Tuesday:

A day off with Mum.  

She took a leaf out of Dads book and got everything ready for a day out first thing in the morning, picnic made and stuff packed early doors.

Sadly she didn't factor in just how long we can take to get ready of a morning, which is really surprising seeing as she deals with it day in, day out.

She went and did other usefull stuff around the house while we slugged about until we were finally ready.

We went to the Discovery Centre in Thatcham, it as pretty busy and we had to park and ride!

We had a walk around the lake, i got a very wet shoe.....

We had a can of extremely expensive can of lemonade.

And we played on the park for ages.

Until Dad turned up fresh from work on his bike.  

I was really excited when he got there, he thinks I was pleased to see him, but we had to wait for him to get there before we could have ice creams!

After a bit indecision I decided I did want to go to gymnastics after all.  So it was a swift dash home to get  changed.  The big side door was open so Mum could watch a bit of what we do.

When she wasn't sat in the car playing Catan with me and Dad on the Ipad.

I made a bit of a mistake when I dropped a tissue in the bath later on though....it broke up quite badly and was pretty unpleasant.

Wednesday:

Another day with auntie Christine.

Shes so resourceful, always has a plan B.

And today's plan B was a trip to the pottery painting place at the Thatcham garden centre.

It was great fun and we really enjoyed it.

We have to go back in a week to pick up our masterpieces as they have to be glazed and fired or something.

So you'll have to wait and see our handiwork.

On top of that we also had a king size dollop of pre-Cornwall excitement, it's getting close now!

When we got home we decided to help Dad clean the car.

We did an excellent job apparently, he better be paying us.

As everyone had a late lunch there was no great urgency for tea so we went down the park instead once we'd picked Mum up from work.

Thursday:

Mum was off today, yeah again!

But we didn't have much of a lie in as we had tickets for a 10 am showing at the cinema.

We went to see Epic, and it was.

We loved it.

It was Costa's for lunch, bacon roll and a giant bourbon biscuit.

We came home and waited for Dad to get in from work, watching another film, Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked.

I'm still working on my circus skills routine using the swing in the garden.  I've moved up to the very highest bar to hang upside down before flipping over holding the swing ropes to be the right way up again.

There was plenty of packing activity in preparation for holiday, but Dad and I did manage for a couple of laps of the Croft mountainbike trail in Swindon.  We pinched mums iphone and recorded our two laps on Strava, stats overload! I loved it, heres our second lap:

https://www.strava.com/activities/73175160

Friday:

It was our last day at Dragon club for the summer, it was also their sports day.

I sat out most of the ports and spent most of the day doing art things instead.

I didn't of course, I got well stuck in.   Sadly Dad didn't come to get us as late as i'd hoped so that wasn't ideal.  He came and got us and the made us help him pack the car for Cornwall.

Yeah, well I didn't get to go to the first week of my new term of swimming lessons either.

Not that either of us was that bothered really though, I mean it was for a good cause after all.

We dropped by on Andy first and once he was following we headed westwards.

Our in car dining has reached another level for this trip though....Pizza express pizza and garlic bread,wrapped in foil to keep it warm.....delicious!

We stopped off at Exeter for the grownups to have some sub standard fayre and enjoyed running up and down the grass hill out the back as usual.

Yeah, we even convinced Dad to accompany us, even though it proved to not be the quickest way back to the car for leg two of the journey.

It was soon over and we arrived at the caravan park.  Auntie Christine, uncle Ian, Laura and Darcey were already there, Auntie Trish, Owen soon followed on and then within about ten minutes Ben, Rach, Kimi and Marney arrived too.  

Yeah, all the usual suspects again this year.

We sat outside for a bit, enjoying the starry sky, seeing the odd shooting star before heading to bed for the night. 

Saturday:

As is traditional we awaited the arrival of the Tesco delivery van.....

It didn't come until quite late, so we had plenty of time to mill around the caravan, ride our bikes and pay everyone visits.

Once the shopping had arrived and been put away it was time for the beach!

Today's main activities were king ball.  All the way from John Rankin school playground to the North Cornish coast, the hit game of the summer.

And rock climbing, much to Auntie Christine's terror (spot the Ellis):

Sunday:

Another day on the beach.....lovely.

