Multi sports on tuesday, and we got to try proper long jump into the sandpit.  I'm claiming a jump of over 7 feel, which although it hasn't been independently verified is totally legit!  We also played football and I scored a magnificent five goals to help our team win the match 5-2.

I had a quiet afternoon with Dad, we did a bit out in the garden and slumped in front of the TV, i'm really making the most of my lazy afternons without Ned and before i'm having to stay at school all day.  I've been really loving the hot weather though, playing out in the garden with our water toys.  I've even managed to get the hang of the slide now, as you will see at the video at the bottom.

Uncle Alan had the pleasure of our company on Wednesday.  After much careful debate we opted of rthe Cotswold wildlife park.

Mum made a bit of a mistake and didn't tell hime a few vital things though:

1) We like to have lunch early, campainging usually begins at 11am with an eye on an 11:30 lunchtime.

2) No matter where we go, if there's a park or playground we'd rather go on that than see whatever else is on offer at the chosen attraction.

3) I don't like walking very far.

We did have a cool time though, even if I didn't get to see quite as many animals as i'd have liked.  At least we managed to spot my lost hat from the train ride around the park though, even if it was a long old walk to go and retrieve it.

When we got home Uncle Den was keeping Dad company, it was lovely to see him of course, I love his motorbike, he even let me press the start button and the horn!

So Thursday I came home with a certificate proclaiming me player of the day after multi sports on Thursday!  Not bad eh?  This was a general award for all the sports we covered that day, including cricket and dodgeball amongst other things.  I've still not managed to win the DVD of the day competition though.

I took Dad around Tesco for the weeks provisions.  It was so enthralling I fell asleep in the trolley again.

Friday was an Auntie Christine day, she took pity on us and reckoned we looked tired.

So it was declared a lazy DVD day, yay!

We watched Shrek the third, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 and best of all, How to train a dragon.

We loved it, really loved it.  So much so that when Dad arrived to pick us up we made him sit and watch it with us.

The weekend was upon us.  BMX racing had been moved to Saturday so I decided we'd go along and I wouldn't get all stressy this time.  Andy came along for the ride and the picnic.

Yeah, I took my bike and had a great time with the racers:

 


So here I am leading the field out into the second corner:

Still in front towards the halfway point and everything is looking good:

But I sort of decided it was all too easy, lost one place to my mate Charlie and then got pipped on the line for third.  Oops.  Not so good really.  Truth be told I had a bit of a shocker.  I did pretty much the same thing in my second moto but managed to salvage a second place.  The third race was no better either with a pretty nasty crash when I hit someone who was over taking me.  I was not happy, not happy at all crossing the line in last place once i'd got up and dusted myself down.

I was a little more positive by finals time and once again lead the race all the way until the last corner when Charlie passed me. I couldn't believe it.  Everyone said I had raced very well though so thats something I suppose.  Charlie and I had a great time though and he soon appeared after the race with some sweets to share with Ellis and I.

We headed into Portsmouth after the race as it was all finished quite early.

We rather liked this old torpedo:

But not as much as we liked the Spinnaker tower.

We went up in a super speedy lift and couldn't believe how high we were when we got to the top.

The glass floor was really cool, you could see right down to the ground and indeed the sea through it:

You could see for miles and miles, you could even see HMS Victory down below in the hostoric shipyard:

We went out for a pub lunch on Sunday to the Furze Bush.

It was all very civilized for us actually, I had a lovely fish and chips to go with my mayonnaise bowl.

I had sausages, beans and chips and made it into a variety of comedy faces.

The main event though was of course the park out the back, even if it was a bit mucky in places:

Still, it was nice and clean when I had finished playing.

Auntie Christine again today. 

Even though I tried to play the tired card we ended up going to Reading on the train.

Yeah, we had to go and get George the monkey a new voice from the Build A Bear shop.

Yeah, we loved it in there though so it was well worth going.  What made it even more worthwhile was the fact that I was finally allowed on one of those inflatible balls that you walk around inside on a big pool of water.  I've always wanted to go on these but Mum and Dad always say no.  It was every bit as brilliant as i'd hoped too and I loved it, even if it was pretty tiring and it was quite hard to get up if you fell over.

I had a go on the big slide instead as I wasn't old enough for the balls just yet.

