But we were here for skating, I instagramed my skates:

The skating itself went very well, all the rollerskatng has certainly paid off.

Yeah, we did rather well it has to be said.

On the way home we stopped off for a very high class car picnic at Greggs on the M4 services.

We know how to live. The car park had an awesome Ducatti in it whch I loved.

And then a lovely old Ferarri Testarossa pulled in as well, we put our windows down so we could hear it's engine.
Mum got home just after us so we had the afternoon to go and pay another visit to Nate.

Yeah, he was laying in the bay window in his nappy when we got there, for medical reasons apparently.

We soon got him up for a cuddle session, he's so cool.

A quick trip round Waitrose and then off to rollerskating!

Two flavours of skating in one day, pretty impressive eh?

Sunday
Up and out nice and early for a Pump track session:

I'd been hassling Dad to take us for ages so I was well pleased:

I got bored of the biking pretty quick and decided to turn my attention to the park.

We got drawn in as well, and had a bit of a gymnastics session on some bars.

Even Dad got involved, even more suprisingly he was pretty good!

We had a trip to Anne's for lunch and we were going to meet her new friend Mike.

I was pretty nervous about it all, but I needn't have worried.  It all went very well.

We had a lovely dinner and a nice sunny trip to the park.

When we got home we managed a game of Camel Up before shower time, homework and our comedy highlight of the week on telly, Off their rockers.

MondayWell it was nice to have Mum around without us all being in such a rush this morning.

Yeah, and it was even better that she came to see our routine at after school dance club.  We did Hard Knock Life this week, with a prop of a cleaning cloth.  I even got to deliver a line from the song on my own!

Tuesday

Gymnastics continues and i'm still wearing my old ballet leotard, despite endless pleas and requess for a nice new one.

Due to our busy schedule it was our nominated baking evening for the upcoming Comic Relief bake sale at school on Friday too.

We finished our homework very quickly so we could help Mum who had her baking head well and truly on.

Wednesday

Swimming with the school again.  We had some fun this week with a few races and despite giving my opponents half a length head start I still took the win doing front crawl.

We had to have a school council get together to think up some questions to ask the potential new executive head in part of their interview, it feels quite a privelige to be involved in such a big decision making process.

Thursday

Well another game of football in PE, another three goals! I think Mum and Dad are trying to work out if i'm genuinely any good or just lucky.  I'm pretty low key about it though.

Once tea was done and dusted we were on to cake decorating.

And with a large supply of various coloured royal icing and a whole load of sprinkles and icing pens we were good to go.

The theme was supposed to be funny faces, which we didn't really stick to completely.

Nah, we're too creative to be constrained by stuffy rules and regulations.

We made a hell of a mess, which I would imagine took quite some clearing up.

We would love to have helped but time was getting on and bed was calling...

Friday

Comic relief day, adorned in various items of red attire we were off to school taking along our handcrafted sweet treats.

I was on one of the stalls selling, we got to skip class in the afternoon to set the hall up ready.  This also had the added bonus of being able to get our buying done before the masses descended assuring us of the pick of the crop.

By the time I got there most of the really good ones had gone.

But there were still plenty left to choose from.  It was pretty frantic to be honest, especially when the doors opened and several hundred cake fanatics rushed into the hall.

I stayed on until the bitter end to make sure everything was sold and cleared up.

We had a quick mission into town to get a few last minute items for Mum related events.

I also added a load of Lego sets to my list while we managed a a quick trip to the entertainer as well.

The new exercise equipment in Victoria Park was sadly clogged up with 'Teenagers'

As Dad pointed out I will soon enough be one myself so I shouldn't have too much of a downer on them.

We had a rare but pleasant full family slump and cuddle session in front of the telly in the evening.

Saturday

Ellis and I were up taking the weekend morning shift as usual while Mum and Dad had a lay in.  Then Mum's phone beeped, a message.....I quickly saw from the front screen it was Alan and that our new cousin was on his way by all accounts.