More king ball:

And a trip to the low tide swimming pool, where i jumped from the high rock for the first time.  I got proper brave after a couple of goes and didn't even need Dad to help me get back afterwards.  My spirit of adventure was running high and I also paddled my bodyboard up the narrow gap between the rock pools unaided too.

In the evening we had a group barbecue which was cool:

Especially Auntie Trish's children's story time:

There was also cake, lots and lots of lovely home made cake.

Monday:

We had a break from the beach and headed into Wadebridge for our annul cycling trip up the Camel trail to Padstow.

We also had Andy, Laura, Owen and for the first time ever Darcey long for the ride.  She got to go on a seat on the back of Owens bike:

I had a tag along behind Dad again, I reckon that's the last year i'll get away with that:

It was lovely to all ride together, every year we say we must get Mum a bike......

We all made it to Padstow safe and sound and hunted out some lunch before settling on the slipway to eat it.

Padstow was super busy though, not really my scene it has to be said, we did have a nice ice cream though.

Then saddled up for the return leg....Strava stats here!

https://www.strava.com/activities/74109557

We had a well earned lazy afternoon in the company of cartoon network.

Dad was thrilled about this, apparently it's the best reason yet for us to not have Sky television at home.

We appeased him by sitting outside for tea though, masses and masses of spaghetti!

Tuesday:

We'd been away a whole day, Andy was getting twitchy, better get back on the beach!

Well it would be rude not to after all:

We had a group outing to the youth hostel for tea too look forward to.

Indeed we did, in honour of Uncle Ian's upcoming significant birthday.

It was a lovely evening, watching the waves roll in as the sun set and eating pizza and garlic bread.

Wednesday:

It was Uncle Ian's actual birthday today, we can't believe he's really 60.

Although if that's hat the giant badge we bought him said on it, who are we to argue?

He wore it, so it must have been true!

After we wished him many happy returns we headed off for another one of the highlights of the week go-karting.

I'd been getting drilled for weeks regarding my age for this one....you have to be 7 you see.  Well, by the time we got to finally go, I think I actually thought I was 7.  I didn't even get asked, they just wanted to see I was tall enough.  Ned was full of beans, I was a bit more reserved, a little bit worried if truth be told.  

Dad managed to convince me (and Mum) that i'd be alright even if I couldn't remember absoloutely everything the man said during the safety briefing.

I gave her a few pointers too, told her to watch and learn!

We needn't have worried though, I was fine and loved it.

I did too of course, and I have to admit she made a pretty good debut.  The real highlight though had to be Owen passing me and Dad and then spinning!  Well, I suppose the track was a bit damp in places.

We hung around for lunch, enjoyed what Mum described as the best toilets in Cornwall and played a bit on the battery cars (we found some money to keep feeding them).

After that the fun had to come to an end and we went to the big surf shop.

I was pretty well up for it though, like a real bloke I reckon one big splurge on clothes a year means I don't have to visit the shops again or another 12 months.

In the evening we had a very special visitor indeed.

Yes we did, John and Sarah came over with their new dog Connie.

She's only a pup and quite honestly she frightened me witless.

She was only excited, I thought she was lovely.

We took her for a walk down to the beach, it was only the second time she'd ever been down there.

She seemed to love it, just as well I reckon being a Cornish dog!

Thursday:

Crealy, haven't been for a few years......

So we were well overdue a visit.

It was great fun taking Darcey round:

And going on the slides with Kimi and Marney:

Highlight of the day had to be the horse rides though:

We seriously love horsey rides:

We're quite partial to the mechanical versions too:

And we also love to brush real ponies too!

And 100% natural slush puppies:

We bid a sad farewell to Auntie Christine, Uncle Ian, Laura and Darcey who headed off home.

Before we headed off to the pub with Auntie Trish, Ben, Rach, Kimi, Marney and Andy for a bite to eat.

There was a cool playground overlooking the Camel Estuary we'd ridden down the other day.

Friday:

Dad and Andy sneaked off for a morning surf before we were even up.  I wasn't totally happy with this arrangement.  It acted as a bit of a wake up call though and from then on I was totally a man of the ocean.  We had another day down the beach and I couldn't get enough. Bodyboarding, body surfing, diving through massive waves, I was all over it.

