Tuesday
Gymnastics is still going really well.  Lilly N and myself are doing really well on the bars which have been my long term favourite apparatus.

Wednesday
First night of our year 5 & 6 leavers play tonight.  I was pretty excited about it all even though Mum and Dad weren't coming until tomorrow.  It went very well, can't wait to do it all again tomorrow.

Thursday
Second night of play, Mum, Dad and even Ned (reluctantly) were coming tonight.  Again it went really well, we were a well rehearsed unit this year.....can't wait to we're the stars this time next year!

Friday
School shuffle day today, when we get to spend a day with our new teacher in our new classroom.  Our new classroom is the other current year 5 classroom which we have spent a fair bit of time in already.  Our new teacher?  Not in school today....ha ha, so that was a bit of a let down.
Once we had dropped Ned off at football training we finally got to go and spend my Sports Direct voucher on my fancy new football I've wanted for ages.  We took it straight up the field and had a kick about which included a healthy dose of goalkeeper practice (still loving my gloves).

Saturday
I've been experimenting with having my hair tightly bundled up overnight, when I take it out on the morning I get some lovely curls:

In a hasty last minute arrangement we had Sasha and Lola around for the afternoon, we had a great time together, make up, gymnastics, arts and crafts, music and one unfortunate incident involving 6 Bunchems and Sasha's long hair.....oh dear.  Mum dealt with it very calmly, as did Sasha in all honesty, good work girls!
We carried straight on to Rollerskating which was great fun as I hadn't been for ages.  I haven't lost it.....but I think Dad may have a little bit.

Sunday
Chessington today, Mum really wanted to go, Ned and I wanted to go to Thorpe Park.  Having said that, the new Gruffalo ride had opened since our last visit on the site of our favourite the Bubbleworks so we were keen to give it a go.  It was actually brilliant too, maintaining all the bits about Bubbleworks we loved (the arcing water you could deflect at people) with a brilliant makeover of a story we secretly still love.

The Vampire was still as good as ever, with a queue as long as ever.  Rameses Revenge and the Chair-o-planes were in full soak mode, Mum was in full scream mode on Dragons Fury.

Monday
So here we are, the last week of term at long last.
It was a lovely sunny day so once school was done we saddled up and headed for the pool.  It turned into a bit of a get together with Auntie Christine and Darcey, Finlay, Millie, Chris, Kate and Andy too.

It was brilliant, my unicorn caused quite a stir once again of course.

Tuesday

We had a Visit to St Barts today.  It wasn't the best day out if I'm honest.

Wednesday
We had an end of term Football tournament after school.  The idea was a good one, year 5 and 6 girls against year 3 and 4 boys....our year 5 team got beat by both the boys teams but we did manage to hold the year 6 girls to a nil-nil draw.  We did enjoy it though, it'll be up to us as year 6's next year to keep it going though.

Thursday
Mum was going out for tea so we had a loose plan to hit Knightwood BMX track and then Asda café for tea....but the club were running gate practice and neither myself nor Ned fancied that.  Skateboarding down the park instead it is then!

Friday
Last day of term, it was the joint school picnic and the weather just about held out long enough for us.  I was very grateful to Auntie Christine for liberating me from my class until Mum could get here after work.
We played Newmarket in the evening, for money, my actual own money too. I think I broke about even at the end of the game which was mildly disappointing as I'd hoped to make a substantial gain on my investment.

Saturday
What a washout of a weekend.  We wrre supposed to be going to crazy golf over in Basingstoke but the weather certainly had other ideas.  We gave the gold a miss and when shopping instead.  We bumped into the queen of Amazingstoke herself, Auntie Trish while we were slumming it, eating a take away Greggs...oh the shame.  She gave us the low down on where to go and where to not go as we are such infrequent visitors to these parts.

We had a really good day:

But it was all a bit much for poor old Ned:

There was a bit of bad news, my earrings have had to come out on advice from a nice lady in the jewellers shop due to an infection.  In all hinesty 

I was only partly upset about it, it'll be quite nice to let them get back to 'normal' again.....

We sat and watched Moana all together in the evening, so that was quite rare and really rather nice.

Sunday
Wet weekend day two, we boldly decided to go to Bowood house house with Nate and Joel.

We did wobble a bit on the way when it just didnt seem to stop lashing it down but for some reason we ploughed on regardless.  When we got there it was actually eased up for long enough for us to decide it was worth paying to get in and have a play on the adventure playground: 

It was really good fun, even Ned loved it. 

The walkways went really high, Nate took Alan alll the way along and then did the drop slide...twice!!! We were very impressed with his bravery.