I was seriously excited, in fact I don't know if i've ever actually been so excited before!

So, while we waited for more news we got on with our day.  I had a taster session for Team Kennet up at the track where we could try a couple of events prior to us moving up to the under 13's category.  I chose long jump first, which seemed to rather wind mum and dad up as i'd already done quite a bit of that.  Doing it for an hour in a small group with two coaches was really good though and I improved a lot. 

I sat in the car with the little table up doing my maths homework.  It was pretty cool actually.

For the second hour I did javelin, with a proper pointy javelin rather than the vortex we usually throw.  It was a great deal harder than it looked to get it to stick in the ground.  After initial success and subsequent failure, by the end of the hour I had really got to grips with it.  Mostly due to the efforts of the coaches who were really helpful and had great advice to give.

In the afternoon we went for haircuts.  Mum had decided she would dig deep in her purse and take us to her hairdressers instead.

It was pretty cool, each seat had a telly on the wall in front of it showing the music channel.

I loved it in there, she even did me a nice few curls once she had finished, they loced it when I posed for a picture:

Mine took ages, even longer than Ellis did.  

We did a bit of shopping afterwards, well, a bit of modelling anyway:

We picked up a few items to give our new cousin which we were really pleased with.

A fluffy and soft cuddly rabbit.

An Elmer night light.

And a couple of packs of teeny tiny socks.

No roller skating this week as we were going to have some food and boardgames.

Alan and Hayley obviously couldn't make it.

But Andy still came round.

Alan did really well keeping us up to date with developments throughout the day and finally sent the one we'd all been waiting for.

Baby Nate had arrived at 19:45, mother and baby well, Alan fainted.

This news prompted a legthy dancing and excited squealing from me.

Sunday

Mothers day today.
So we were itching to bestow gifts upon Mum.
Especially the Lindor's we knew she'd need 'help' with.
I helped Dad do breakfast.
And I helped use the Ipad's charge.
Then it was off to Legoland for the first time this year, it only opened this weekend.
Not much has really changed, but thats fine by us.
So a couple of standard pictures:

Hiding on the Duplo train:

It was a pretty cold day it has to be said, so we took shelter under the railway bridge for out picnic, we drew some strange glances.
We had the totally exciting propspect of dropping in on Nate on the way home if he was still in the hospital.  
It all managed to come together and we left a Legoland a little earlier than we usually do to make a special visit.
Until we were thwarted by the 'no children on the ward unless they were siblings' rule.
So, we waited outside the security door while Mum went in.  So near and yet so far.
I burst into tears.
Dad did his best to explain the reasons behind the rules when Mum and Alan appeared at the door, followed by Hayley and the little man himself, all wrapped up in his blanket!
Alan wasn't having any of it and ordered us in to meet our new cousin properly, so we crept in, dodging the nurses until we were safely in their room.  Then the serious business began, cuddle time:

He was soooooo cool, totally laid back:

With the coolest little fingers and finger nails i'd ever seen.  It was totally the best thing ever getting to see him and having a cuddle.
Alan and Hayley looked really well and on top of everything.
So we didn't outstay our welcome and left them to it. I can't wait to see him again.
Yeah, i'm sure we've got plenty of fun times ahead!
As it was still mothers day, it was her choice for tea....and as she is very classy, it was a pitstop at Calcot McDonalds.
Then home for a first try at her mothers day game gift, Camel up.
We loved it!  Yeah, even me.

Monday

One of our potential new executive Head Teachers took assembly today.  It was pretty boring......

I had the afternoon off to attend the league finals for Netball at St. Gabriels.  It was a soggy, wet, windy and cold afternoon.  Still waaaaay better than being at school though.  I got well and truly stuck in and gave it everything despite the conditions.  Dad and some of the other Dad's loved my all over the court, hustling action.  One of the umpires didn't seem quite so keen which was a shame.  We ended up fifth on the day out of the ten qualifying teams, from the original 26 teams that entered the competition.  So on the whole, pretty good I reckon, even though it didn't really feel like it at the time.  So thats pretty much it for my netball career as this was our last competitive match.  I think we might have the traditional game against last years year 6 team to come and thats that.

