We're back!

Going way back to pre-holiday business, I had my last few days at Dragon club. What a great time I had too. I played the witches cat in our play and when Dad and Ellis came to get me I still had my whiskers drawn on and was wearing the tail and ears i'd made for the part. I wanted to keep them on to go home but we were on the bikes, alas the tail kept getting caught in the back wheel and the ears interfered with my helmet so it was a bit of a non starter. We did have a nice ride home along the canal though, even if Dads route wasn't much of a short cut. I even managed my first proper bunny hop on the bike, Dad was well pleased. .

We're both getting very fussy about our clothes these days, I like Ned to pick mine for me but if he doesn't I make sure whatever Mum or Dad has chosen is rejected.

And I will only wear shorts, preferably camoflauge ones at that!

So on Friday once we'd finished nursery and club it was home to pack for holidays! Everyone at Dragon club said they had been very pleased to meet me and hoped i'd be back to see them again soon.

I had my last day in the Ladybirds room at nursery, moving on, i'm growing up you know!

Mum was still at work so it was down to us lot to make sure we had everything.

We filled the car up, and then wedged even more stuff in it before heading off to pick Mum up and then heading on to Andy's to travel down with him (he made sure our bikes were okay on the rack on the back of the car, so a very important job).

We got to the caravan pretty late, but there was no way I was tired enough to turn in for the night! I had my first night in a bed rather than the confines of the cot to exploit, and I made sure I did just that. I kept getting up out of bed and having a run about, it was great fun, right up to around 2:30 in the morning when Dad caught me red handed trotting towards Andy asleep in the living room.

Hmm, she kept me awake for a little while but I knew I needed all my energy for our busy days.

Anyway, here we are cosied up in my top bunk:


We embraced the outdoor life with some rather unorthodox al-fresco darts:

We had a bounce before entering the Maize Maze:

We had to collect 10 stamps from inside the maze, some of them were ven collected on the leaflet we were give....ahem.

After just 2 Hours, 41 minutes and 55 seconds we were all done and very pleased with ourselves:

Those of us who still had energy after all that had a space hopper race:

And then common sense finally prevailed and we headed off for a well earned cold drink:

We had barbecues of course, here I am proudly showing off my empty bread roll as i'd eaten the meat of course! Why do they still bother giving me the bread with my meat:

Yeah well you were lucky to get anything at all, i'd been hit witht the puking bug and was on a food ban that day.

Of course, no trip to Cornwall would be complete without a few trips to Crealy would it?

Of course not:

I got all brave in one fo the playgrounds and wdecided I wanted a go on the vertical drop slide. Dad took me to the top and dangled me over the edge as far as his arms could stretch before letting me go, plunging downwards at a hell of a rate before coming to a stop and the realisation that I didn't really enjoy it very much at all.

We went on the rockpool ramble at Constantine bay with the beach ranger, i'm not sure how good a ranger he actually was as I saw him get nipped quite badly by a crab!

We had a good old explore around the rock pools, not quite as closely as Dad did though, he decided to throw himslef in them.....twice!

I got drafted into the elite surf check club as Dad and I made frequent trips accross the headland by bike (which he loved, almost as much as riding to the bins):

We indulged in a cream tea of course:

Exlplored some of the ancient architecture:

And went to stare down a great big hole in the hillside at Trevone, that went right down to the sea at the bottom, it was great:

We had a trip out to Newquay zoo, once we'd stumbled accross the skatepark mind you:

Here's a few dodgy looking specimens:

I had a bit of a chase game with the lion:

And we watched the penguins, playing in their pool for ages as it was being filled up with jets of water that they seemed to love.

We also managed to get down to the beach for a barbecue and camp fire, with a bit of hole digging thrown in for good measure........

......which Dad very nearly broke his leg falling down while setting up the camera for this picture:

It got rather late, so Ellis and I chilled out a bit and I even saw a shooting star!

We had a silly close up picture session with Mum:

We pulled some faces:

I got to get some lovely close ups of my nose scab that I aquired tripping over some flat tarmac:

We pulled even more silly faces:

And then I decided to take a few pictures too:

This being my best I reckon:

The first week was over and we bid a fond farewell to all our friends who were headed back while we had to tough it out for another week.......thanks a lot for your company chaps!

