Going back to last week, Hugo came for tea after school on wednesday. I'd told him we were going to have sausage and mash for tea, he was well up for that. So much so that the first thing he said to Dad when we got out of school was 'can I have four sausages?' He'd upped the origianl request to five by the time we got home. We tore around the house like maniacs for a bit, played some board games, terrorised Ellis and then had tea, where Hugo's final figure for sausage consumption came in at a staggering 7!

Once we'd taken Hugo home, Andy came round to look after us as it was Ned's parents evening. We did some cuddling and watched some sort of Polica, Camera, Action programme with loads of car crashes and chasing.

It wasn't a full parents evening, it was just really about my reading and writing. Things must be going okay in that department as they didn't have words with me or anything.

Thursday and we picked Max up from school and went to play at his house which was cool as we hadn't been there for ages.

Poor old Leo had collapsed with exhaustion by the time we'd got there, the anticipation of us coming round was obvioulsy too much for him, ha ha!

Baking club friday, chocolate cup cakes this week, Ellis on tipping and pouring, me on mixing. Top results once again!

Saturday and things were a bit weird. Mum went to nursery for the day...and I didn't? Whats all that about? She went on a first aid course or something? I don't know, but I do know I didn't get a day with Suzy and Eva...not happy.

We dropped Mum off and then headed into town to pick up a few bits for Mothers day (no, we hadn't left it all until the last minute). We went to see Auntie Christine, thanks for our rubber ducks!

And then we went ot the park on our bikes to ride a little bit of skatepark and play on the swings.

We posed for a photo:

And then Ellis fell off the fence:

We went home and slumped about for a bit before making mum's cards for Mothers Day. Two very nice efforts I think this year.

It was soon time to go and pick Mum up after her long day, so we took her straight to the pub for tea. We love the pub, lovely fizzy coke...

...and apple juice in bottles!

And best of all, chips! And massive pieces of chocolate fudge cake that took several attempts to finish (punctuated with long periods of lying down snuggled up to Mum).

We even got home in time to watch the Ant and Dec game show (but we missed TV burp).

Mothering Sunday then, and it was a sunny day! Off to the beach I think.

Dad didn't bother packing the wetsuits as he didn't think we'd be interested in going in the sea, the fool:

I wasn't, the pebbles hurt my delicate little feet:

And mine, so I got a carry back:

As well as the picnic (of course), there were many sporting activities, frisbee with Dad:

Boule with Mum:

Bat and ball:

And lurching around like Bez for me:

As well as some smiley snuggling:

It was almost like a summers day, tucked up behing the sea wall out of the wind:

Swimming Monday, results were handed out for the test last week....I passed with flying colours! It was 'distance' week this week, i've earned my 5 metre badge and my 10 metre badge, i'm soooo pleased about it.

Hmm, going back to Wednesday's trampolining, i'm really loving having some new friends to play with, especially Alex. We play a game at the end called cat and mouse where we have to chase one another round and round a trampoline until one of you gets caught....I let Alex catch me very easily, rather too easily according to Dad!
It's weekly project hand in day on Thursdays, we've not had our act together too much with the projects lately, oops. Anyway, a nice bit of writing always goes down well with the grown-ups. This weeks was about sounds we hear, so I was more than keen to tie it in woth our trip to Paultons park, and produce a drawing of my favourite two rides (the Cobra roller coaster and the Trekking Tractors) along with some of the noises you could hear while we rode them:



It was soon friday, which of course means baking! Chocolate chip muffins this week.
I was on pouring in duties leaving Ellis on mixing this time around.
Yup, as usual we're a slick, efficient outfit and the results were most acceptable.
Uncle Slim and Auntie Trace popped in to see us after tea, cool!
Yeah, even I didn't do my silly shy bit and got stuck straight in since i've decided I do like Slim after all. They took Dad out to play cards and rather unbelieveably he came home with a little bit more money than he went out with.
The weekend then, we had a nice lazy Saturday morning as usual. These consist of me getting up at around 7am (+/-15 minutes), petitioning mum and dad to get up for a bit, then going to 'check on Ellis' (meaning 'wake Ellis up'). Then Ellis and I get into bed with them for a bit of a cuddle which lasts a maximum of 10 minutes before the squabbling starts over how much space we have in the bed. I then start lobbying for some breakfast, which Ellis then spoils by saying she's going to get herself a yoghurt and clearing off. I then continue to hassle them until Mum gives in and gets up to sort me out some toast and jam. This week though I sped things up a little by stealing their duvet and throwing it down the stairs! So, once we're downstairs I get the telly on and don't eat my toast and jam or talk to anyone for at least an hour. Lovely!
That pretty much sums it up Ned. We were off to the Corn Exchange int he afternoon to see 'Penguin' though, ned loves the book so I was keen to see what it was all about. We got really good seats near the front and settled down for the show. It was all done with puppets and loved it, especially the bit where he went onto space with the dancing aliens.
Hmmm, being a bit of purist, I didn't like that bit, it's no actually in the book you know!
I didn't care and lapped it up.
What I did like though was the meet and greet the performers did with the puppets at the front of the stage afterwards, penguin himself loved having his beak held shut and the little boy from the story, Ben, kept making a grab for my hair as he was jealous of it apparently.
He wouldn't have been for long, on the way home we hit the hairdressers for a team haircut.
Ned was first in the chair for a trim, quickly followed be me in the next available chair, which just so happened to be next to him. I had a lot less hair to deal with than him so I was finished first and got first dibs on the sweetie tub. I loved the haircut itself, the lady was really nice and made sure I wasn't going to worry about it at all. My first proper haircut!
We went home via the park, where I did my best to knock myself out with a quality fall and then it was home for snuggles and hot chocolate.
I got press ganged into going to the BMX track with Dad on Sunday morning, I wish I hadn't. It was freezing cold, the track was in really bad shape and I fell of badly twice (one time, I wasn't even on the bike). Rubbish, I told him i'm never going there again. So there!
We had visits from Uncle Alan and then Auntie Christine and Uncle Ian on Sunday afternoon which was very nice.
Back to school and we had a yoga man visit, I loved it, we had to do various exercises named after animals like the turtle, the tiger, the eagle and the crocodile. Mum asked me if I wanted to do it at after school club, of course I declined.....
Swimming lesson on Monday, it was test day....I think i've done allright, i'll find out next week I guess. Dad certainyl seemed pleased with how well i'd done anyway.
Then today we had a visit from the Mayor of Newbury, his job sounds really cool, he gets to open stuff, go to parties and wear some really cool gold jewellery, where do I sign up for some of that?

After Last weeks rather barren output, we've got a sumptuos phot special this week for you (with plenty of video too when it's been put together).
It was book week at school, the culmination of which was fancy dress day with the theme of your favourite book character. There was no one else that came close in my consideration:

It had to be Mr Strong of course! After some rather dangerous looking box cutting by Dad it we had to to was paint, the good bit. The only other detail was his green hat, one quick trip to the fancy dress shop and we were sorted, even if the glittery headgear was a little bit too 'disco':

And whilst we're on the subject of school we had a challenge to see who could do the most sums that gave the answer of 5. I went mad and did two whole sheets worth.

And my writing is now so good that it's officially better than Uncle Alans and deemed good enough to be used to caption our great big wall display of Newbury outside our classroom.

It was of course trampolining day on Wednesday, I'm still really enjoying it, especially as Ned has to miss out while he's at school.

Friday after school, must be time for baking club. On the menu this week, chocolate chip cookies. Dad was responsible for quantities, I was responsible for adding ingredients and Ned was on mixing duties:

We really excelled ourselves this time, they were lovely and we had enough to last all over the weekend too.

Leo came round to play on friday while Disco Max got to get his dancing trousers on. me and Leo have a great time together but Ned seems to find it all a bit too much and crashes out way too early for us.

I've had another burst of interest in photography using Mum's posh camera, here's a few of my shots:

I think they give an interesting snapshot of my life...ha ha!

Paultons Park, the first of the theme parks to open for summer, it was anything but summer while we were driving there mind you, it was tipping it down, there was even some talk of abandonning the trip in favour of drier activities.

As if we were ever going to be frightened off by a bit of rain! I think everyone else was, the place was almost deserted. We got our wellies on and had a great time:

I even found my feet a bit, got on some roller coasters and the bouncy up and down thing. I was quite pleased with myself actually.

And so was I, I got to have loads of rides, many all on my own, we didn't even have to get off on the Cobra and kept going round and round.