Because of this I didn't get picked up from dance on time, I got to hang out with Becky for a bit until Dad turned up and tell her all about Nate so that was no real hardship!

Another game of Camel up after tea too!

Tuesday

We just about got our costumes finished in time for explorer day at school.

So here we are, Jaqies Cousteau,

And Neil Armstrong.  I'm sure he wore oven gloves to the moon too.

We had a visitor for assembly, a real life explorer that had been to the top of Everest.

And very grim it sounded too, frozen lungs, altitude sickness, falling into ravines and climbing over frozen dead bodies on the way.

Not only that but it was miles to the nearest shop as well.

So if it was supposed to inspire us to aim for the highest heights, I reckon it may have backfired a little bit.  Other than that it was business as usual so we still went swimming, in costume!

I even kept my outfit on for breaktime, although it was a bit on the chilly side.

Wednesday

One of my friends Bella is leaving school.  Her Mum has a job somewhere else so she's moving on.  We made her a nice card as a goodbye.

We did football in PE, I scored 4 goals!  So not a bad game really, I was rather pleased with myself.

Thursday

Well it was book day, but as we had already dressed up for the explorer thing there was no dressing up.  I was a bit unhappy about this, i'd got a great idea togo dressed as a hamster from one of my recent bedtime stories.

I was quite happy not to have to bother, shame we still had to do the big write though.

I had rather rapidly developed a wobbly tooth, which I managed to get out in the evening after school.  I gave it a good old cleanbefore putting it under my pillow for the tooth fairy.

Friday

It was film night at school, we hadn't had one of these for a while.

I suggested a few outfits thta were deemed a bit over the top for film night by Mum and Dad.

I wore my shorts and shirt combo so looked effortlessly cool.

We watched Hop, although we had seen it before we did still enjoy it.

Saturday

It was the day of the netball tournament at long last.

It was an early start and up to Park House.

It was a lovely sunny day, even if it was a bit breezy and cold.  We had plenty of supporters which was nice.
I had my roller skates and an occasionally empty tennis court so I was all set too.
The tournament itself had it's ups and downs it has to be said.  But we played well and fought hard, especially in our semi-final against St Gabriels (who have won the competition for the last 300 years or something).  We eventually lost 5-4 but pushed them every step of the way and kept it going until the last dying seconds of the game.  They eventually went on to win the tournament, again.  We finished third, best placed of all the 'peasant' schools:

I hoped Auntie Christine and Auntie Trish enjoyed it, they were certainly vocal enough on the sidelines!
I had a double dose of roller skating as we went to Norhtcroft in the evening.
And then it was on to the Hatchet for somethign to eat.  I didn't like it, although it was quite early evening, it was still too busy and too noisy.  
The hot dog and chips was very nice though.
We stopped off at Sainsbury's on the way home for some pud and bumped into Auntie Christine again, she does shop at odd times!

Sunday
After saying last August that we ought to come back on a bright, cold winters day for a ride along the prom from Southbourne to Bournemouth, we finally got round to it.
Yeah, except it wasn't a bright day and it was pretty cold to be honest.  It didn't start well when I fell off and hurt my arm (there was a lot of sand blown up onto the path whcih made it slippery).
We tried to help her get over by sheltering between some beach huts for our picnic.
But it still hurt and I was quite whingey about it.....
Then when I 'apparently' cut up some bloke with a baby seat on the back of his bike, causing him to swerve several times (this was the last of several near misses i'd supposedly been involved in) Dad flipped his lid and ordered us back to the car to go home.  I tried pleading with him but that was that.
So we had a nice silent journey all the way home.
Oops.
So instead of being out and about we got to do more homework, deep joy!
Hugo did appear later on though and we played the hotel game which was cool.
 