Yeah, and the Maoam's!

We were soon joined by Auntie Christine and Uncle Ian for a few days though, we took them to the beach:

Dad and I went for a swim in the big rockpool after some serious climbing to get there. I didn't like it all that much truth be told....

I stayed on ground level with the others, much better bet, even if the cave was a bit scary at first:

We also took them to Polzeath.....hooray!

And on the way back we stopped of in Padstow, and waved Mum, Dad and Ned off for a trip on the speedboat:

It was brilliant fun, we went super fast a swerved in between all the other boats out on the sea. I made sure we sat at the fornt of the boat as the driver man said that was where it was most bumpy!

We let them have a day off on their own to sit on the beach and soak up the ice cream, I mean sunshine before meeting them at their room in the Harlyn for our evening meal. Once all that was done and dusted we had a nice little walk over the beach before leaving them for their last night. A brief stay for them, but they seemed to have the best of the weather!

I was forced to take charge of the situation as the holiday went on and decided a list of things to do would be a good idea. The first item to tick off was my suggestion of a sunset walk. By the time this picture was taken however it was pretty dark.....

Another trip to Crealy was of course in order, I was still up for it even after the trauma of the vertical slide:

Another item on the list was a visit to the bike park/track, I reckon Dad must have slipped that one in. I warmed up before we left with a few jumps at the campsite:

So with the boys off biking, mum and I got busy with a bag full of snack food and choccy! It must have been the sweet stuff that encouraged the wasps, netting mum her second sting in as many weeks...ouch!

Once the picnic was ll gone I decided the bikes looked a good bet after all:

I loved the place, and I soon got stuck in, talking to the locals and riding the pump track for about 20 minutes straight, dad could only manage three laps at a time! Once i'd got warmed up it was time to tackle the big BMX track, right from the top of the hill:

Some of the jumps were pretty big, but I made it over all of them:

And picked up plenty of speed on the lower slopes of the course:

A big thanks to Mum and Ellis for sitting there all day while Dad and I played, we'll make it up to you some time or another I reckon.

The park in Wadebridge provided more entertainment than we'd held out hope for:

I'm almost there when it comes to swinging across the monkey bars:

Even the shopping was bearable, we wandered into a guitar shop where all the people that were 'working' there were just sat about playing music with each other. I loved the idea of that and decided it was a pretty good career path.

I whiled away many happy hours looking after baby and taking her for a walk around:

Our last day was a rather windy affair, we went for a walk that grown ups would probably describe as 'bracing' or something equally ridiculous like that.

But all routes lead to Gary's shop, hooray! Haven't mentioned Gary yet have I? He's my most favourite shop keeper in the world, ever. Not sure why he keep son about the Rams but hey ho...anyway, he had jawbreakers in stock:

The wind eventually died down in the afternoon and we got dragged down the beach for a final play.

They had red flagged the beach the sea was so rough but we still had a paddle, and I even made sure I got my head wet by crouching down and diving through a few waves. I decided against surfing though, looked a bit mushy even for me.

I decided against the beach to be honest, I was frozen and huddled up with Mum while Ned and Dad dug the sand from around us, making us our own little island, with a fortified wall and everything.

We went back to the caravan, part of the deal was a hot chocolate for any returning chilly beach goers, so Dad started it off and then went and had a shower leaving mum in charge. Bad move, there was more hot chocolate tipped over the work tops and floor than actually made it into the cups and then the soggied botom of the sugar bag let go to compound the misery...oops!

Once all that was cleared up we packed the car and left pretty late, we got woken up in the car for a McDonalds at half nine and finally arrived home at about 1:30 in the morning...yawn!

What a good time we had, I got plenty of driving done around the campsite too. I drove Dad's car, Alan's Car, Owen's car, Andy's car and uncle Ian's car too. Probably more different cars in a week than Clarkson!

And I pushed the envelope of staying up late to the absoloute limit, although any thought of putting me in a bed when I got home were firmy quashed due to my inability to settle...oops! I wasn't that bad.

