Tuesday

The rescheduled Netball trials took place this week, I enjoyed it, we did mostly throwing and catching rather than full games this time.  It was a quick turn around to get me off to gymnastics in time.  At lwast there was a nice big hearty roast dinner ready for me when I got home.

Wednesday

It was raining like mad so we decided to give Team Kennet a miss.  We stayed at home and played Wii party instead, well, I say play Wii party, it was merely the excuse to allow is to argue like crazy, and fight and issue abuse to each other.

Friday

So to temper any end of week excitement I was forced to go along to a flipping rugby tournament that Ned was playing in.  I really did not want to go, not at all.  Having said that, it was a much better in the spring warmth than the more usual rugby weather of cold, howling wind with rain.

They did well actually, and came second!  There were also hotdogs on offer that were surprisingly good.

Saturday

Lilly Yeoman was having her birthday party at the ceramic painting place today.  I picked a princess to paint which raised a few eyebrows.  It was however, the best thing to paint, plenty of oppurtunity for colour variation over something like a horse thats all one colour.  I really went to town on it a d cant wait to see it fired.  We had a jolly good feed and got the biggest party bags ever¡

Mum, Dad and Ned came to pick me up and we headed straight to Reading for a spot of shopping.  It took sges to find somewhere to park which was a bit of a pain, but apparently par for the course in Reading.

We actually quite enjoyed ourselves, comedy glasses anyone?:

We all got a little something to top up our summer wardrobes before heading home, too late for roller skating sadly.

Sunday

Up early and off  , how exciting.  I couldnt wait to go on Dragons Fury again, especially as Dad missed it ladt time.  The weather was certainky better than last time!

We kicked things off on the Vampire, then made our way through Bubbleworks (probably our favourite),working our way around the surprisingly quiet park:

It was brilliant going on Dragons Fury with all of us, Mum and Dad sat the same side which certainly made for a spinnier ride!  It was brilliant.

I also went on the cobra for the first time and loved that too.  I tried really hard to be 140cm tall for the Rameses Revenge but came up a little bit short.....gutted.  I really want to go on that with the boys.  We rckon if we come back in October i'll be okay....

We went on the dodgems, the chair-o-planes and the laser shooter ride which was also surprisngly good fun.

Of course we stayed until closing time before heading home.  Stopping off at fleet services for a McDonalds and enjoying the foitbridge over the M3, we got a couple of waves from the cars speeding below.

Monday

I found out that i'd made the school netball squad, yay!  So thats Tuesday after schools taken care of for the foreseeable future.  It i going to be a tight schedule with gymnastics though.....

I did sone rather tense maths homework with Mum.  We don't see eye to eye about this subject really and I need to get some serious focus together to bother to so anything!

Tuesday

Netball trials were cancelled this week due to heavy rain.  Shame, I was quite up for it.  I went back to Sashas straight after scool to play before going to gymnastics.

We've made up after our minor disagreement so thats good.

Wednesday

In a recurring theme, Team kennet was cancelled due to rain as well as netball yesterday.  Summer is here!   Did rain a lot though....the playground was completely flooded at one point.

Thursday

Well the rain eased enough for us to participate in a six a side girls football tournament up at the rugby club:

We were in high spirits, despite me having to go in goal for the first game, not a position ive played before, having said that we haven't really done much practice at all:

I managed to keep a clean sheet for the first game as we drew 0-0.

That was to be the theme of our tournament, we drew a further three games 0-0 and eventually lost our last game 4-1.  So we hadnt done enough to qualify for the semi finals sadly.  

When I got home the garage had been re-roofed, the timber they used smelt lovely, going in there smelt like a giant rabbbit hutch!

Friday

I got home from school to smell my favourite meal cooking, yes we having ribs for tea!

A full rack, with corn on the cob and potato wedges...lovely.

We went down the park after tea dor some athletics training but had to abandon that due to some squabbling issues between Ned and I.  Oh dear.

Saturday

I was a late recruit to the quad kids team, despite not having attended any of the training sessions the Innov-8 coaches put me forward.  Everyone at home was really pleased as Ned has a long history of particiating in this event.  So theres four events, standing long jump, 400 metre run, 50 metre sprint and the vortex throw.

We started off with the standing longjump.  I put in a decent effort on this one, its certainly one of my favoured events.  Next up was my 400 metre run, my least favourite event.  Our team made a pact to not allow ourselves to come last.  I was delighted to come comfortably mid pack in my heat:

Next up was the sprint, which I normally struggle to make a good start on.  This time though I was away like a bullet and finished my heat in second place, I was very pleased with that.

Leaving the final event, the vortex, my favourite.  The feedback from Mum and Dad wasnt that positive for my throwing efforts....I thought i'd done okay though, and they couldn't see properly from where they were watching from.

We had a great day, the weather was perfect as well for once as we normally get at least a bit of rain.  There was a bit of time to kill as the results were collated:

Our school didn't win any of the overall prizes or individuals for that matter.  I have since found out though that I finished 15th overall (out of 120), and even better, I won the girls vortex throw overall.  I am so mega pleased about this.

In the evening we made a trip out to the Craven Arms with Alan and Nate.  Now Nates getting a bit bigger he can have a go on the swings:

And drink Capri Sun's:

We even got to take him home with us afterwards to watch the Eurovision song contest (which was pretty rubbish):

Sunday

We walked up to Park House late morning, there was a rynning event on and a few school bits and bobs too.  Ned couldnt get enough of the sumo wrestling set up:

He was pretty good actually.

I favoured the bouncy slide/castle/obstacle course:

And the archery was pretty good too:

The highlight of the day was the Dog Show though.  Talia was showing her dog, Rolo so that was an added bonus. There were various categories, including best trick and best six legs (meaning the owner and the dog trotting across rhe ring in unison). The best trick was a dog that howled along to its owner playing a harmonica.  And the six legs category provided the most comedic moment when Talia unintentionally dragged her other dog across the ring by its lead as it was having a lie down to enjoy the sunshine!

We had a burger from the barbecue and then an ice cream from the van.....a double cornet too!  

We walked back home, had a quiet afternoon, played Wii party and had a crack at some homework.

Monday

It was today that the Quad Kids results were posted, so that induced high levels of excitement as i've already mentioned.  I got two lots of words to remember for our class assembly on Friday so thats good.  And also found my school shoes (they had been missing for about a week) and about 58 drinks bottles i'd lost over the last couple of weeks (one of which was Ned's so thats calmed him down a bit).

Tuesday

In light of recent selection for the school football team, we took a trip to the sports shop after gymnastics.....I needed some football boots.  Great, another excuse for yet more footwear! 

Wednesday

I'm not a morning sort of person, sometimes, well it's a real struggle:

I had perked up enough by the time I got home form school to get my new boots on and go for some football practice down the park.  Ned came along too and was actually a really good coach and we didn't even end up having a fight!  I even had enough energy to put in a decent effort at Team Kennet in the evening too, it's a good job I keep something back in the mornings I reckon.

Thursday

More football practice down the park after school, this time though a load of the lads from my class were playing so I joined in with them instead.

Friday

Mum had seen an advert for a free dance show taking place in the market place so we rtook a walk in to town on a reasonably nice evening to see what was going on.  It all looked rather promising it has to be said, there was a carousel set up in the middle with benches all set up around it so we got a seat and waited for the forst of the acts to start.  It was a juggling act and it wasn't anywhere near where we had sat!  Having made the effort to go and have a look we were a little bit on the disappointed side with the act.  We were hoping the Dance performance was going to be better..It was, I loved it!  The show was called Carousel, it featured some amazing dancing and acrobatics as wll as a scary witch character.  I was really into it and danced all the way home....
Street theatre dance show

Saturday

We were up reasonably early for another of Ned's driving lessons at the showground.
In the adjoining field were a load of lorries parked up to let a load of racing pigeons go.  I was seriously intrigued by this and when one of the smaller lorries let their pigeons go it looked amazing as hundreds of them flew off, their wings catching the sun as they banked and weave before setting off for their home.
We watched Ned pull away again very expertly and then he sort of disappeared off into the far reaches of the road system at the show ground.
We had a kick about on the field (I had taken my boots of course) and before any time at all he was back!!!  Apparently he got up to 4th gear this time so was mighty pleased with himself.

We went home, got the bikes out and rode into town for lunch with Nate, Alan, Hayley, Anne and Mike.  Anne seems to have recovered from her horse riding incident so thats good.  We went to the 'Spoons so that was a good start to things, we still love it in there!
Once we'd done lunch we went for a wander around town with Nate, Alan and Hayley before deciding on going back to our house for a game of Yeti, a play with Nate (who took a few steps unaided) and some tea.
We rounded the day off watching Britains Got Talent.  Brilliant. 

Sunday

We woke up to a hot and sunny summers day!  Ned and I started off by cracking out the waterpistols for a waterfight and after a bit of uncalled for grumpiness from Dad the waterslide came out too, brilliant, we loooove the waterslide (video clip at end of post).
we decided a picnic at the river in Hungerford was a good idea, sadly so did a few other people so we couldn't get our usual spot on the far bank.

We went for a good old explore paddle:

Here I am in full Bear Grylls mode:

We stayed until just before the shops shut so we could get ice lollies on the way home.

We're starting on Greek mythology at school so I spent the evening starting on my Minotaur homework.

Sunny mid May 2016 from Part Time on Vimeo.

Tuesday

Weird weather day, sunshine, rain and epic hail:

I couldn't resist going out in it before I went off to gymnastics.

Wednesday

At least the hail had stopped today, a good thing seeing as Team Kennet is outside for the summer.

It was cold though....really cold.

Thursday

I got picked for the school team for an upcoming football tournament, im so excited!

It was baking night at home, I made some of my signature cheese and ham straws and made mum a couple of jam tarts.  Ned did a chocolate cake when he finally bothered to come home from school.

Friday

With a long weekend looming, it was only right and proper that we packed  up and set off for Cornwall. The car got loaded up, we had tea and then got on the road, I was so excited.

We got as far as Exeter before I needed a 'comfort break' so that was pretty good going. We weren't that late getting there really.....although I really do not enjoy the journey.  The ends certainly justifies the means though.  We were soon tucked up in bed, listening to the sound of the waves crashing in the distance.

Saturday

We had a reasonable lie in then took a leisurley breakfast, we slip into Cornwall mode very easily.  We ventured down to Gary's shop for some supplies, some jokes and to check out the surf.  The waves were better than the jokes, so we suited up and got in the sea.  Ned had his new board so I got to use his old one which is better than my falling apart one.

It was lovely too, sunny and everything, there should be a video attached at some point. Getting changed afterwards was a real pleasure, so much so that we got the blanket out on the grass and did some basking:

We certainly enjoyed the sunshine in the afternoon:

So a pretty perfect Cornwall day rounded off with some Camel Cup and Britains Got Talent on telly.

Sunday

Andy had arrived overnight, so that was a most welcome addition.  He'd bought some pretty grim weather with him though...it was grey and very wet.  In light of this we had a cooked breakfast and waited to see if things would brighten up.....they didn't.  We had a game of Camel Cup, tucked into the home baking and waited some more.....still grey and wet!

There was supposed to be the English national surfing championships at Watetgate Bay so we got in the car and went to have a look.  There wasn't much doing, with the greyness and drizzle we would have been surprised if the judges could have actually seen anything.  The boys decided to go for a surf, the mad fools.  We waited for them to get changed in the rainy car park before going for a wander around the shops there and then out onto the deserted beach:

It was pretty wet it has to be said.  In fact, I reckon we were wetter than the surfers when they came back.  Watching them get changed in the car park didn't look much fun thats for sure...

We headed back to the van to dry out and warm up.

We played a couple of games of sevens which 'The Shadow' won (Dad, what an embarrassment he is) before moving on to Mum's new game Yeti (very good).

Monday

Bit gloomy first thing but we had a visit to Padstow lined up to see the May Day event, a parade of the Obby Oss.  It sounded pretty weird to me, a bloke in a horse outfit prancing around the narrow streets?  We parked up and walked into town, it looked noticeably different to normal as there was loads and loads of bunting, flags and tree branches attached to all the buildings and across the streets:

We made our way into the town centre and it was getting busier and busier.  Then we could hear some music and some singing....we'd found the Blue Oss!

It was swirling and prancing about, wafting his skirt around.....weird!

Everyone seemed to love it though.  It wandered off through the town, accompanied by its band of drummers and accordian players and we made our way to the maypole:

It looked really lovely all decked out with the spring flowers.

Ned got on the internet and found out that the Red Oss was due to appear at 11:00, outside the Golden Lion Inn so we headed there.  There was already a pretty sizeable crown gathering outside and we hung about for a bit until 11.  First off loads of accordian players came out of the pub, there were loads of them and they lined the streets before being joined by the drummers and the singing began in earnest.  There was quite a lot of people by this point and there was a bit of a mild crush going on which i wasn't that keen on.  I left Ned right next to the deafening accordian players and went back to the safety of Mum and Dad.  They hoisted me up and I got to see the Oss do his thing as he emerged from the pub.  He soon pranced off up the street and the crowds started to dissolve.

I really wasn't sure what to make of it all!

We headed back to camp and the others decided they would go in the sea.  Id din't much fancy ot so went over to see Andy's Mum and Dad.  I did some drawing, ate some crisps and then Connie arrived so that was epic!

We went to the Youth Hostel for lunch as the sun broke through.

Just as we were finishing we spotted the rest of the Shepherd family wandering past with Connie on her walk.....so we tagged along and wandered over to Constantine Bay with them.  It was a lovely afternoon, Connie loved jumping into the rock pool to fetch her ball and as usual we had a questions (us) and answers (John) session with John:

We hung it out as long as we could but we couldn't deny it was time to pack up and go home.....but there was just time to play one last game of Yeti....

And heres the hastily cobbled together video, Ned did the slo-mo Obby Oss bit, it doesn't seem to like it very much with the weird coloured bars going on?

Cornwall may 2016 from Part Time on Vimeo.