I understand there's a nasty rumour circulating that we're only going to be doing an update once every two weeks, we can put those to bed right here and now. We're staying weekly (even if we're a day late this week, and we'll be on holiday next week).
School broke up on Wednesday for Easter! Boooooo! I love school and was in no real hurry to go home. We hung about in the playground after we'd finished but everyone else seemed to be in a hurry to leave. Pretty soon there was only us lot left!
Nursery's still open so I can keep up my efforts on messing my clothes up, collecting mud under my fingernails and keeping the other kids awake during their supposed lunch time nap.
So first full day of the holidays and I spent the morning with Max colouring in the garden, in the sunshine, maybe school holidays aren't so bad after all!
In the evening we made the most of the increased daylight by going out for walk. Well I say walk, Ned strapped on his roller skates and I took my trike. We headed for the school playground.....
.....and Alastair was there on his bike! Cool! We hared around the playground.
With Mum's birthday coming up we had to have a shopping trip Friday afternoon. With Newbury being one large building site we headed for Amazingstoke! Exciting or what?
We even managed to fit a bike ride around the Greenham common with the Halfords in, enjoying the late faternoon sunshine.
So it's that time of year again, Legoland has flung it's doors open and Tesco have bestowed thier clubcard points upon us, time for another season ticket!
I got aquainted with Wendy from Bob the builder while Mum and Ned went on the Sky Rider....again!

Yeah, Dad is always amazed that I want to go on it, but it's the first thing that we come to....
Dad and I went on the boat racer ride, Dad uses much the same reasoning as I do with the skyrider, it's the second ride we come accross and there's never a queue just after the park opens. Most people probably avoid it so they don't spend all day with a soggy bottom like Dad did......
What I was most excited about though was taking Ellis on the little train without any grown ups, I couldn't wait!

Yeah, it was great fun, especially being at the front in the drivers seats!
Best fun of all though is squirting the passengers on the Viking River ride, I could spend hours and hours on here:

But I didn't like it quite as much when Mum and I went on the ride and I got squirted!
The big dragon roller coaster is a breeze for me these days (even though I still don't really like the dark bit very much):

Dad and I gave them a wave from the castle grounds:

Apart from the mild disappointment of the new Indiana Jones ride breaking down when we were within 10 minutes of us getting on it, we had a great day.
Topped off with several laps of the Fairytale Brook, which was a good chance for a cuddle:

And a bit of finger sucking:

Sunday we had Grandma around for lunch (it was her birthday earlier in the week) as well as Alan and Hayley. Result! Even better though waas that after the dinner was done and dusted Hayley and I got busy making an Easter bonnet for Ellis to take to nursery:

While Alan and I had a bounce on the trampoline and a hide behind the blinds session:

We also managed a late afternoon riding session, after racing Alan's Gayo on my bike, I stole Ellis' trike and rinsed every last ounce of speed from that as well:

And I nicked Ned's old bike for a quick spin, Mum tried to get me to pedal, but whats the point when she's going to give me a push?

Mum's birthday, yay! We obviously got her some Lindor,

And i'm upset because I wasn't allowed to eat them:

Dad and I baked her a cake and everything, I loved licking the bowl but wasn't keen on the finished product as usual. Uncle Al came to babysit so Dad could go to the quiz with Mum. I was supposed to be in bed by the time he got here but I made sure I stayed awake and came down to see him. Good job I did as there may have been a little bit of an early birthday present for me...thanks Trish and Al, it was great, I haven't stopped playing with them all day!

So then, if I can get a word in edgeways this week I have a little nursery news. First off i've started asking for the potty, they think i'm really quite clever by all accounts. What wasn't quite so clever though was the Easter Egg hunt. Great in principle, but the eggs weren't chocolate!!!! What sort of sick stunt is that to pull eh? Mum was most disturbed by the whole sorry debacle.

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):