So we were all back home by saturday morning, we had a lie in, watched some telly and then headed off to the pub to see everyone, it was certainly good to catch up with Max again. We organised a few races and press ganged a few reluctant grown ups into competing, that was funny.

Sunday then, another lie in, we've quite accustomed to getting up late during our holiday so that was no problem.

We went to watch the last round of the national BMX championships in Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon, another treat for Mum and Ellis there then! It was really good actually, there were loads of young uns like me racing and I certainly want a crack at it myself. I asked Dad plenty of questions about it all (maybe a few too many).

I thought it was okay to a point, but decided to have a kip in my buggy instead. I woke up when Ned had a go on this though:

Ha ha, it was pretty good, even of the man in charge of it was a grumpy git!

We had an extra day off on monday, so just for a change we got up late and in the afternoon we had a trip to Snelsmore with the bikes. Mum decided it was high time I got pedalling, and I did to a point but didn't really have the desire to keep it going all the while I could get a push.

So I was back to nursery on Tuesday, to my new grown up room. I was a bit reluctant at first but soon forgot Dad was even there.....

And I went out with Grandad and Anne on the train to Reading! Excellent, Grandad had plenty of train information for me and I lapped it all up. Got some new gear too for me and Ellis of course, lovely. Going out with them again tomorrow......

Oh yeah, keep your eyes peeled for a video to follow soon too.....

I had beep beep day at nursey on Wednesday, we allowed to take in our bikes or scooters. Despite Mum's best last ditch efforts I hadn't really got the hang of pedalling the bike just yet so it was the scooter for me this year. Ned very kindly rode it all the way to nursery for me while mum pushed me in the buggy. We went onto the next door school playground to zoom about, we even had a stop/go board which I observed perfectly. All that zooming about certainly gave me an appetite and I ate 3 portions of lunch!
Meanwhile at Dragon club we were having a dancing day in the hall, as soon as Dad tracked me down and came in with Ellis I had to pretend I hadn't been involved in any of it of course.
It didn't stop there either, we went up the castle with the Halford boys in the afternoon. Max and I latched onto a couple of girls...
...and Leo and I did our own thing too. Mostly making ourselves comfy on stone sofas and trying to avoid the masses of flying ants!
I had bike day at Dragon club on Thursday, that was pretty cool as I got to take my cool bike and razz it around the playground and do some racing.
Friday at Dragon club was a bit crazy actually, it was vote for one of the grown up helpers to go in the stocks day (to be pelted with wet sponges). Dad arrived mid way through a funny play some of the kids were doing so sat down with Ellis and I to watch the end of that before we all went outside to shackle the poor unfortunate into the stocks for her soaking.....maybe they should do this at school? I might suggest it.....
Once all the excitment of that was done and dusted we met Mum for lunch in the park, well, rather we hassled her to eat her sandwich quickly so we could go to the kiosk for an ice cream!
Then we went to the library to get some books for me to read for my Quest Seekers stickers and medal.....i'm very enthusiatic about my reading you know!
Then it was the weekend and after my refusal to wear my wetsuit on the grounds of decency and comfort we went shopping for a new one in East Wittering. I had to try literally hundreds of them on....it got terribly boring....still better now than on holiday next week I suppose?
We had a wander around the town and then set off for the beach for a picnic.
But not before I slipped over in the toilet and made a lovely graze/bruise combination on my back...ouch.
Pebbly beach this time though...bit uncomfortable?

Never mind, they had ice cream all the same:

Messy messy blackcurrant flavour ice cream at that:

I thought I ought to try my new wetsuit out:

It seemed fit for purpose and much more comfortable than my old one.
And I was glad it had a nice red accent so I don't look quite such a boy when I get it as a hand me down in a few years time!
In the evening we went to see Faye and Abi, first up it was cuddle time for Faye:

Then it was Ellis and Abi's turn, you lucky lucky ladies!