We ended up having a right old get together in the end, Laura, Darcey, Uncle Ian, Auntie Trish and Mum and Dad in the end.  Shame we had to go home really......

Nah, my school uniform had arrived and I couldn't wait to try it on.  I looked proper grown up in it and was so excited.  You'll have to wait until September for pictures i'm afraid....

I had my last ever Stretch and Grow session at nursery on Tuesday, i'm really going to miss that. Dad came to get me from nursery on the bike, I made him stop at the city playground on the way home of course.  It was lovely to go there in the dry and I dazzled him with my climbing skills.
I had a whole day of multi sports with my favourite, Mr Gillam at school.  It was brilliant, we did loads of cool sports, with a lunchtime break DVD to watch.  I couldn't decide whether or not i'd want to stay all day to begin with but I loved it and stayed on until the bitter end at 4 in the afternoon.
Wednesday we had a day out with Alan pencilled in our activities diary. 
I don't why he was so worried about it, we're pretty easy going company after all.
We went to a Maize Maze near Basingstoke.
Yeah, we didn't last long in our first trip into the maze though as I decided I was hungry and wanted to make a start on the frankly massive picnic Mum had packed us.
Aside from the Maze (which we did complete incidentally, i've got our stamped booklet to prove it) there were loads of other cool things to do, like this bouncy castle:

Even if Ned and I did have an accidental clash of heads resulting in me getting a rather nasty bruise on my cheek.  There was a digable sandpit:

Pedal Go karts:

A mountain of hay bales to climb:

An old vintage tractor to climb over:

We came home worn out, but not as worn out as Alan, who had also managed to turn himself pink with sunburn, even though it was cloudy all day?  Ha ha.

Sports day again on Thursday, it was really good again but we weren't allowed ot watch my Narnia DVD at lunchtime, it was a PG and we're only allowed U's.

It was take your pet to nursery day as well, good job I didn't know that before we got there otherwise Poppy may have been in for a day trip.  As it was we had to make do with Daisy the tortoise.  We loved her and I even picked her up nicely for a cuddle.

Friday and we rounded the week off with a day with Auntie Christine again. 

After we'd helped uncle Ian mix up the bird food for their feeders in the garden we went to Eddi Katz which was cool.

Auntie Christine dazzled us with her football skills on the indoor pitch too.

I had a nice lazy afternoon.

And I had a session playing games on the laptop.

We picked Mum up from work and headed our for a picninc.  The weather was a bit gloomy and it even rained a little bit.

We carried on regardless, played on the park and had a game of boules on the field before heading home.

We had a lay in on saturday morning to catch up after our action packed week.

And then we headed off to Yanna and Fen's for another Barbecue, this time for Kin's birthday.

I got busy on the skateboard:

I shot some hoops:

Did some scootering:

Drank fizzy pop and ate lovely biscuits:

Before we all had a game of rounders:



I'm not exactly sure how strictly we stuck to the rules but we had a great time playing anyway!

We went to Grandads for Sunday lunch, they had bought us a really cool boules set.  The jack was an egg and instead of balls you had to throw chickens at it! 

It was really funny even though I wasn't very good at it.

They were a little bit unpredictable, which added to the fun I think.

We ate loads and loads for lunch before heading to the park in the afternoon for a bit more boule and a go on the playground, cool.

There was a Ned/Ellis split today.

I went to Auntie Christines, for colouring fun amongst other things.

And I went on a trip to the Living Rainforest on a trip with nursery.  It was really good and we were so excited.  We went on a proper coach and everything. We saw some lovely animals like Toucans, fish and frogs as well as some cool plants and what have you.  We had a picinic (I have decided  I like marmite sandwiches too now) and a play on the park before heading back to nursery.  Ned and Dad were waiting for us at the gate and I was really excited to tell them what i'd been up to and show them my toucan postcard, sparkly pencil and lovely pink sparkly rubber.

This afternoon, seeing as it was so hot, the paddlng pool came out, about time too eh?

It was pretty cold but we were soon in, having a splash and daring each other to go under water.

And then the water pistols came out of course.  Brilliant.

We had to interrrupt our water play to pick Mum up from work, but she'd bought home with her a really cool slide that you connect to a hospipe and zoom along.  It took a bit of getting used to but I was soon enough shooting along the whole length.