We spent another whole day down there and really loved it, even if I didn't have the fun of terrifying Auntie Christine with my rock climbing exploits.

We then bid a fond farewell to Kimi and Marney as they left at the end of the day too.

There wasn't many of us left now.

Saturday:

It was a wet one today, no two ways about it.

So wet that Owen and Auntie Trish decided they'd head off home too.

We played some board games, we watched some telly and then we headed off into St Merryn for a trip to the bakery and a bit of wetsuit shopping.

On the way back we stopped off at Harlyn for a soggy day surf session.

Us ladies decided to stay in the car, mum read her book, I watched some Horrible Histories on the Ipad.

While I took Andy and Dad in the sea.  It was epic, the rain didn't bother me at all, the sea's wet anyway.  An added bonus is that there was hardly anyone else in!

Sunday:

The sun was back, and as it was low tide we headed to......The beach!

We did, armed with fishing nets and buckets.

We had the biggest harvest I think we've ever amassed too!

We certainly drew plenty of admiring glances from the other kids thats for sure.

I was straight back in the surf again.  There were really good waves all week which is of course brilliant, even if it did mean we couldn't get through the gap to the secret cave at all.

Sadly it was our last day too, so we had to pack our stuff up ready to move out.

Although we did give ourselves a break for a walk down to the youth hostel for a cream tea.

Then it was finishing off the packing and cleaning and tidying before we headed to the Harlyn Inn for a hearty meal before heading off home.......that's that done for another year then.

As always, many thanks to everyone involved for making it all such great fun!

Here's to next year.

Monday:

Mum was at home all week, so no getting up early for us, unlucky Dad going to work.

We played games, watched a DVD, went to the park and just spent the day mellowing out.

Tuesday:

I got up early and compiled a full stats table to see just which of the horses in my Top Trumps set was the best, it was quite an extensive document.  I think Mum was particularly impressed.
Mum took us bowling, we loved it!

Then I got my friend Lilly round to play for a bit before I went to gymnastics.  I hadn't been for a week so it was good to get back.

I took Mum and Dad food shopping while she was there, as the Tesco order that arrived on Monday left a lot to be desired.

Wednesday:

I asked Alastair if he'd like to come round and ended up going out with him for the day to Basildon Park.  We had a great time but I kindly declined the offer to stay for tea as i'd got wind they were having macaroni cheese.

I had a very lazy day which suited me just fine actually.  Sole control of the wibber and as much snoozing as I fancied.  We did venture out as far as the park though.

Thursday:

We had a lazy morning and got our picnic ready to take to Legoland in the afternoon when Dad got home from work.

It was pretty busy it has to be said, but we made the best of it of course.

We spent a while in one of the building rooms making models.

I did a cool racing car that looked a lot like a Cornwall go-kart.

And I made a rather lovely house.

After that we spent ages wandering around the model village.

Before having our picnic watching the show.

And then getting a ride on the Pirate Ship, the cars, and the Viking River Splash.
Finishing off the day by winning a cuddly dinosaur for me.
And a cuddly purple hippo for me!

Friday:

We had a library trip on Friday, i'm going great guns on rhe summer reading challenge and I really want to get my medal!

We hung around in town at Victoria Park until Dad made his way down there after work. Passing the time chasing some self styled pirates on the paddle boats.

I managed to make everyone think i'd disappeared by hanging out on the deck of the skateboard ramp.....mild panic ensued!

Next up was swimming, i'd missed the first two weeks but had no trouble catching up with what was going on.  I am of course in the big pool now.

And after that it was a quick change and back out again to Liam's birthday party, laser quest at Eddie Katz.

Now normally, i'd have been well envious of this but I had also been invited at the last minute, what a result.

We had a great time, best of all though they handed out ice packs for minor bumps....I loved that!

Saturday:
Another lazy day to start off the bank holiday weekend, not that we noticed that it was a bank holiday as we've been off school for so long now.
As luck would have it Hugo came round in the afternoon to see if I was about, thank goodness.  We had a great time together, flitting between the park and each others houses.
In the evening we went to Mottisfont Country House to watch a theatre production of Babe (you know, the one about a pig).
But this was quite different, we'd taken an extensive picnic and our camping chairs as the show was being held outside.
We made our way through the grounds and being as we were the second family in we got the pick of the spots to pitch our makeshift viewing area for the evening, right at the front.