We had a very late night indeed so Sunday was a bit of a lazy one i'm afraid. We had a wander down the park and did a bit of this and that.
We were charged back up for Nursery and Dragon club on Monday, it's my second week at Dragon club and i'm still loving it. We made plaster masks of our faces, when Dad came to get me I was still a bit white in places.....
And it's my last week in my current room in nursery so i'm making sure I get the most out of that.
Today was Brazil day, I looked really cool with the Brazilian flag painted on my face!
I spent a good part of the day at nursery telling everyone to look at my willy, as I wafted my undone belt about....that raised a few laughs!
We went to the Cafe with Mum and Dad for lunch, guess what? Another Ice cream! We tried to see auntie Christine but she was too busy working which was a shame and then we headed back to the library to get my first lot of stickers and another pile of books.....
Thats all for this week then, we're away for two weeks as of Friday to Cornwall!
Yeah, the school hoildays have been great so far lets see how two weeks with Mum and Dad goes eh?
See you all soon (unless you're coming with us in which case, wahey!)

Well after my early enthusiasm for the potty, i've rather gone off the idea now. A nappy is just more convenient really. Well, it is for me anyway! I've been making loads of visits to the next room up at nursery and now have a date for my official move. Once we get back from holidays i'll be going up full time.
I finished off my week with auntie Christine in fine style in a whirlwind of pooh sticks, aborted trips to Krazy Klub, cake baking and film watching....lovely. Best of all I got to stay the night on thursday! It's the forst time i've ever stayed away from Mum and Dad and I wasn't worried at all. I think Auntie Christine was hoping that she'd get a lie in of I stayed over...unlucky! I woke up rather early actually, but it just so happens there was a tv in the bedroom.....result, I may have snoozed off again. So on Friday we headed for Mudeford for a day out at the sea side. We collected stones (one of my favourite hobbies), bought myself a toy lizard and even went on the boat over to the island (which I always ask to do and get told no by Mum and Dad). Uncle Ian drove us in his lovely big comfy car and on the way home we called into a Motor Museum where I sat in the biggest chair in the world. Hopefully one day we'll manage to aquire the pictures that Auntie Christine took during my week and upload them on here at some point.
So, thanks very much for a great week Auntie Christine, I really had a great time!
I should add that I got quite used to Ned not being about actually, for one thing I could abandon our sleep rota and sleep as often and as long as I liked which was nice.
What wasn't so nice was being dragged out of bed at silly o'clock on Saturday morning to go to Devon! Once we arrived and I realised that we were going camping at the seaside I was more than happy about it though. We met up with Owen, Hannah, Andy, Kin, Melissa, Yanna and Fen who had already toughed it out for a night throught the howling wind and lashing rain. By teh time we had arrived the sun was out though...ha ha!

Once everything was set up we had a lovely picnic:

And a bit of a walk around the (otherwise deserted) field:

Of course all this outdoor living meant outdoor nappy changes:

We got our kids only tent sorted out pretty pronto too:

Then it was time to hit the beach, mum got a close up in:

I refused to wear my wetsuit, it's so short in the body they obviously never want to be grandparents. Wetsuit or not I was on a surfing mission and couldn't wait to get amongst 'em. I amazed Dad with my new found wave riding skills (not shown in the video later on, I won't perform on camera).
We had a barbecue for tea, overlooking the bay as the sun went down, how lovely and then all too soon it was bedtime....I wasn't ready to go bed and had plenty left in the tank:



Even though I soon nodded off in the tent.
Ellis was sharing with Mum which meant me and dad were in together. I wanted to stay up until he came to bed but wasn't allowed. They'd forgotten to bring us any books so I had him make me up a story and tell me twice!
I woke up with Mum along side me and told her quite clearly 'I wake up now' as I sat bolt upright on the airbed (thanks Hannah, you would have thought someone would have checked ours for punctures before we left eh?)
And I awoke to find Dad had finally slithered into our tent later on in the night too. We listened to a little bit of Frank Turner on Dads mp3 player before having a bit of a Beetlebum singalong, which Mum could hear aparently.
We got up, the sun was out again and after we'd had breakfast we chased some rabbits around the field, the best incident being the one we cornered around the bins, leaping over my foot!
Yanna nd I rolled off down the hill in the kids tent:

We played a little bit of cricket:

And then it was back down the beach for digging, more surfing, sliding down the sand dunes on my bodyboard and a rather ill advised adventure for Fen and I off over the dunes..oops, never mind we got back okay in the end.