Swimming Monday, big, big news....I swam a length of the little pool, with no floats or anything and without touching the bottom of the pool once. Even though I say so myself, it was quite something. I've really got the bit between my teeth on this one now, to the extent that I even got myself dried and dressed afterwards instead of getting Dad to do it for me.

Spring really seemed to be in the air tonight, so instead of our usual after school TV slump-athon we headed out to get some fresh air and muddy trousers. It's pretty hard riding jumps on a bike with stabilisers, so I went for the slightly easier option of the scooter instead:

And I thought I looked pretty pro with the way my school uniform matches my bike:

The playground was good too of course:

Slightly odd one this week as the photographer has been on strike, so no pictures i'm afraid!
Thats not striclty true, we have actually done a lot of this weeks newsworthy and notable activities out of the reach of the camera. As Ned was still on school holidays, I had to let him come trampoling with me on Wednesday once he was finished at dragon club.
Yeah, I loved it too. I can't believe Ellis gets to go bouncing while i'm at school. How is that fair? Anyway, I bounced the highest of everyone, although I was trying so hard to go high I struggled to stay on the middle of the trampoline and was a little bit all over the place to begin with. I soon had it under control though and was pulling some cool moves.
I was a bit shy to begin with this week but soon got up to speed, watching Ned was a real help and he gave me a few pointers.
The games we all played together at the end were brilliant too, except for cat and mouse where I was much to fast as a cat for the little ones (more of a Cheeetah perhaps?). I'm looking forward to more school holidays so I can go again thats for sure.
Once we got home, Ellis crashed out asleep, so Dad and I had a roaring success making some chocolate chip shortbread.
It had to happen one day of the holidays didn't it? Dad came to get me too early from Dragon Club on Thursday. We'd been put into teams and had been designing and making padding for an egg all morning, the aim being that we would drop them from a wall to see if we could stop them breaking. Sadly testing was carried out in the afternoon so I missed everything! That day we'd been chalking drawings of dragons on the floor, when Dad got there I asked him if he could see mine. He had a quick look and identified the single large orange dragon as being my work....I don't know how he did it so quickly, except that my trousers were now a patchy shade of orange.
My last day at Dragon club then, and this was the big one...the Pizza Hut trip! I'd been looking forward to this all week and the day was finally here. We went in a minibus, I got to sit at the back and we had Cheryl Cole on the radio...perfect! It was buffet lunch so I helped myself to three full slices of pizza (with tomato sauce, I actually decided I like it after all) and then two nice big bowls of ice cream factory, heavily loaded with sweets of course. Highlight of my week!
Anyway, we had to go and pick him up late while he was stuffing his face, so we took Mum shopping for a pair of jeans in town. Much as I liked 'helping' Mum in the changing rooms, I soon grew tired of it and fell asleep in my buggy. We then made our way to pick Ned up and went to the carwash. I loved it, all the rollers and squirting water everywhere....well, until Ned decided he wasn't too sure about it.
Well, I was sat in the front and they do all rather come at you! Once the car was sparkly and clean we headed to the aquarium shop. Haven't been there for ages so it was actually surprisingly entertaining. I pointed out some catfish amongst other things to Dad, think he was pretty impressed with my knowledge.
I'd never been there before so I really loved it, there were some really pretty fishes and some really fast ones too.
I asked if we could have a fish tank for home, of course the request was declined.
So it was onto the weekend then and for my benefit it was a trip to the Oasis for swimming on Saturday morning. Ned gets to go every week so it's only fair I get to go once in a while. I had a great time, I loved getting battered by the wave machine and when Ned did his usual swimming charge for the rope accross the middle of the pool I gave chase....and gave a pretty good account of myself (armbands on of course). I actually surprised myself with how far I went under my own steam.
The best thing about the Oasis is of course the slides and I made sure we had plenty of goes on all of them before showing Mum what i'd learned on my recent lessons..she was very impressed.
We headed home for lunch (Tomato soup, bread, pepperami for me) and a dose of Olympic action. I've decided that Hugo and I are going to be Bobsledders when we're bigger, we're both really fast runners. We only have the nationality issue to resolve as I suppose he could compete for France?
Saturday night and we were going to Andy's...yay, much excitment! The grown ups sat downstairs and had to eat their tea while Ned, Abi, Faye and I got to go up and sit on Andy's bed to watch films.
We watched Snow Buddies which featured talking dogs in the snow (so was right up my alley) and then Toy Story 2. A top quality night out, even managed to get downstairs just in time for a spot of pudding...yum.
Sunday, we did nothing, nothing at all. So it was a good job Uncle Slim popped round for a brief visit, even if I did say I didn't like him (what a whopping great fib that was).
Back to school then after a week off, I wasn't that upset to be going back though really. it was good to see my friends again after all.
I'm spending more and more time in Butterflies room at nursery these days. I really love it as all the bigger kids are in there and their toys are so much better to play with, what with the computers, camera's and pretend fully equipped kitchen amongst the other things like the extensive dressing up wardrobe.
It was of course back to swimming lessons and I was really up for it this week. I did really well and we even had to go and do some swimming in the big pool. It was freezing in there though and the little pool felt like a hot tub when we came back.