We ate our picnic and then went off exploring the grounds a little bit, the fish in the river were massive!
We then took our seats and sat, as we usually do, totally agog all the way through the first half of the show.  Totally spellbound without a word uttered between us.
As soon as the interval started the floodgates opened and the jibber jabber began.
And we also got to devour our interval treat, a big steaming flask of home made hot chocolate and a double helping of brownies Dad had made that morning.
It was delicious, but it was a bit of a shame that it wasn't a colder evening so we could really appreciate it.
Yeah, although we certainly won't complain about the weather as it stayed dry despite looking pretty grey overhead at times.
We settled down for the second half and returned to our silent, focussed state, taking it all in.
By the time the show came to an end it was pretty well dark as we made our way back to the car.
What a brilliant night out.

Sunday:
As we'd had a bit of a late night on Saturday (makes a change doesn't it?) we didn't do much on Sunday.
Until after lunch when we had another attempt at the Standlake Mosaic Trail walk.
We tried this earlier on in the year but had to abandon as it was just too wet, even for wellies!
It was nice and dry this time though so off we went.

It was a pretty pleasant walk actually, and we managed to eventually spot all the mosaics we were supposed to spot along the way.

We found our way to a riverside pub and enjoyed a lovely cold drink by the Thames.

As did several thousand wasps.
Before heading back again.
Making a bit of pit stop for an alfresco wee:

And enjoying nature:

And this war relic, which I thought was amazing:

Mum appeased, she loves a walk.....

Monday:
Well, we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with out bank holiday Monday.
Yeah, as action packed as the last few weeks have been we're struggling a bit now for inspiration.
So spent the morning shuttling between the park and Hugo's house again.
Before we went to Kintbury in the afternoon for a trip on a horse drawn narrow boat.
Yeah, a horse drawn one!  We were intrigued.
The horse was called Freddy, I declared him the loveliest horse in the world:

He was certainly one of the biggest horses in the world I reckon, but he loved being fussed as he stood on the bank waiting to get to work.
He was certainly a strong horse, he pulled us all along really easily.

And we cruised along in silence, no engines.....how lovely.
We got to our turning point and Freddy was released for a wander into the adjoining field, it was his most favourite grass apparently:

Once the horse was away, the boat was going to go down in the lock, Ellis and I made sure were on board for this one, we'd seen plenty of boats going up and down in locks before but never been on one:

Going down:

The boat was turned round with the help of Freddy once he'd finished his lush grassy snack:

And he plodded us back to Kintbury.
We struck up conversation with an American couple on the boat, they were from California.  I grilled them for ages, they loved it. I asked about California, Hollywood, told them we'd been to Florida, and Italy and France and Spain.
Scotland and Wales as well, I told them all about the Panda's.
If we thought we'd been loads of places, they'd been to even more!  It was really interesting to hear about China, the Bahamas and other far flung places around the world.
They were over for a wedding and were off to Highclere Castle on Tuesday, they were massive fans of a programme called Downton Abbey or something.  
We told them to steer well clear of light switches and plugs (eh Andy!).

Tuesday:
The end of term feeling is well and truly upon us.....
Yeah, school has really wound down and we're loving it.
We had a special assembly to honour our sporting achievements, I was seriously excited about the prospect of finally receiving a medal for our quad kids third place team result although I tried to keep a lid on it to limit my potential disappointment.  I was so pleased when they called us up on stage to actually get the medals, it had been a loooong wait that's for sure.

I was also asked by my teacher if I would do a short reading and present an award to one of our class helpers Mrs. Coyle, due to my clear, loud delivery for public speaking!
We had our end of term disco after school, which of course meant cool clothes to change into and loads and loads of glowsticks.
We sent Dad to Tesco to source materials for our end of term thank you offerings to our teachers, both of which were leaving to work at other schools!
Yeah, I made Mrs Khosla a lovely bunch of tissue paper/pipecleaner flowers with a thank you note attached.
And I made Miss Walsh a lovely card with a massive smiley face on the front and some words I came up with all by myself inside.