After all that effort, it was time for a lie down:

So that was my first camping adventure, we all had a really lovely time, thanks everyone! Hope we can go again soon.....
So after a late trip home sunday night after we finally dragged ourselves away from the seaside it was soon enough Monday morning. Something new again this week though and it was Dragon club for me (which is in the school right next to Ellis' nursery). I was a little cautious on the way in, but I had no need to be. By the time Mum left all she got was a wave from the far end of the playground....
We did face painting ( a cheetah for me), scooter riding, all sorts. I had a great time and when Dad came to pick me up I let him know quite clearly that I wanted to stay for the afternoon session too! He explained that I could go all this week and all next week which I thought was a fair compromise really. I also won the most coveted 'Super Dragon' award on my forst day there! Today we had a visit from a Birds of Prey man, he had a big old Owl and a Red Kite for us to see, so that was rather good, when Dad and Ellis arrived we were making and flying paper aeroplanes indoors.....ha ha!

Had to make a card for my teacher in a bit of a rush Wednesday night...oops. Went a bit heavy with the glittery paint and it hadn't dried by Thursday morning. Mum had to perform an emergency scrape operation before we could take it to school for last day of term! And what a day it was, we spent all morning playing, ate lunch and then went home early.
Yeah, so that was nice to have him home earlier than usual even if it did interfere with my usual afternoon nap.
Dad was on a mission and decided that we had to go out somewhere, we went up to Combe Gibbet. It was pretty cool actually, really high up, so high up in fact we watched a helicopter flying about below us!

Dad explained what the gallows were for, but all that was hanging from them was a big bottle of Evian on some string?

Friday Mum was at home to look after us, we finally got round to painting our Easter mugs:



I contemplated my design long and hard before I started, but ultimatley ended up painting the whole thing red with a yellow stripe:



I had another party to go to in the afternoon, great fun!
Hmmm, I got the run of the house for a few hours.
Now then, the weather, summer is it? I think not, i've been wrapping up nice and warm for breakfast lately:

We had a trip to the pick your own farm on Saturday morning, we picked srawberries:

We picked (and ate a few) raspberries:

We went into the shop, bold as brass with our pink hands and faces to pay for our haul:

We even did a bit of climbing for good measure:

We ate all the strawberries after lunch with a combination of toppings....lovely!

In the afternoon it was Abi's 3rd birthday party. There were loads of people there and plenty of kids. Uncle Alan performed pushing duties very well:

As it was an away fixture we got to gorge on fruit shoots:

It was a great party, us kids even managed to sneak indoors to watch total wipeout!

Hope you had a happy birthday Abi!

Sunday was a trip to the swimming pool, the Coral Reef this time. It's been a while since we've been there and I really enjoyed it.

I had an early night in preparation for the week to come.....

Auntie Christine week!

It started off bright and early, a trip to Tesco for provisions and then on the train to Reading (where we bumped into Ted and his Mum) to go to the cinema. I'd never been before so it was a real eye opener. Ice Age 3 was the film and I loved it. After munching my own body weight in pick and mix we hit the shops. I almost completely decked myself out in camoflauge gear and got Ellis this lovely dress:

Dad couldn't stand the suspense and finally cracked at 7pm to find out where we were....ha ha!

And while Ned was having all this fun and excitement, what was I doing? Being picked up early from nursery as I wasn't feeling too good. Oh dear. Nothing really wrong, just a bit of a temperature and the occasional sleep......

Tuesday we couldn't keep up the relentless pace, we did however have a trip to Sainsbury's where we went into the new car park and pushed the trolley up the weird magic moving ramp. We played some 'giant' frisbee on the green all the way to the pub, but it was shut! Can't wait to see what we do tomorrow.....

As promised a few weeks ago, here's a picture of me cuddling Faye....cool or what?