Trampolining! I've been trampolining at Northcroft in the afternoon. How cool is that then? I was a little reluctant to begin with but I was soon getting stuck in and even threw in a few tricks for good measure by the end of it (turning round in the air and seat drops no less!).
Glad she's having fun while i'm at school! Still, it was our last week before half term so it hasn't been too bad. We had henna tattoo's done by an Indian lady, mine looks really cool. School said they'd last a couple of days, Dad reckons mine would last a lot longer as i'm such a grubby little soap dodger.
I've finally been treated to a new buggy, after my own personal one broke ages ago, i've been having to make do with Ned's rubbish old one for a while. You won't miss us in this one, being as it's very bright Yellow!!!!
Max and Leo came round for a play on friday afternoon, Leo and I headed for Ned's room to get the trainset out.....
...and Max and I played Mario Land on the Wii. Max is really good at it and cleared a section in one short go that had taken Mum and Dad most of the previous evening to finish.
So the weekend then, bit of an odd one this with me having two parties to go to. Saturday was Alastairs, we went to the cinema to see Planet 51 and then it was back to his house for some fun and games and sweets!
And while Ned was at the party we went to Krazy Klub for some Ellis playtime:

When we got there, my bestest friend in the whole world Eva was there, how brilliant! We had a great time together and I was really good at climbing, I even helped her climb up to the slide, Ned has taught me well. We'd arranged to meet up with Kimi too, the cars got a good going over:

And we shared driving duites very nicely.

Sunday we had an early afternoon sofa session watching the Winter Olympics, I loved the short track speed skating in particular. Then it was party time again, this time for Tilly's birthday. A disco in our school hall no less!

And while he was there with his best dancing pants on, we had the pleaseure of Abi and Faye's company. So while Ned was getting out and about at all his parties I saw loads of people too! I think secretley he was a bit gutted he'd missed out.

It hasn't all been fun and games though, I guess it comes to us all at one point or another but it was washing time for my snuggly blanket. It was awful and I spent quite a while with my face pressed up against the washing machine window watchign it go round and round and round. Of course the torment was over once the machine had stopped either as I wasn't allowed to have it until it was dry!

So then, half term and off to Dragon club. I was a little hesitant to begin with and needed some reassurance from Mum. But once i got there they had remembered my name and seemed really pleased to see me. They also had a big tub of Lego that wasn't going to build itself.....

I really loved my journey to nursery as well, me in my new buggy and Ned racing us on his scooter.

Anyway, Dragon club was just as good as ever, indoor skateboarding, jewellery making and these weird go carts that you could skid really well around the kitchen area.

Todays Olympic highlights for me was the Snowboard Cross which I loved, even though dad did keep wibbing to the downhill skiing (which was okay, but not enough jumps).

I had swimming lessons in the afternoon (yes, even in half term!) and I was pretty reluctant to go. This reluctance didn't last long though and I was soon throwing myself into it. I even got used as an example to the rest of the class as my underwater swimming was so good.

Today we met Mum for lunch, we went to the Pasty shop of course and then it was home for a snakes and ladders extravaganza while Ellis was asleep. I gave Dad a right thrashing.

Well we'll start off with a bit of a roundup I think.
Reading....i'm doing okay, but it's very much in fits and starts. Sometimes i'm brilliant, sometimes I just can't be bothered.
My old teacher from last year bought her new baby into to school to meet us, he was really good at pulling faces which made us laugh a lot.
There's been a lot more hanging about after school for scootering in the playground. The ground has been pretty damp which has led to a few wipeouts.
And last of all, I can finally whistle, after months and months of trying. So i'm sure i'll be annoying you all soon with that one!
We've had a great time at nursery lately, my normal room has been closed for decorating meaning that i've been in with the big kids most of the week.
Mum and I were speculating about the possible names of a dog we saw on his walk in the park one morning. Mum came up with scruffy, whereas i decided his name was 'Chicken Nugget'
My scabs are nearly all gone now from my chicken pox, so thats nice as it's been a while!
So then, out and about. We went to Virginia Water on Saturday for a bit of a bike ride:




The picnic was ridiculously late by our standards, we didn't start eating until gone twelve for goodness sake!

We had a good old ride out, probably a bit too far for my liking to be honest but we wanted to get to the waterfall and do some climbing:

Dad and I had a game of pooh sticks, I did him good and proper as his stick didn't even make it to the other side of the bridge!

I decided to vary my route as much as possible on the way back:

And I decided my bike just wasn't fast enough so did my best to pinch Ned while he was answering the call of nature behind a tree:

We did a little shopping afterwards. (After Dad had got us completely lost putting the wrong postcode into the satnav. We ended up at some very posh houses indeed, but we did see a fox mooching about in broad daylight!) I got myself a rather smart shirt and tie combo for a couple of parties i've got coming up....i'm VERY pleased with the tie.

Sue came to babysit on Saturday night, I couldn't get rid of Mum and Dad quick enough. We had a lovley time and I even had a talk on the phone with Charlotte!

We had to cancel our visit to Alan's on Sunday due to very high levels of snot and sneezing from myself, Mum and Dad so it was a lazy day instead, not what we had hoped for.

You'd never think that Ned has actually got a set of proper face paints would you? Quite why Mum decided it was a good idea to use felt tips for this is quite beyond me:

I added a few finishing touches of course!

Several hundred wet wipes later and everything was back to normal(ish).
I'm full of attitude at the moment, I never need any help with anything at all, I know it all and I don't listen to what i'm told. So much so that I actually went all the way to nursery in a t-shirt the other day (while it was freezing cold) because i wouldn't let mum put my coat on. Actually, i think I pushed that one a bit far, she was right, and i've made sure my coat has been well and truly on every day since.
And while we're speaking of outerwear, my coat came home so dirty yesterday dad had to put the washing machine on, all on his own (once he'd rung mum to find out what programme it had to go on). Apparently my coat was so dirty, even the inside was covered in mud!
Friday was the end of our school art week and we had a special assembly in the afternoon. I was really pleased to see Dad and Ellis turn up to see our work.
And I was just a little disappointed that we'd gone to a school assembly with no singing!
Anyway, back to the weekend and a trip to Warwick Castle:

The best bit was first, the park:

Yep, the park certainly passed the Ned test:

Next up was the stocks, fortunaltey there was no spare food to throw at us:

Unlike every other castle we'd ever been to, you could actually go inside this one! I loved it, there were swords to play with (sadly chained down though), loads of weapons lying around and two horses all dressed up in armour which we really loved:

We had a lovely picnic in the grounds and almost had our sandwiches stolen by the ghost tour people.

Then, fully fuelled up it was time for some proper exploring, up onto the ramparts. Of course, I was the advance party:

There were lots and lots of tight, twisty, steep steps to negotiate, but the views from the top were well worth it:

And it was great fun waving to the people down on the ground.

There was even a princess tower to keep the girls happy. We got to dress up as princesses and have our photo's taken.
Truth be told, I took quite some persuasion to get involved, unlike Ned of course, who was well into it:

We took a walk down by the river in the sunshine, but sadly the trebuchet wasn't working:

I spent some of my pocket money on a bow and arrow set. I couldn't get the hang of it to start with but soon caught on and became quite the hotshot with it...sorry cat!

Mum went to work on sunday, the rest of us didn't do much, we built a rather extensive camp in the front room and watched Keeping up Appearances (well I thought it was funny!)

I've been managing to get myself dressed for nursery in the mornings, but got let down badly today when Mum forgot it was fancy dress day at nursery...oh dear. I was distraught, until she left and then I was right as rain. Apparently she felt bad about it all day.....

I'm still doing very well in my swimming lessons, i'm wishing the weekends away so I can go!