Hmmm, i'm struggling with it a bit, but i'm sure i'll get there soon enough....

Last Tuesday was School disco day, much excitement of course.  It was a great do as always, plenty of sweets and glow in the dark arm bands (especially as Jacob's Dad was on the stand and managed to give a few extra's).  The music was a  mixed bag of course but we loved Forget You, We will rock you and Fight for this love.
Can't believe I missed out on this, we weren't even allowed a sneaky peek inside as the curtains were drawn tight at the windows.
I got a lift to nursery with Luca once again on wednesday as it was Ned's leavers assembly.
Mum got right near the front once again, she's getting very good at getting the good seats these days.  Mind you, she has had plenty of practice I suppose.  For the purposes of this particular performance I was a ladybird:

I was the first one on stage and made sure everyone else lined up in their right places before opening the show with my welcome lines.  We sang loads of songs, really nicely of course (well, most of us did anyway).  All the grown ups got proper emotional of course.  The teddy bears picnic that was scheduled for after the performance was cancelled due to bad weather.  A double blow, as not only did we miss out on the associated cake and what have you, Ian was denied a trip to school which would have been brilliant fun.

I of course had no dancing to go to, so there wasn't the usual rush to get Ned away from multi sports after school.

We did rugby this week!

We came home and had a massive game of catch session.

We love playing catch at the moment.

Thursday and Dad decided he was too poorly to go to work so I stayed home from nursery to look after him all day.  I rather enjoyed it actually, we just sat about in our pyjamas watching telly until it was time to pick Ned up from school.

I bought all my work from the last two years home, my writing books, my numeracy books but most impressive of all apparently was my artwork.  Mum and Dad were genuinely impressed with some of my pieces.

Last day of term on Friday then, my last day as an infant as well.  When I go back i'll be a junior, which means proper shirts and ties among other things.  I'm so excited about it all that i'm looking forward to the holidays being over already.  Sort of.

Dad picked me up from nursery and we went to get Ned pretty much straight away as he was finishing early.

Yeah, we had a whole morning of golden time and then we got to go home, brilliant.  We said our goodbyes to the teachers (who of course wanted a little cuddle and a kiss...yuck) and headed out to the adventure playground for one last play (although i'm sure we'll sneak back from time to time).  Best of all of course, no more Mrs Wheable...ha ha!

We loaded the bikes up and headed for Wargrave BMX track for the afternoon.  I was desperate to get some laps in without my stabilisers.

I wasn't going to complain either, even if the track was busy with teenagers who had also finished school for the summer. 

I made pretty much an entire lap all on my own and only needed the gentlest of shoves from Dad.  I had a few big crashes too, but i've toughened up considerably lately so just shrugged them off.

I enjoyed hanging out with the big kids as well. 

We had a good old play in the park too before heading back home to pick Mum up.

Well Saturday, hmmm, not our usual excitemtn on offer this week i'm afraid.

No, thats right, shopping was on the agenda!  SHOPPING! 

We went out looking for things to wear for Alan and Hayley's wedding, yeah, we know it isn't for ages but we wanted to make sure we're all set early on.

And we are, after a false start in Marks and Spencers in Camberley (we did finally get a set of patio furniture though) we really hit our stride in the Oracle..

Yeah, you heard right, the Oracle in Reading.

The car park was brilliant to begin with, right to the top for some great views, and then I managed to get Dad to walk all the way down the stairs rather than take the lift.  I loved looking down the middle of the stair well all the way to the bottom.

We hoovered up loads of clothes to try on and had a group trip to the fitting rooms, so that was a little interesting to say the least. 

It was pretty cramped but we all got something we were pleased with and a great improvement over the ridiculous outfit they made me try on in Marks and Spencers earlier on thats for sure.

We just had time for the bouncy slide afterwards before heading home again:

I had the £2 instead to buy sweets...

Sunday was declared a garden day.  I helped Dad build the new patio table before joining him at it for breakfast.  Mum made a lovely job of cleaning the trampoline and as soon as it was dry enough it was bouncy time.

We played on it for ages, we didn't even wind each other up either.

We put on a few song and dance shows (using the washing that was hanging up as a stage curtain).  Most of our material was from The Sound of Music.