Wednesday:
The last day of term!
Juniors get kicked out first....yes!
We weren't far behind though.
So that's year 4 done for me and upper school beckons.  Only two years left before big school.
And i'm all done with year 1, next stop, year 2, the last one at infants before I move up to juniors.
So that's it, six weeks off and the sun was shining.
We spent the afternoon down the park, there were loads of us down there so it was a good afternoon.
It was such a good afternoon I decided I was too worn out for Athletics club....well, it is the holidays and I needed a rest.

Thursday:
So our first day off, Mum was home, a good start!
We made the most of our lay in, the telly and the PC for games.
We also managed a trip to the library, we stayed for ages.
And I got swept up with the excitement of the summer reading challenge.  To be honest, I have done in previous years too.....and then failed to even read a single book.  This year will be different though!
When Dad came home I finally got to call in my good school report treat and we had our long anticipated trip to JJ's.
Yeah, and even though I claimed I didn't want to go, we had a great time.
For the first time ever, I went from the highest seat of the drop slide!  I was so pleased with myself.
We even stayed for tea, a treat indeed.

Seeing as we were only just down the road we thought we'd drop in on Auntie Trish for a visit.
Good job we did too, she had a cool new reclining chair that was just the right size for me and my little sister.

She also had a seemingly endless supply of sweets and biscuits that needed to be market tested by us.
We were happy to oblige of course.
We loved it, and didn't really leave until quite late....

Friday:
Mum was off again with us.
So we had another lovely relaxed day.
But the most exciting thing was Hugo coming round for a sleep over. I was so excited about it, i'd made sure i'd put our food and entertainment order in and everything was set.  We picked him up and played in the park at Northcroft while Ellis was doing her swimming lesson.  We then headed home for a pizza/garlic bread/chips/smiley faces (and salad for Hugo and Ellis) binge.  We ate LOADS between us.  Then it was super gooey chocolate mousse with bits of cake in it, caramel and god knows what else too.  We played on the PC, we watched DVD's and we played guitar at about 12:20pm....awesome!  There sure was a lot of laughing.

Saturday:
We didn't get up until just after 8 o'clock, not bad considering our late night.  We had a lovely leisurely breakfast buffet before heading out into the garden for a trampoline session.
Now i'm bigger and heavier i'm able to get a lot more bounce going, but I soon got bored of he boys nonsense and came in to do some work on Monkeys house with Dad:

We headed to the park to hand Hugo back over to his mum, but not before we did a load of timed laps around the little track on out scooters or bikes.
We had a quiet afternoon and watched a DVD, Rango.
It wasn't all that good really, probably why it was only £3 in Sainsburys I suppose.
Abbie and Faye came round in the evening, we had a lovely time.
Even if I did fall asleep on my bed while we were all watching a DVD!

Sunday:
Another lay in was required of course.
And then we headed off to a place called Hollycoombe, a working steam museum.
This was obviously a place Mum had been to when she was a nipper.
We had a lovely picnic when we got there, sat in the very scenic car park overlooking rolling farmland.
And then we headed in, when it says that it's a working museum, it is in actual fact a permanent fair ground, but all the rides are from the olden days and powered by steam.

It was awesome, there was a big wheel, a chair-o-plane, a carousel....
...and something called a 'Razzle Dazzle' which was great fun squashing Dad until I fell of the seat and ended up rolling around the floor.
Yeah, you had to be careful, being old fashioned stuff there weren't really any seatbelts!

There was also a scenic train ride and a trip around the grounds on a trailer pulled by a great big traction engine.
But best of all was the Steam Yacht, kind of like a mini pirate ship ride.
But with no seat belts!  It was truly crazy.
The man asked us if we wanted to go high, of course, we said yes!
He wasn't joking either, there was only us 4 and another two blokes in there and he really cranked it up.  It was going so high we were leaving our seats on every swing.
Mum couldn't even let go for long enough to take a picture.
We were in total hysterics when we finally got out, I think the ride operator looked rather pleased with himself.
My highlight had to be the man handing out peacock feathers to all the kids as the place closed down for the day.  It was so beautiful when it caught the sunshine.
Even better news was that we can go back again for a whole year for nothing now we have our tickets.

Monday:
A day off with Dad.
So no chance of an easy day with a lay in followed by a few hours of telly.
Nope, by the time we were up he'd already made and packed the picnic and loaded our bikes into the car.
We went to a brand new, only just opened BMX track near Eastleigh.
It was great fun too, there was a nice little pump track to get warmed up on and then the full size main track to have a go on.
Add in a small skatepark and a playground and we were well pleased.

We did have a few short outbursts of quite heavy rain, but we weren't bothered and kept on riding anyway.
We found a nice shady spot under a tree for our picnic, next to the playground.

Once we had exhausted ourselves we headed to the nearby Asda, Dad had forgotten to pack any picnic pudding.  What a fool he is, Mum would never do that.
Anyway, it turned out okay in the end, they had a rather cool cafe.
They did, so we sat and had a a nice cold drink and some lovely cake.
Before we ventured into the shop and bought ourselves new lunch bags and drink bottles for the new term starting in Spetember.
Seemingly pretty boring, but we were well chuffed with them.

Tuesday:
Auntie Christine's today, nice!  It was also gymnastics and this week I passed my level 6 test!  Another certificate and badge for me!
And then in the evening after tea we headed off for a walk down to the canal.
Well, we took our bikes, Mum and Dad walked.

Wednesday:
Dragon club this time.
Yeah, I ran the tuck shop and got made 'Super Dragon' so it was a very good day for me.
As we'd ridden there in the morning, Dad came to pick us up on his bike...meaning we had to ride home.
Awesome.
Yeah, we stopped off at Victoria Park for a bit of a play before heading back along the tow path.

We timed it just right too, as we crossed the railway bridge an inter-city thundered underneath us, it made the whole bridge shake.

We were all too soon at home, we love riding back.

Thursday:

If we were expecting another lazy day with her we were in for a shock!

Indeed we were, first off it was Marks and Spencers cafe.

Then it was a trip to the cinema to see Chimpanzee.

This was really rather good, we loved it.

Even though it was happy, then sad, then happy and then sad again.  A bit of a rollercoaster ride then really.

A quick visit to the Entertainer toy shop for a little treat (trash packs for me).

(And a super cute mini cuddly lion for me).

Next up was lunch in pizza hut.

And the back to auntie christine's house for a lovely hot sunny afternoon splashing about in the paddling pool and cake baking (on mums request)

What a packed day, awesome, thanks a lot Auntie Christine.

Although you really don't have to go all out like that all the time, we still love a lazy day you know.

Friday:

We had another day at dragon club, sadly we missed water day, but it was america day instead.

We weren't entirely sure what that was supposed to entail, but we enjoyed playing a game of American football.

And making ourselves milkshakes, even though we accidentally sort of ate Chloe's biscuits (Hayley's sister helps out at Dragon Club sometimes).  I was also awarded te title of super dragon for the day, I was well chuffed.

Things went from good to great as it was fun week at swimming lessons.

Not for me it wasn't, my mate Edward is off on his holidays, so I didn't get to hang out  with him this week.

Saturday:

Another lazy morning, nice.

Then after lunch it was off to pick Andy up and take him to the Oasis swimming pool.

We hadn't been for a while so I was well excited about a slide session.

We did the usual trick of not wearing our coloured bands and staying in for ages.

Which was just as well as the wave machine was in short supply!

We made Andy stay for tea and then went to Kimi and Marney's new house.

Yeah, it's cool they've moved much closer to us now.

They have a lovely big garden now, we had a great time out there with no grown ups to bother us.  Hence mine and Marneys little paddling session in the fish pond.

And Kimi now has Skylanders so that was us boys sorted.

Add into that the two cats and the fish tank and we had a great time.

Sunday:

Having acquired a tiny blister on my little toe I managed to get approval for a new pair of trainers.  This of course, meant a trip to Kingston.

But things didn't start well, there was a bike race on and all the roads into town were closed.

Mum asked a policeman what we could do and he suggested we could park up and walk into town as it was only five minutes away.

So tha'ts what we did, it turned out to be quite an adventure as it goes.  The roads were all shut, there were classic cars on display and loads of people on bikes milling about.

