We went away for Andy's 40th birthay, he's a little older than my other friends but I think we can make an exception for him. We left as soon as I had finished school on Friday, not even time to change. Things were obviously going to be a bit on the silly side right from the start:

Add this lot to the mix and you're well away:

Plenty for us kids to do, I don't really think I saw Mum or dad for the whole weekend:

Except for when we were tired and wanted a bit of a cuddle:

Once we recharged we were back on it though:

We had a trip to the beach, the boys did a load of digging and explored the sand dunes:

I didn't stray too far from base camp, i'd seen the size of the picnic that had been packed up, well done to every one involved in that!

Back at the cottage (actually, it was the size of a warehouse) we were dinosaurs, big scary dinosaurs:

And I had a lovely time on the swings with Mum who was so keen to give Abi and I a push that she didn't even bother to get dressed before coming out to play!

Of course the main event with any birthday was the cake! I made sure Ellis and I were ring side for this bit:

The house itself was great, with so many hiding places, some were better than others though:

I even managed to give Mum and Dad the slip so I could stay at the cottage and play with Max while they went out to some boring town or another, ha ha!

Don't tell Ned, but we had dinner at the pub, sat by the river, playing cards in the sunshine!

We had a lovely time, and once again we'd like to thank everyone who fed us, watered us, played with us and made sure we didn't kill ourselves. We'd also like to wish Andy a happy birthday again! When's the next one?

Home news now, I had my first proper haircut last week. We went to meet Mum while she was having her done and once the hairdresser had finished with her she asked if I wanted a little tidy up trim. Well, all i've had so far is Mum having a snip at my fringe now and again so this was a real treat!

I piped up that I wanted mine done too, but was soon put off again when I realised that this place was way too posh to dish out sweets for the kids!

I've gone up to stage 2 at swimming and started my new lessons this week. I'm still pretty keen on it, for now.

I'm stringing words together now, I amazed Dad today by telling him to 'Come on Daddy' It's harder for him to ignore a direct request like that.

And my writing is really coming on, i've done loads latley in cards and even made my own book at school. Talking of school, it was parents evening last week, I had a glowing report apparently. So much so that Dad wasn't even sure they were talking about the same Ned!

It's summer, isn't it?
I don't now, ever since i've been born it seems tohave been wet or cold or both so the last week has been quite a shock for me.
We've been out and about a bit though. We went to the close/further away park last week.
We rode on bikes to get there:

Well, I rode on the back of Dad's and kept trying to give him a wedgie, or at best pull his shirt up as far as I could manage....
I met up with Alex from school, we had a kick about on the field and I showed him my bike.
The next day Shimon came to play after school so we went to the nearer park. We took my stomp rocket, here I am with Shimon, Alexandria and Ellis preparing for launch:

It certainly made us popular, we soon had hundreds of kids (of all ages) queing up to have a go, Ned was really nice and shared it with them all.
We had a kick about again, I think Dad is starting to worry about my tendencies a little bit:

But with mothers day on the cards, he was glad to get me doing a bit of creative sticking and drawing:

Even I got in on the act this year:

I hid the cards under my bed, sworn to secrecy. Well, thats Ned secrecy actually.....oops.
Saturday we packed up a picnic and a few toys and headed for Dinton Pastures. I had another kick about, thats three in a week:

And once again we got busy with the rocket:

It had exactly the same affect as last time and we soon had a huge group of new friends waiting for a go!
Swinging along monkey bars....I really can't get my head around it at all. Anyone got any tips?

We posed for photo's on a wooden snail, as you do:

We climbed a really steep dirt slope and almost ended up on our bums:

We fed the birds:

Ned carved some smooth lines on his bike:

And I got the hump because I didn't:

We all agreed that the ice creams were a good call though:

Auntie Christine came to play with us in the evening, which was a good thing as dad decided he was going to try and rip my toe off opening a door that I was lurking behind...ouch.
We had a lovely time as usual, it was nice to catch up as it had been a while!
Sunday then, mothers day, I was so excited about it I could have probably burst at any minute. I settled for bursting through Mum's bedroom door at 6 am. Ooops, apparently thats not what you're supposed to do? Anyway, she had her special treat for the day by sloping off into my bed (reputedly the most comfy bed in the world) for an extra sleep. Dad and I stayed in bed watching telly for a bit, we thought that would be best. We gave mum her cards and presents and had croissants for breakfast!
I didn't, there's not nearly enough substance to those things.
We walked down to see Slim and Trace, raided their fridge and looked at photo's on their laptop...perfect, have a good holiday!
Well, i've decided to use the potty a bit more lately, I even say bye bye to my poos as the toilet gets flushed. I can't decide if I really like dogs or not. I like to look at them, make the noises and all that but they can be a bit over familiar, one came bounding up to me while i was captive in the buggy this morning and gave my face a lick, Mum reckons it was just a kiss?
I'm also asking 'why' at just about every oppurtunity. Dad is already blanking these questions, but Mum, well she keeps on answering so I keep on asking......