Although I threw a few numbers form my leavers assembly in too.

Then, the waterpistols and waterbombs came out, we got suitably attired:

And then battle commenced:

We pretty much just attacked Dad, he loved it of course:

Mum foolishly put the camera down and then she too was drawn into it, ha ha!
We were then forced to walk all the way up the hill to Wash Common park in the late afternoon.
Yeah, I don't what that was all about, anyone would think we liked the park or something?
We were lucky enough to have a day with Auntie Christine on Monday.
We started off with our customary trip to Sainsbury's and then it was back to her place with Laura and of course the lovely Darcey for company too.
We had colouring to do, gingerbread man making and a trip to the park.
Perfect in fact, thanks to all three of you ladies for having us.

Well okay, there's no pictures this week, for whatever reason.
Mostly because we've been doing other stuff thats not so condusive to photography.
I think we missed the parents evening last Monday on the previous entry didn't we?  Well, we had Andy round for tea.....
.....and hoop jumping acrobatics while Mum and Dad went to school.
Suffice to say that everything went well and my teacher will apparently miss me when I go up to Juniors.
Tuesday was the farm visiting day at nursery.  Cool, I love the animals they bring, we had sheep, goats, a cow (?), chickens, geese and a lovely doggie.  We headed into town to meet Mum for lunch afterwards, obvioulsy kept secret from Ned.  It won't be long until i'll have to miss out on these lunchtime treats as well when I start school.
Mr Gillam was back for multi skills this week, we did footbal.  I did okay, I scored two goals in our teams 3 - 0 win.
I had a big day, a school visit in the morning (with a short lived bout of tears no less) and I had my last dancing lesson of term where we let all the grown up's come and watch.  Due to Dad worrying about getting me there on time Auntie Christine took me in her car and Dad and Ned joined us a bit later.  We loved performing for everyone (some of us more than others ha ha).  I'm really going to miss it over the summer holidays.
I sat and watched with Dad, secretley I was itching ot be out there, i'd have been much better than them lot!
We had our 'Hub' opeining day on friday (our new building at school) and as Dad couldn't be bothered to get there in time we roped good old uncle Alan in.  It was lovely to have him there, even if he did drift off to talk to Teagans dad about computer games under the gazeebo.
After school I finally got to go to Teagans house for tea, it's been a long time coming that one and I was at fever pitch.  We took my bike and off we went.  We had a great time, we went to the park and I got elbowed in the eye by a rather unpleasant little character, but it wasn't the end of the world by any means.  We headed back and had sausage and chips for tea followed by rolo's ice creams, it was almost as if i'd requested it!  Afterwards we played X-Box until I had to go home, I think I might move in with them actually.
While Ned was out of our hair Dad and I made some of the finest cookies ever baked and then headed for the park where I got to show off my two wheeled cycling prowess to Ned's mates.  I was too tired to ride home again though so Dad had to carry the bike as I trudged along wearily behind him.
Saturday and we headed for the swimming pool, as usual I was reluctant.
And I was fully up for it!  I love the swimming pool I do.
I got into once we were there, the weather was awful but we still went into the outdoor section in the rain.
And Mum and I rode the flume slide so fast we came out almost upside down, I loved it!
McDonalds for lunch because we live like kings.
And then it was onto Hugo, Matice and Luca's house for what should have been a barbecue...
...but actually turned out to be more of a fancy picnic instead. 
Whatever the catering arrangements, we had a great time playing in the garden.
Yeah, and after we were done with that we were all on the sofa for some star wars action on the DVD, perfect!
Sunday and after a lot of motivational work from Mum I was off to Melissa's birthday party (well, whats wrong with wanting to slump on the sofa until the last minute?)
I headed off shopping for a few house bits with Mum and Dad, not the pinnacle of excitiment but pretty good all the same, it was nice to be Nedless for a few hours anyway.
Then in the afternoon when we were all back together we slumped and watched Honey I Shrunk the kids, good Sunday afternoon stuff.

Did I show you a picture of my bicarbonate of soda crytstals I grew for my school project last week?  No I thought I hadn't:

I was super pleased with them and caused quite a stir when I took them into school at breakfast club.

We had the photographer in at nursery on Tuesday, that will be the last time that happens and it'll be school uniform shots from now on I suppose.  I made the most of it though and really pulled my best poses.

We did dodgeball at multi skills on Wednesday, I love dodgeball.  I'd really hit my stride by the time Dad and Ellis turned up to pick me up and gave them a real masterclass in the art, pretty much seeing off the entire opposition team singlehandedly.

Then it was our weekly sprint to Thatcham, only a little bit late this week.  Oops.

We had a proper good game of doctors and nurses with Mum on Thursday evening, and once we'd fixed up all the teddy bears and other assorted soft toys it was Ned's turn for some attention.

Yeah, I didn't mind laying down in the makeshift 'ward' (on the lounge floor anyway).

When Dad got to nursery on Friday Neeve and I were in the middle of a game of mummies and babies. We're playing together quite a lot after all our school visits together.

We did our school music festival performance on Friday morning.  This one was behind closed doors so no adults got in the way.  We had kids from loads of other schools come to sing and dance with us and it was really good, especially the ice lollies.

We had to rush home from the playground after school a bit earlier than usual to watch the space shuttle take off.

Yeah, it was the last ever flight so we watched with great interest on the internet.  It was a bit cloudy in Florida though, so it was soon off into the clouds which was a shame.

In other school related news, I got my report to take home on Friday.  I think I must have done pretty well as Mum and Dad were really pleased with me....very pleased indeed.  So much so they promised me a trip to Pizza Hut.

We had a lazy morning on saturday, filled with minor squabbling and arguments between us kids.

Yeah, it helped pass the time I suppose.  Although making cup cakes with Mum was a nice diversion.

In the afternoon we went to Yanna's for her birthday barbecue.

We had a great time, playing all sorts of sports in the garden, eating cakes and more cakes and then some more cakes.

We stayed really late, playing with Yanna and Fen's cousins, until it got dark in fact.

So there wasn't much doing sunday morning. 

Well, except me having a confidence crisis about my BMX race.  Mum talked me round and we were soon on our way.

I helped set up the 'Team Ned' pit area, which has evolved to quite a civilised arrangement these days:

I had a few laps with Dad to get my eye in (he got told off for having a short sleeve top on, practice what you preach eh Dad?) and then I was right back into it.  I don't know what I was worried about!

Mum and I had a great time in the park and I rode my bike around the field loads and loads (no stabilisers of course).

There were a few more in my category this time (my mate and nearest rival Charlie wasn't there sadly) but we were still lumped in with the eight year olds.  It didn't matter though, I came second in each one of my heats, one of which was even from gate 8.  I was on a charge and loving it.  I made the eight year old A-final and came in fifth, well clear of the other seven year olds for another category win.  If Dad's maths are right (highly unlikely) I should have sealed the overall series win, but we'll have to wait and see for sure.

With what little energy I had left after screaming encouragement at Ned all afternoon , I was promised a go on the track once the racing had finished:

And here I am, stabilisers only just gone and i'm riding a national standard BMX track!  I was really pleased with myself and Dad only helped me get to the top of a few of the bigger jumps.  The ladies form the club loved my bike almost as much as my outfit (woolly cat gloves tipped the balance I think).  I made a whole lap with only one small crash and can't wait to go racing myself.

We headed home, having a quick power nap in the back of the car before arriving at Pizza Hut for my school report reward.  Lovely day.

My proper dancing outfit had arrived for me this week when I got to class.  We didn't have time to put it on as we were even later to get there than usual.  I didn't mind though, I was just relieved to be there at all, sometimes the traffic is really bad.

While Ellis was at dancing we decided to do something else rather than hang around and wait for her or do boring old reading.  We tried the car wash which was closed and settled for a nearby park instead.  It was a good park too, heavy on the monkey bars, right up my alley!

Thursday and we were all being hopeful for good weather as it was sports day!

I was looking forward to the little sisters race.

And i'm sure Mum and Dad were lookng forward to their races too.  We started off by doing various sports dotted around the field, my favourites were throwing the Nerf bomb (miles), tug of war:

And scrambling under the army net:

Even if the tug of war did end up in the occasional bundle:

I had a massive support crew including Mum, Dad, Ellis, Uncle Alan, Auntie Christine, Laura and even Darcey.  It was lovely to see them all and I was really pleased they came.

After we'd had a go at all the field sports it was race time, I was so excited and loved it, even if I didn't quite manage to win my race after a bit of bad start.  I also loved the fact that Mum, Dad and Alan all joined in for a race too, I was really proud of them.  The teachers then had a tug of war, I didn't want to cheer on my own teacher so I cheered on Mrs Stephenson instead, she won!

I also loved my race and next year i'll be in it for real, I can't wait:

But this was the real highlight for me of course:

After sports day something very very weird happened.

Yeah, we all went to Tesco for the weekly shop.

And it was really nice.

No one got told off.

No one shouted.

Mum put loads of lovely things in the trolley.

Perfect!

We went out with the Halford boys to Donnington castle on Friday after school, we hadn't seen them for ages and ages.

Yeah, they also bought along their Gran's dog for a walk too, she was lovely and we loved making a fuss of her.

Yeah, she was our kind of  dog, small and on a lead.

Our weekly tour of the BMX tracks of the south took in Lower Earley this Friday night.  It wasn't too bad but not up to the standard of a proper race track.  There were plenty of grown ups riding though, they loved watching me and asking questions about my bike.  We had a good night until Dad dropped my prized can of lemon Fanta and it made a tiny hole in it.  It sent a tiny stream of the delicious lemony goodness accross the path, all over my crash helmet and up and dad's legs.  He quickly opened the top and I managed to down most of the remaining liquid salvaging something from the whole sorry situation.

We had a trip to Marks and Spencer at the retail park on saturday morning to buy picnic foods.  There was a charity stand in the doorway and after helping myself to several complimentary Rock Road cakes I managed to persuade Mum and Dad to let us enter the name the teddy competition.

I went for Cinderella.

And I went for Ian, after uncle Ian.

We wrote our names on the chart and thought nothing more of it.

We quickly went to Argos to exchange a duplicate birthday present, I got Pokemon Black for my DS, I think this is going to be the start of a very serious love affair......

Picnic was on the agenda, Mum had heard of a cool place in Hungerford by a river so we headed off. 

It took some finding and a trek thorough the stingers but when we got there it was well worth it.  While were on the way, Mum got a phone call to say i'd won the teddy bear, Ian it was! 

We were all very excited, well, I say all, Mum and Dad were having a mild panic about where we were going to put him.

Anyway, back to the picnic, it was alovely spot, next to a rather inviting looking clear flowing, shallow river.

With a swing over it:

The swing was really good fun actually:

As was paddling, even if Dad did chuck a boo because it was hurting his poor delicate little feet:

Once we'd had our fill of watery fun we headed to the pick your own fruit place.

We missed out on this last summer so we were well excited about going again at last:

I stepped up to the plate on the quality control duties:

We got a couple of punnets full of delicious strawberry goodness, they smelled lovely too!

We took them round to Andy's for his Barbecue.

Abi and Faye were there and we had a lovely time.

I left them to it on the whole and got some serious Pokemon action in.  Until they put tangled on and I thought I might watch it a bit...

There was a late night involved for the boxing, I watched a few rounds, but fell asleep before the end.

After a bit of lie in we were off to collect Ian.  The man that sold us the tickets was at work again and seemed really pleased that we'd won it.

We struggled back to the car with him, drawing admiring glances from everyone.

Before we had to bundle him into the back seat to sit between us.

We took him to Alans as we were going there for lunch:

He makes a great chair:

It's cool at Alan's, he's got a lovely big telly with a PS3, an endless supply of Coke and massive Pokemon knowledge...perfect!

He's also got a nice big clear floor for dancing on and of course Hayley!

Thanks for having us, hope you recovered some peace and tranquility.

Auntie Christine couldn't help herself and came round to see our new Ian in the evening.

Monday then, another round of school visits.

I got to go for another hour or so on my own.

I got to spend most of the day in juniors and then Mum and Dad got to go to a meeting about how things are done on juniors and meet my new (old) teacher.  

Just another quick note, i'll be BMX racing this coming Sunday at Gosport, I know some of you have expressed an interest in coming along some time.  Race time is usually 1pm with finals an hour or so later.  I should point out that there are generally no toilet facilities (except some lovely discreet bushes) so if you've got a peanut bladder and you're a bit shy don't come crying to me.  Thanks.