We had a picnic in a really cool shed, complete with tables and a ball pool, where we taught Nate a few tricks.

We battled on, trying our best to dodge the downpours before heading to the petting zoo for some rabbit fussing, chick bothering (including super cute just freshly hatched one) and a load of playful piglets with their harassed mum.

Alan rather rashly invited us round for a roast for tea.....delicious it was too!

Report on Joel for the day? Easy going but very cute!

Monday
Home with mum today, so a nice lie in and boardgames. Perfect!

We had a long walk around Greenham while Ned did team kennet, if he ran as fast as I talked he did alright!!!

Thursday 29th June
With sports day coming up tomorrow we decided on a family trip to the park at Wash Common for a bit of a warm up.  We took the vortex, a football, my new goalie gloves, a basketball and the skateboards.  We had plenty of equipment.  We had a lovely time too, even Ned wasn't quite his annoying teenage self and was actually surprisingly good fun and very encouraging of my efforts.

Friday 30th June
School sports day.  Lovely sunny day so at least it wasn't in danger of being cancelled this year.
The Juniors had their events in the morning, Mum came along to watch which was really good.  I won a number of my running races and obviously my throwing was on point.  I did really well actually.  I seem to be finding my feet a bit more with sport at the moment.

In the evening there was one of those street theatre performance things in town.  We took a wander down to see what was going on.  It started with a load of weird looking drumming blokes and a small light up puppet.  He danced his way up the street for a bit, before morphing into a much larger light up puppet.  I found it all a little bit unnerving to be honest.....but I warmed to him with his playful inquisitive nature as he made his way up the street.  He high fived people hanging out of flat windows above the shops, waggled shop signs and even sat on the bridge, dangling his legs over the canal.  He made his way to the market where he admired his reflection in a shop window:

Before moving into the square for a bit of a dance off with the drumming blokes on full tilt.  It was actually pretty good, if a bit weird and I even got to sit on Dad's shoulders for a better view despite him saying I was too big for that sort of thing nowadays.

Saturday 1st July
We had a bit of a lay in and then headed to Kingston for a spot of shopping.  Ned has lost his school shoes and he wanted some new trainers too.  I had a lot of birthday money still too.....
We had a picnic by the Thames, it wasn't quite as pleasant as we'd hoped, with the litter slightly marring the setting...it was certainly no Venice.  
The shopping didn't go according to plan, Ned got nothing.  I bought myself a lovely pair of Adidas Superstar Shell-toes in black and a collection of three small fluffy, cuddly rabbits.

Sunday 2nd July
Dad did another bike race today, I made it quite clear I had no interest in going to watch whatsoever.  Mum and I rode to the outdoor pool with a lovely picnic instead....much better.  Ned went with Andy to watch to bike racing so at least someone went to see him.

Monday 3rd July
So our garden seems to be quite the nature reserve this summer when we spotted this little cutie in the evening:

Even professional teenage bedroom dweller Ned came down for a few ohhh's and ahhh's.

Tuesday 4th July
I'd been hassling dad for another Skateboarding session and it wasn't looking good for this week.....but as luck would have it the Bike Park closed early meaning he and Ned came home early enough for another outing on four wheels down the park.

Wednesday 5th July
Another evening outdoor pool session.  We rode, took a picnic and stayed until we got thrown out.  It's much better going by bike, no parking stress and you don't have to worry about how long the parking ticket will last.

Friday 7th July
Top excitement today, time for a Camping trip.  Despite me really wanting to go to the place with the river we went to a couple of years ago, I was comprehensively out voted and Croyde it was. I didn't really mind though.
We left as soon as Ned was home from school and found ourselves sat in sticky traffic on the M5 once again.  It wasn't too bad though we passed the time chatting, my best remark being that Ned was lucky, as he'd had three years without me before I was born.  When I came home from hospital, he was already here!  We were soon at the campsite, passing through a rather bleak patch of drizzle on the way.  Fortunately it was dry and pleasant when we arrived which no doubt aided our camp deployment which we completed in record time.  45 minutes for the whole set up, including airbeds pumped up and made, tables, chairs, supplies installed, mood lighting and cuddly toys arranged.  This was greatly helped by our decision to pack the tent away with tall the rooms and ground sheet still attached last time we put it away.  Andy arrived just in time to wire up the plug for the kettle to go on for coffee and hot chocolates.
We spent the evening playing cards, listening to the light rain pattering on the tent.  I stayed up playing until midnight.

Saturday 8th July
Despite almost landing face first in the scramble to get out of the tent for a very early in the morning toilet visit we had a good night sleep.  Not surprising since I had a double airbed to myself, topped with my sheet, luxury furry blanket and sleeping bag.
Sausages for breakfast with a lovely sea view...check!

We had a visit from this cheeky little chap on the arm of the chair, looking for breakfast:

Down the beach with the spade to get creative in the sand....check!
The others all went surfing and sounded like they had a great time, I didn't fancy it though.  I made a lovely boat in the sand, complete with mast and rudder.

We then got involved in a rather fun game with Ned's frisbee which involved standing stock still with both your arms out.  There were five points on offer for hoop-la-ing either hand and ten points on offer for landing it over the head.  This took a lot of nerve/trust/stupidity on the part of the target person.......Mum turned out to be pretty epic at this game, it was a lot of fun and we all emerged unscathed.  Nobody managed a ten pointer though.

We headed back up to camp for lunch and a siesta:

And then we headed into to town for a brief shopping trip (Ned hadn't packed any pants for himself the fool) where I almost parted with some more of my birthday money on a longboard skateboard...

We admired the fish and massive waterboatmen on the river for a bit then headed back to base again, the boys went surfing again while us girls had a nice shower and hair drying session.

Barbecue for our evening meal of course, before a trip up to the playground where Dad got involved in a very ill advised race against Ned on the obstacle course.  He nearly caused us both to fall from a rather high climbing wall before skinning his leg trying to clamber through a hanging tractor tyre.  Ned had him well beaten of course.

Sunday 9th July
The little Robin was back for breakfast!

Another morning on the beach, this time I fashioned a lovely hut using the windbreak, a blanket, a spade, a bodyboard and some string.  It was quite a construction!

Ned went to get fish and chips for lunch, dressed in his Sunday best clothes:

While Andy and I had another game of the frisbee game.....I got it clean over his head, a ten pointer!

Sadly we had to start packing up, but it didn't take long really.  It had been such a good weekend none of us really wanted to go home....

Monday 10th July
The year 5 & 6  end of term play has been taking up a lot of our time at school lately.  I've be n really serious about learning the songs and getting the dance moves down.  We did a performance for some of the younger kids and a sprinkling of parents today which went well.....

Another biking jaunt while Ned was at team kennet:

It was a lovely way to spend a summers evening!

Tuesday 21st June

Heatwave time, and only limited badgering to get Dad to bust out the paddling pool.  It was seriously cold straight out of the tap but very refreshing!

Wednesday 22nd

Despite the paddling pool being a much more agreeable temperature today, we packed up a picnic and went to the outdoor pool at Northcroft instead.  It was lovely, and I finally got to christen my inflatable unicorn I bought way back in cold January.  It drew a serious amount of admiring glances, despite it being initially difficult to mount.

Friday 23rd

A real highlight of my school year, Den day!  Despite a little bit of trauma at home where my items list wasn't agreed fully with Mum and Dad, it was a brilliant day:

This year we upped things by featuring an upstairs section too!

Saturday 24th

The day of the outing I arranged with Owen, Thorpe park!
I was so excited, especially as Kirsty, Laura and Andy came along.

We got there in plenty of time, some might say we were almost early.
We racked up the rides at an alarming rate, making poor old Andy zig zag across the park with his dodgy foot.  Laura also put in an amazing effort, going on everything despite claiming to not actually like rides all that much?
We didn't get many pictures, Dad tried here, but Mum looks like she's doing a false start at the Olympics 100 metres final or something:

Notable highlights included all of us getting totally soaked on tidal wave, a trip on Swarm with some bloke off the telly called Geoff Stelling, Samurai tipping just about everyone but me over the edge and about 53 consecutive rides on Swarm at the end of the day when Ned and I kept looping round for another go as they tried to close for the day.
The day finished in spectacular style with a barbecue and dip in Owen and Kirtsy's new hot tub, soundtracked by Glastonbury Festival on the telly outside.  Stormzy and the Foo Fighters for future reference:

Sunday 25th

We didn't get home until after midnight, so today was a day of sleeeep

Although we did discover a visitor when we tried to empty the paddling pool:

He seemed really rather cosy in there:

We had sufficiently recharged by the evening and Dad and I went out for a spot of Skateboarding:

Monday 26th

So while the weather has been so nice we've been wandering around Greenham Common while Ned is doing his sprint training.  Well, Mum and Dad have been wandering, I've been riding my bike, and talking, mostly talking....but my bike riding is really improving.  I don't think my talking needs any improvement?