Finally, after nearly a year of empty promises, Alastair came round to play! Dad's fears were unfounded, we were really good and played very nicely. We even settled a dispute about who was going to wear the princess dress in a very amicable fashion, I got first go and Alastair had to make do with being a power ranger until it was time to swap over:

Yes, they were so good I even managed to sleep while they were here. I love Ned's friends and make sure I can say all their names properly. I got to have my tea with them, they seemed to like that:

We took Alastair home, climbing trees on the way like proper boys!
So waiting for Ned outside school is still fun, we never know just how much 'art' he's going to come out with.
Yeah, I need to get that offloaded quick smart so I can get up into the playground to see who I can entice for some after hours play. Shimon normally obliges.
Which means i'm allowed out of the buggy to play with his little brother, Yannick. They've got a really smart play kitchen, I rustled up a baked strawberry with a microwaved onion on toast. bet Heston would struggle to match that!
Dad has been picking me up from nursery on the bike now and again which is great. He took me via the Fire Station, but as i'm not a boy i'm not bothered about nee-nah's like Ned used to be. I was much more interested in Victoria Park though, we stopped for a play before carrying on home along the canal. We spotted Owen and Hannah enjoying a coffee in the window of Costa so gave them a a few hundred waves, I repeated his name over and over again pretty much all the way home. It was only nearly all the way home as I nodded off.....
I went to Shimon's for tea on Friday night, came home absoloutley exhausted and pretty much didn't murmur a word before turning in for the night.
So then, a most unusual weekend, we didn't go anywhere. What a shocker. We did loads of art until Mum almost had a nervous breakdown:

I can't understand why she got so stressed really:

She didn't even like my legs when i'd coloured them in with a pink highlighter!
Dad spent an hour or so preparing a vegetable patch (the size of a bath towel) and invited the entire family out to help plant the carrot seeds he'd bought. He then proceeded to get the right hump when the seeds weren't sown in the exact fashion the packet stipulated, oops! I'm sure they'll be okay.....not that I care, I can take or leave carrot's anyway!
We did finally get to leave the house to pay Marny a visit. She was very small, and very quiet! For now anyway.....
Day two of the weekend started with yet more art and then sofa diving action:

I even found a quid behind the cushions, but don't bother any of you saying it's yours as I already bought a kinder egg with it!
It was James' party on Sunday afternoon.
I got to gate crash again, it's great having an older brother.
I won the first prize that the entertainer gave out, a lollipop, and got picked by James as one of the two people he wanted to sit next to at tea time. Check me out, sucessful AND popular! The party bag was nothing short of legendary either. It had a red arrow glider, a set of animal stickers, chocolate, jelly sweets, a bubble blower thing and a bit of cake, top marks.
I pulled my best hard done by face at home time and James' mum found me one too.
So it was my second to last swimming lesson this week, we got our reports from the instructors, mine said:
A good swimmer. Very confident and has worked well in passing this stage. Will need to work on his kicking next term but the basic correct movements are all there.
Good work Ned, keep it up!
Not bad, but even better was that we got to have a proper play in the pool. We paddled the mats and had a load of goes on the slide too.
On top of all that I dazzled with my new found arithmetic and reading skills tonight, that pleased Mum no end.
Me? What have I achieved this week I hear you ask....well I managed to fall over just outside the nursery gate and smack my forehead on the ground resulting in a lovely hair clogging scab and then today I managed to get my finger stuck in a radiator at nursery. resulting in a reasonable amount of force needed to free me. Still, I bounce back!

Sorry, a day late this week, i'm sure it'll be worth the wait though eh?

Money, I love money. Nothing brash, just the moneybox where all the change ends up, I love it. I grab a handfull of coins and then sprinkle it all around the house, calling out 'money'

Yes Ellis, very good but please leave my money box in my bedroom alone will you?

I amazed everyone around the dinner table last week when I started going into great detail about syllables. I worked out how many we all had in our names by clapping along with my hands, thats how you do it! Alexandria has the coolest name at school, with a whopping five!

I'm not just an intellectual though, my art output has also been top notch of late. We've been making paper plate puppet faces like no ones business and my finest piece to date, a guitar! Complete with a lovely neck (milkshake bottle) and strings (red wool).

So then, weekend business! Paultons Park anyone? Well, it'll do until Legoland opens won't it!

Here I am on the space orbiter, it was okay while it was just going round and round but when it lifted into the air I wasn't quite so sure!

Dad and I liked the magic carpet though.

I loved the seal flume ride thing. I had about 10 goes it was that good.

I enjoyed a good bit of 'out of the buggy' time, Ned made sure I didn't come to any harm.

We did some driving.

We even managed to get a very rare full group photo.

I whetted my roller coaster appetite with this little tiddler (it was much better sat at the back with Mum though).

And I finally got to go on one of those coin operated rides (no, don't worry, dad didn't finally stump up a bit of change, they all worked for free).

Then we went on the Cobra. Now technically I was actually a little bit shy of the minimum height requirement on this ride but the lads operating it could see I was really up for it. It was really high, really fast and Mum screamed really loudly. As soon as I got off I summoned Dad for a go, he loved it too, so much so we I had to have a third go with him!

He wasn't happy for long though and soon had his miserable face back on.

I had to avoid the advances of the girls.

And we had a good old water shooting session.

Boat race! Excellent stuff, and unlike Crealy and Legoland you don't get wet on this one.

Me and Mummy, no mates pirates!

What a great day out, there was hardly anyone there so we got hundreds of rides and no queueing! Dad managed to redeem himself for the Disneyland teacup ride disaster as well, which pleased him. Well, it would have done if he hadn't got it going so fast he nearly made himself sick.

Sunday then, I got up and asked if we were going to do anything exciting this weekend! That went down well after yesterdays outing.....
We started off with a trip to the park:

I spun a few high speed laps:

And I was desperate to get in on the act. I'm trying to grow as quickly as I can but I still can't reach the pedals on dad's bike.....not fair!

Eventually they took pity on me and I got a few laps in on Ned's bike, I needed a little help though:

We went to Toys R Us in the afternoon to get a present for one of my friends birthdays, we got some http://http://www.magicboxint.com/gogos2008UK/gogos.html for ourselves too. We both really love these things!

Yeah, I love to hoover them all up and stuff my pockets full of them!

A rare excursion into moving images again this week (see, I told you it was worth waiting for this week):

A brief resurgence of skittles last week:

I won!
We had a book fair at school last week, I badgered dad for days to take me after school and he finally relented. I got a Lightning Mcqueen activity book, with 1000 stickers! There are still a few things in the house that have escaped decoration so far....
I got one as well, an animal one with flaps to lift up, I love my books.
After we had sorted our books out I made the most of being able to have a good old poke around in the bigger kids playground, it was really rather good. Even better was that the after school club came out to play too, which included Hugo. It went sour pretty quick though after I fell out of the playhouse window, blaming Hugo for my rather rapid descent. Dad reckoned it was a very good fall, so I made sure I blew a load of soggy wood chippings at him that I had collected around my mouth while I was on the floor, ha ha.
So saturday after our breakfast (croissants are my new fabourite, well, the jam is actually) we packed up and headed off for the seaside.
We did indeed, the weather was lovely and by the time the sat nav had sold us a dummy we arrived late enough to start on the picnic:

I did a little sun bathing:

And once we'd had our fill:

We headed off for an explore.
I had my shoes and socks off within seconds of getting on the sand, so it was paddle time:

It was also digging time of course:

Here I am just before I decided to completely take the plunge and fell over in the water:

Dad was worried i'd get cold so we had to go back to the car, I didn't want to leave and made that very clear.

I didn't mind too much....

....We were going to go back on the ferry across the harbour mouth. We drove onto a big old ugly boat and soon enough we were chugging accross the water, exciting or what?

We had a lovely kip on the way home, before Slim and Trace came round on saturday evening. Lovely, more people to show my room to! I do love to show people my room.

Soon after Abi bought Nick and Carol round too so we had a little play together before it was bed time whilst everyone else showed up for cards. How rubbish we got put to bed?

Sunday Trish, Al and Carrie-Anne came to see us with a chest of drawers for my bedroom. Excellent, more people to take upstairs and another perfect canvas for several hundred Lightning McQueen stickers, thanks!

In the afternoon Dad took me for a spin on the back of his bike which was nice.....

...and Uncle Alan took me for a spin in the Aygo with Mum to see grandma in hospital. I managed to acquire a tub of ice cream and a piece of fruit cake (although I didn't like the cake much). It's all about timing.

Just one more thing, Kimi has a new sister! How smart is that? She's called Marny by all accounts and we can't wait to meet her.

I can say her name already, i've been practicing all afternoon.