I understand Abi has a few unorthodox techniques when it comes to handling her baby sister, good on you Abi, these younger sisters can be trouble unless you get them whipped into shape from the very start!
News form the little sister this week, i'm in pants (well sometimes anyway). I've been so good at asking for the potty that i've been treated to some Night Garden knickers...how cool is that?
Dad hasn't had to change a single soiled nappy for over a week now, he's very pleased. Poor old Mum has copped for the odd soggy lap though....oops.
I don't what all the fuss is about really, it's only going to the toilet isn't it?
My best friend Eva has gone up to the next room at nursery and we're missign each other terribly. So much so that i'm getting even more visits to the room than usual. I love it in the big kids room and can't wait to get in there full time!
Friday was Federation day (?) at school, there was a family picnic lunch (indoors because of the rain) and then there was a puppet show in the afternoon which Dad and Ellis gatecrashed, I was very pleased to see them though.
Yeah, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first, there was a really scary man dressed as a teddy and Ned and his mates made so much noise screaming and shouting during the show that I actually started to shake and clung to Dad as hard as I could. I soon got used to it though and loved it!
Then we were on to the weekend, I had Noah's party on Saturday lunchtime...excellent! I was dropped off and left to have a really great time. It was a pirate party and we all got really smart pirate tattoo's (i've managed to avoid having it washed off so far) and once again I won a prize for stick the beak on the parrot game!
While Ned was enjoying himself we had a lovely civilised trip to town, we browsed some shops and walked by the canal. There was no way I was going to go past the Pasty shop twice without tucking in so we had Pasties too.....yum! Don't tell Ned!
I came home with my party bag that contained, amongst other things...Black Jacks:

They make your tongue black, really black!

We loved them and wondered why we'd never had any before?

Saturday afternoon something really most odd happened.....we all had a sleep, at the same time! Now this never happens, Ned and I have a strict code of conduct that stipulates that when one of us nods off, the other must wake upp straight away. I don't know what went owrong in this situation but we'll do our best to make sure it doesn't happen again!

Auntie Christine came round for lunch (eventually) on Sunday! We were so excited, I even made some place cards for the table. She got to sit in the best spot (between Me and Ellis) and everything. We ate lunch, we played Monopoly and then we went down the park in the rain. Lovely.

Yes, we really enjoyed her company for the afternoon, rather than an hour before we're shipped off to bed so Mum and Dad can eat curry!

Okay then, healthy outdoor living supposed to be good for you isn't it? Not when you get your fingers stuck in your cycle helmet airvents like I did before our journey home from nursery last week...oww!

Parents evening fo real as well last week, well it was in the afternoon actually...which meant I got to hang around while my teacher told Mum, Dad and Ellis all about me...good job she only had good things to say then wasn't it!

In other news i'm hitting the old potty hard this week! There hasn't been a single poo to clean out of my nappy and they've all been directed into the plastic! How's that then? I even managed a wee in it today which pleased Mum no end!

So, social and out and about news this week. Friday night was a big group outing to Owens to play Rock Band and eat curry....well, I had my tea before I went and ended up in the creche (Owen's bed) watching Nanny McPhee with Ellis, Max, Leo, Abi and Mum.

Once Ned was fast asleep we all slipped out one by one to get back downstairs to find out what on earth the terrible racket was, turned out to be Dad singing and Ben trying to destroy the plastic drum kit like animal from the muppets....still, they enjoyed themselves.

We took Grandma to the park on saturday morning, we rode our bikes from her flat and then hit the skatepark for a bit:


We played on the park a bit too of course:


I'm still not quite there with my pedalling yet, but I enjoy it all the same:


As luck would have it, Luca and Hugo just so happened to show up, we're becoming regular weekend friends these days:

As if that wasn't enough, Shimon also turned up. We had a great time on the park and then I got to dazzle them with my bike skills.
Sunday we went to grandad and Anne's for lunch.
I showed Grandad the way to the park:

And let him help me up the ladder to the slide:

I had some slight balance issues:

But still had enough skills to give mum the slip without too much trouble:

I rode the weird roundabout in a very ladylike fashion with my dress on:

And then it was school sports day, how exciting! Mum got there early with Ellis, in plenty of time to get soaked. Dad turned up once the rain had stopped.....hmmmm.

After an early drenching, I sheltered in the buggy for a bit:

I came prepared with my chequered flag....

And put in a good display:

Of Usain Bolt style easing up way before the finish line:

Shame there weren't any real races.....

I decided the last 10 metres or so of the track would be suffiecient for my entry:

And picked up Ned's victorious line crossing style quick enough: