Right we're pretty light on pictures and video this week, so if reading isn't your strong point and you usually just scroll through fotr the pictures......UNLUCKY!!!

Better get the school update out of the way first I suppose, it's still brilliant. I've ahd a few 'clingy' moments if the truth be told, but on the whole i've loved it. We had football training last week by somebody from Reading Football Club (apparently they used to be good?). I've got a new nickname, Ned Flanders! I wasn't that happy about it until Dad told me it was a man from the Simpsons....that made it seem a a lot better. I now have my own book bag and got to bring home my first book for the week, a dinosaur one! I made Dad read it three times, Mum hasn't got off the hook either! I take my sandwiches to school in a Lightning Mcqueen lunch box (of course), trouble is, so do another five children...cue frequent home time mix ups! We also get to wave to Max on the way home as he is usually playing in the big kids playground, he seems to have settled in very nicely too! Here's the first fruits of my creative labours at school, a train and an aeroplane no less:

I get Mum to myself on the trip to nursery now, so instead of listening to Ned bump his gums all the way there I get to ask the questions...well gurgle and point excitedly anyway! Mum still does her professional tour guide bi tthoigh and points out everything and anything of interest on the way. I'm enjoying my new room at nursery too, Claire looks after me a lot which Mum and Dad like because she used to look after Ned when he first started at nursery. They wear me out though, i'm asleep in the cuddly book corner everytime Dad comes to get me. Did I mention the fact that i'm a snuggle monster at the moment? I love cuddling up with a blanket or anything else i can get my hands on. I really hit gold this week when I managed to open a cupboard in my bedroom and found it to be full up with loads and loads of teddies! They all fell on me and I had the time of life in a cuddling frenzy! I'm also now pretty much entirely self feeding, resistant to all but the most forcefull and persevering attempts at feeding me. Drinkign is another matter alltogether, there is nothing I like better than to fill my resevoir like cheeks up with as much water as I can manage to contain before letting it all dribble down my chin. I like to accompany this with a slight look of 'what are you going to do about it then' (to which they usualky take the cup off me very quickly).

Animals, I really love animals at the moment. Dogs especially, but pretty much any of them will do. Walking anywhere where there is likely to be dogs is a very time consuming event these days as we have to stop and have a really good look at them.

So then, Legoland anyone? AGAIN!!!!! You'd never guess we had a season ticket would you?

We didn't go an many rides this time, just the boats, the cars and the train before we had a picnic in the sunshine, there's a first this year! We had come to see the machines though, first off we watched a load of skateboarders, bmx'ers and roller bladers ride a big half pipe. I was moderatley interested for a little while, especially in the roller bladers which rather worried Dad I think. They went highest and did the most spins though!

I particularly liked this Ferrari, i'm saving my pocket money for one (well some of it anyway, there's sweets to buy too!):

It was really all about the monster trucks though:

I decided that I wanted to get close up to the action so took off through the crowd, leaving Dad and Ellis in my wake and Mum to give chase, here she is, as pointed out by the arrow (I was right against the barrier). Mum and a few others got told off by some grumpy people behind her for standing up and blocking their view, another lady gave them what for, I think she sounded even angrier than a monster truck!!! They were certainy loud and really monsterous! They even pulled a car in half in a game of tug of war!

Even I loved them, Dad thought their loud engines would make me cry but I just growled right back at them and gave them a wave!

We went home mid afternoon as we were pretty tired, Dad hated leaving a theme park that was still open ......

Sue came and babysat for us on saturday night, brilliant she hadn't been for a while! We talked about school and read our new books. Thanks Sue, hopefully they won't be quite so agrophobic and will call upon your services a bit sooner this time round.

Sunday was almost a complete washout, we went bike shopping for mum, great, except all the bike shops we went to were closed. How exciting, if it hadn't been for the great park we found and the McDonalds we had for lunch I would have been less than impressed.

So then on to Monday, the sun was out and we were up for adventure. The bikes came out and we went out to explore.

Yep, I got loaded up in the seat on the back of Dad's bike and we were off. I liked it much more than the first few times I went on it and loved watching Ned zoom alongside us.

First stop was the park, I whooped Dad around the track a few times before having a play. Then we saddled up again and went down through a dark woodland track, it was really muddy and our tyres slipped all ove the place. We both managed to stay upright though.

Yep, then we got to another park, had another play and made friends with the locals before moving on again.

We ended up on a gravel track, on a railway bridge over the track. We had a gane of 'guess which way the next train will come from' Ellis and I picked one way, Dad the other....of course we won! The train driver helped us celebrate our win with a little toot of his horn and a nice wave from his cab. We were thrilled with that!

I had a bit of the moment with the muddy tyres brushing up against my legs on the way home, Dad says this is how boys should look when they come in from a bike ride:

What would he know, he's usually limping, covered in dirt and complaining when he comes back from a bike ride!

Did you miss us? Sorry, we were having such a good time in Cornwall last weekend that we didn't get home until 11pm on Tuesday night, much to late to be thinking about this Blog malarkey. It's been pretty much non stop since then too so the update has had to wait nearly two whole weeks. How have you managed without us?
Preparation for school has been pretty thorough to be honest, even going as far as some new pants (or 'Alan's' as Dad and I also like to call them). These ones are sporting a Wall-E design. I'm obsessed by the Wall-E film even though I haven't actually seen it. Anyway, I deemed the underpants so fine that they should be overpants instead, just for good measure I thought it best to wear them on my head as well (it's okay, they were fresh out of the packet).

We were dragged out of bed at some unearthly hour on the saturday morning, force fed breakfast in a rather undignified manner and then bundled into the car along with what appeared to be all our worldy possesions befroe hitting the road and heading west. It was wortht the early start though when we got there in time to take lunch on the grass outside the caravan:

We pretty soon hit the beach, the weather was glorious with barely any wind at all, most unlike Cornwall:

Andy got press ganged into digging:

In the afternoon John and Sarah came over too, Ned had suggetsed a barbecue for the evening and it turned out to be a great idea. It was actually warm enough and dry enough to sit outside for a change!

On Sunday we went rock pooling, our catch was greatly bolstered this time around, no doubt due to the locals that we had helping us (John and Sarah, and later their Mum and Dad). We caught loads of crabs, and an enormous fish. We failed to net the eel living under the rock although we did manage to lure him out of his hiding place so we could get a good look at him with our specialist bait (left over sausages from the barbecue, well the bits that we didn't eat on the way to the beach).

The weather was still good, so lunch was once again taken al-fresco!

Supper was indoors though, it was the first time we had stayed in Abi's caravan, and very agreeable it was too:

I didn't get quite as messy as Ellis:

The weather wasn't quite so good on Monday (well we had already had two lovely dry sunny days) so we went to the Pony Centre.....wahey!

I got to ride the ponies, all on my own (well, with Mum):

I must have had the greediest pony ever, he was called Munchkin, and thats what he did, munch! As much green grass as he could.

There were loads of other things too, a train ride, racing ducks, an indoor play area and trampolines:

There were also rowing boats. There aren't any pictures of this though as the whole thing was just too traumatic. First of all we cast off from the jetty, only to find that on of the oars wasn't attached properly. After rowing around in circles for a good few minutes we finally managed to get back to shore and changed boats. When Dad got in, he managed to smack mum over the head with an oar so hard i think he nearly knocked her out!!! By this time I was crying with fear, once we got into clear water I was almost starting to enjoy it, when we managed to go into an involuntary spin and ended up ploughing through some low hanging foliage. Still, we all laughed about it once we were out of the boat!
I petted loads of animals as well, i'm getting really brave:

Although you don't have to be particularly brave to cuddle a Guinea Pig:

As is usual with our trips away, the pace was relentless and we had to snatch rest when we could, in the car seems favourite:

The usual trip to Polzeath was notable by it's abscence last time we came down so it was no surprise to end up there at all. I don't mind, they sell ice cream on the beach and we can do digging:

We stayed on the beach so late that we didn't arrive home in Newbury until after 11 o'clock at night, at least we got the most out of our day.

So, big changes were afoot when we got back, school was fast approaching! I baked cakes to take to nursery for all my friends on my last day, Here I am keeping a careful eye on them to make sure they didn't burn......

While i'm switching off the washing machine mid-cycle, Mum was really pleased!

My cakes were perfect and fantastically decorated, just the job then. So then, my last day at nursery. Mum and Dad reckon it's gone so fast, I don't know about that. I got given my development folder which shows all my achievements and lots of pictures from along the way. I also got a report to show my school written by Roses (my nursery key worker). It makes for interesting reading. It says that i'm very arty and creative, have a good vocabulary, I like books (especially adventures about pirates or policemen), I am confident with numbers and like to play board games, I am a competent user of the computer, I am apparently very physical and like to play outside and I was very competitive in the recent Olympic themed races. She also told Mum that I was certainly a 'Character' and that she would miss me. When Dad came to collect me we had to empty my tray and say out goodbyes, I let Roses have a little cuddle and kiss with me as a special treat!

Apart from one night earlier in the week I had been pretty cool about going to school and wasn't at all worried. I did have one little wobble along the way but Mum assured me everything was going to be okay......

So here I am, reluctantly modelling my new uniform:

And again, a little less camera shy:

And another one of me in full outdoor mode with luggage:

So then, we were off, Mum and Dad both accompanied me on my first day (to make sure I didn't escape on the way perhaps?) Turns out i'm in the same class as Alastair and Hugo and our teachers name is Mrs. Fright! Once I was in through the door I was shown to my very own peg. It had a picture of a dinosaur on it, how awesome! It was next to Hugo's too, awesome! Then Alastair burst into the cloakroom and dragged me off to show me round....awesome!!!! Mum and Dad were then kicked out by the headmistress and that was that. As a boy, my standard answer to all 'what did you do at school' questions is 'nothing' So they won't ever find out just what it is I get up to apart form at something called parents evening? When Dad came to pick me up and asked me how I had got on, I told it him it was fantastic, that seemed good enough for him so I phoned Mum and told her too. The only downer was that as my forst day was a friday, i'd have to wait a whole weekend before I could go back!

Still, there was plenty of weekend excitement to tide us over, Laura's wedding for a start! What a great day out we had. We got to dress up all nice and go out with all the family. The wedding was at a very smart hotel, so smart in fact that they didn't have a baby changing room in one of the toilets, we got to use one of the suites:

The ceremony itself was in a big room, we'd never been to a wedding before so didn't know what to expect at all. All I knew was that I had to be quiet until James kissed Laura, Owen had told me that at this point we could make loud yuck sounds. I missed this great oppurtunity though as I was so engrossed in the whole thing (thanks Auntie Gail for moving my chair so I could have an unobstructed view of the whole thing).

I had to make do with smiling at evryone, poing uncle Slim in the back for a laugh and a little bit of low level walking:

So once that was all done and dusted it was photo time:

It appears the family scrub up quite well actually:

I managed to worm myself into a special photo opurtunity:

While I tried to convince Sue that she hadn't been sacked as a babysitter, it's just that Mum and Dad are too dull and poor to go out anymore:

I'm glad James is getting in touch with his feminine side these days (I wore some of mums sparkly lipgloss to the big day):

I got to steal a quick cuddle with the bride:

Hopefully no one has managed to get any footage of my three attempts to climb into a hammock on the lawn have they?

And then it was inside for a feed!!!

Ellis and I had special kids meals, three big juicy sausages and a lovely big dollop of creamy mash....delicious! We had to fight off several attempts to relieve us of our grub! Eventually it was time for the main event....Eton Mess! Wahey, lovely jubbly. I managed to eat 'several' as well.

As if she didn't have enough to think about, Auntie Christine also got us loads of toys, magazines and goodness knows what else to play with to keep us entertained which was lovely of her, thanks!

Eventually tiredness got the better of us, I crashed out in the buggy:

And I shunned the other seat of the buggy in favour of my self arranged two chair perch:

Mum and Dad apparently were off dancing to the band, good job we slept through that, the scars would have taken years to heal I think.

We had a lovely time, and by the looks of it so did everyone else. We were so glad to have been part of the day!

Alan invited everyone round for lunch on sunday, I wonder what he wants?

Grandma and I had a messiest face competition, I think I just edged the judges decision:

I had an ace game of hide and seek, my game has come on a lot lately, I don't even aske people where to hide anymore!

So back to school for me on Monday....

And i've gone up a room at nursery, no more crying babies for me to listen to!

Next on the rollercoaster of excitement was the Tour of Britain finishing in Newbury. Park Way was a bit different to normal:

It filled up pretty quickly, Mum did great job getting us a spot at the front near the finish line before she had to go back to work and missed the all the action:

It was all over very quickly in a blur of zooming bikes. We headed into the park afterwards to have alook around. It had been converted into a makeshift pit area and all the teams were loading up ready to move on to the next stage tomorrow:

And then we spotted the man from the Olypmics, next to the Cafe hut, Bradley Wiggins. I got him to sign our team sheet, congratulated him on his gold medals and wished him luck for the rest of the race...Dad was a lot more excited about it than me I think.

I was more interested in the inflatibles:

And I was more interested in sleeping in my buggy and pretty much missed it all!