Monday
Cross country club was pretty epic, especially the training where we doubled the sprint intervals each go.  It ended up with me and Jess determined not to be the first to give in.  I came home with a very red face.
We finally caught up with the second episode of the Bear Grylls survival programme after tea in a rare whole family sofa session.  We loved the bit when they had to drink their own wee.
The retchign noises were hilarious!

Tuesday

Swimming with the school was good today, we finished our lesson stuff early enough to have a go at diving for the rings.  I loved that.
When we got back to school we did our belated sponsored pancake flipping.  I managed 18 which I was sort of pleased with.
time for ring diving

Max visited school in some capacity from St. Barts, don't know why, I only saw him briefly.

It was watching week at gymnastics for the first time in the new gym.  My linked backwards rolls right across the floor were quite impressive according to Mum and Dad.
Mario Kart!!!!  It's still my favourde game after playing it at Butlins, i'm loving it.

Wednesday

Team Kennet night and it was almost light when we got dropped off which made dodging the puddles on the way in a lot easier.
One girl was sick in the sportshall though, that was a puddle we really wanted to dodge.

Friday

We did our class assembly on living together.  Which managed to blend bits on living in India and the Civil War.  Mum said I spoke my lines very well.
I also got my Bronze times tables certificate, a bit delayed but i was chuffed to bits with it.
After school I was off to Sasha's for tea.  We were both mad excited about it and there had been much squealing and excitement in the build up.
So, seeing as Ellis wasn't going to be about, I managed to get Robert round for Xbox and Pizza.  Forza Horizon 2 was the game of choice.  It's brilliant and i'm totally loving the barn finds.
Sasha's was so cool, we played we bounced on her trampoline, we had sausage and mash for tea and best of all we tended to her chickens in the garden!

Saturday

So we had to do some shopping today....urgggh.
Yeah, we ll we have explorer costumes to make so it was a trip to Reading for the hobbycraft shop.  I've decided on Neil Armstrong so we needed some space suit specific stuff.
I decided on Jaques Cousteau, being won over by the fact that wearing my swimming stuff to school, maybe my wetsuit, swimming hat, mask, snorkel, flippers, some old armbands and carrying a fishing net would be good for a laugh.  As an added bonus I wouldn't have to make anything either, giving me more Forza time.
We went to Toys R Us as well, I spent a little bit more of my Christmas money on a lovely big, soft, fluffy Panda.  He will in no way take over form my original panda, but he is a fabulous addition to the family.
And I bought a Lego Mclaren, rather cool it is too.
Mum put in an epic effort of cycling into town, getting me a white outfit to customise into a spacesuit and cycling back again in just over an hour. While I had to have endless fittings for a space helmet that dad was making.
It was finally roller skating time again after a two week lay off.
Yep, I couldn't wait.  The queue was massive this week but when we got in both Sasha and Evie were there.  They couldn't believe how fast I could go.
I spent a lot of time practicing my race starts.  It stood me in good stead and I managed a third place against some pretty stiff competition.  I was gutted to find out that only winners won a lolly this week though.

Sunday

We had a rather quiet morning, doing homework, watching telly....
....finding abandonned classic sports cars in barns in the south of France.
It was a lovely sunny morning and I did my home work outside in the garden for a while.
We decided we'd pay Alan, Hayley and the bump a visit in the afternoon, by bike.
I had a small tumble on the canal towpath, fortunatley I flopped the right way and didn't end up in the canal.
We had a quick play on the park at Northcroft and then climbed the hill to their house.
We heard all about Hayleys appointments and classes for the baby.
It sounds like Alan has taken them all very seriously......
And then just as we decided it was time to come home, it rained.....hard!
We had to wait on a bit until it eased up but it was still really wet on the ground.
So it was quite a soggy ride home.
Maybe I need some mudgaurds on my bike, I had a rather wet and muddy bum and back by the time I got home.
We watched Off Their Rockers before bed, Mum found it hilarious.
So did we!

Monday

We got an email today to confirm my place at Park House in September!
I've been a bit wobbly about it recently, I think it's hit home that pretty much all my friends will be going to St Barts.......