We walked over the Thames bridge and realised he race itself wasn't going to be too far away.

We decided the best course of action was to act like the french would, buy some nice fresh bread, some cheese and wait by the roadside. 

We didn't need to wait long, soon enough there was a steady stream of policemen on motorbikes high fiving the crowds and parping their sirens.

And then the peloton arrived, totally gunning it, round the corner, over the bridge and gone to complete their 140 mile race back into London.  There were plenty of big names competing from the Olympics and the Tour De France.  It was all very exciting.

Once it had gone by, we started on our pudding, giant meringues:

We hit another snag when we realised that the cool trainer shops were all closed for the day due to the bike race, oh dear.  Luckily though we struck gold in one of the other shops when the assistant bought out a pair of super cool Vans in my size that hadn't even been on display.  So after a fair bit of zig zagging across town i'd got some new trainers.  Mission accomplished.

We mooched around a few more shops and really enjoyed the toy section of Bentalls before heading back on the long walk back to the car.

I bounced along of course, the power of new trainers!

Monday:

Another day in the company of auntie Christine.

Yes indeed, and Darcey too.

We had a lovely time with her, playing games in the pub garden and enjoying our lunch together.

Before a play on the park on the way home, we'd worn her out so while she had a siesta and we did some colouring.

There was also a tangible amount of pre-holiday excitement.......

Tuesday:

Well this apparently the only hot summer we've had since i've been born! 

It has been proper hot for a while now, in fact i'm surprised that they didn't cancel sports day as it was too hot!  I was in a bit of a funny mood about this one, I didn't really want Mum or Dad to come and watch.  I came second in my sprint race and second in my hurdles race (which I reckon I could have won if i'd heard the starter shout go)  I did really well with my throwing events of course!  Sadly, Dad didn't manage to stay away, but at least he only turned up once everything was finished so he got sent away again pretty sharpish.

I had three new classmates for a visit and got to show one of them around for the day.  Big responsibility or what?  Then it was gymnastics club, and my goodness it was hot, even with the big doors open! 

It was pretty good with the doors open as we could watch what she was up to....well, inbetween playing our new favourite Ipod game, Downhill Supreme.

Yeah, we're loving it, can't believe Dad kept it to himself for so long.

Wednesday:

We had a sports day practice day, very enjoyable but very, very hot work!

We had our class treat after amassing 100 good behaviour marbles as a class.  We voted to go to Fifth Road park for a picnic.  Brilliant, well it should have been had it not been for one of teaching assistants managing to break her leg chasing what was thought to be an escaped pet rabbit.  Cue a visit from the ambulance and everything, high drama indeed!

We also had a special afternoon assembly given by the current year 5's to tell us and any parents who could make it along (I let Dad come) all about next terms visit to Ufton Court.....two nights away with our mates!  It's supposed to be educational I think?  We have to dress in period costume for a banquet, which according to the year 5's involves shovelling massive amounts of bread into your gob, not using a fork, and avoiding the stew.....I should be epic at that!

We went straight to team Kennet from picking Mum up, it was club championships night.  Truth be told, I didn't really fancy it much.  I tried to convince everyone it was because of the heat, i'm not sure they bought it though.  Anyway, once I was there I made the best of it and we had a pretty good picnic to plough through.

It was quite a pleasant evening actually, sat in the evening warmth, eating crisps, cheering Ned on and watching the cows and horses on the common.

I actually rather enjoyed myself, although having just gone up to the under 11 age category I was really up against it.  Particularly because we now have to do the 75m sprint instead of just 50m and the 600m run instead of the 400m run which is what I have been doing all season.  Anyway, enough excuses, I reckon I did pretty well, finishing 11th overall out of 28 in my category.

It was quite a late finish but we were very good going to bed....

Thursday:

And we got up nicely too.

It was our end of term dance production after school.  It was another sizzling hot day but we kept to our costume choices of tracksuit bottoms and baseball caps, we looked dead cool.  It went very well and we too got awarded medals for our year long efforts.  Up unitl today I had been giving some thought that I might give up dancing for next year as i've been getting quite tired lately due to all my extra curricular activites, but I really enjoyed it and I may have to have a re-think over the holidays.
It was my parents evening later on in the day.  After my good school report I wasn't too worried, although it did turn out that maybe I should have been, just a little bit.  It would appear that i'm still rather prone to do what I really want to do, rather than what i'm supposed to be doing.  It's not as common as it was and my teacher thinks it's great that I have strong views! 

Friday:
It was my sports day today, and like Ned earlier in the week it was a scorcher. 

Unlike Ned though I was more than happy for Mum to come along and watch. 

I loved it, even though we only had one proper race.  Mum did well in hers though!
In the afternoon it was the annual family picnic, Mum hung around for that too, which I didn't mind.
Not that we saw much of her, we ate, then cleared off to play with our friends leaving her on the blanket until everyone else had drifted off home.
Then it was time for swimming lessons.  Good news this week, I passed!!!  So it's big pool for me next term.
We had another outdoor pool session once she was finished with her lessons, most refreshing after our hot week.
Then it was off to McDonalds for tea, it was like the school holidays had started already!

Saturday:
Suggestions had been invited for our days activities....I suggested the Maize Maze i'd seen advertised in the Newbury Weekly News. 
Seemed like a decent idea to the rest of us, so off we went!
It was only in Basingstoke so it didn't take long to get there.  There was more to it than just a maze though, we started off (a little nervously) feeding the goats, before moving on to hamster cuddling:

We also got to cuddle a rabbit and the cutest little baby chick ever, it was sooooo soft and fluffy.
There were various playgrounds, bouncy castles, trampoilnes, a big inflatible slide and some go-karts to ride around on too.
Before the main event, the maze itself.

I took charge and headed the party into the maze.

And I took position at the back to make sure everyone stayed together.

We had 8 piggy based facts to find answers to whilst we wandered around before we could make our way out.

It was a pretty long walk....

But not as long as it would have been if I hadn't been there, my sense of direction is really rather good and I had us round to all 8 information points and out of the maze altogether in time for lunch.  Mission accomplished.

After lunch there was a lovely tractor ride out into the fields which were full of butterflies, they were lovely skitting about on the breeze.

We ended up doing quite a lot of colouring too, whcih was weird, considering that it was a nice day and there was plenty of adventure to be had:

We went home for a bit of a recharge before heading off to the Halfords for a BBQ.
Awesome, we sat around whittling sticks, riding bikes, shooting water pistols.....
.......and playing with the super cute Hartley!
As if that wasn't enough we also had a visit to the local pub for some playground and fruit squash action.
What a lovely day all round.
It was a late night though.....

Sunday:
So Sunday was a bit of a slow start.
We eventually left the house and went to Basingstoke for a little shopping.
I know, us in a shopping trip shocker!
We got a few bits and bobs of clothes.
A little jewellery of course....
But best of all we got a monster haul of DVD's in readiness for the holidays.
We came home and watched the final stage of the Tour De France, i've been rather captivated by this over the last couple of weeks and couldn't wait to see Chris Froome win the race overall.

Monday:
I had a special awards assembly today....I rumbled I might be up for one after mum had not too discreetly written 'assembly' on the calendar for today.  Anyway, I got a certificate for contributions in class (Enthusiasm, good questions and empathy towards others).  I let my gaurd down a bit and even allowed Mum a sly smile as I went to sit back down again after picking up my certificate.



Tuesday:

We did circus skills at school today.

We did, a great big circus big top had appeared on the juniors sports field.

Yeah, all over our running track!

Never mind Ned, it's worth it.  We had a great time learning some circus skills.  I especially liked the 'devil sticks'

And I think I may have had my name put down for some ribbon twirling action, hopefully marking me out to perform to the whole school on Friday.

Sadly, we didn't get to have a go on the trapeze though.

We also had another rounders session, I did rather well, smacking the ball off into the bushes.  I was one team captain, Alastair was the other.  We emerged victorious by half a rounder.

As an end of season treat we had lollies after netball, just the job on such a hot day, lovely.

I wish we had ice lollies at gymnastics, I was cooked!

Mum and Dad came good on the trip to pizza hut in recognition of my excellent school report.  I knew they'd come good.  It was lush, or rather it was well Epic, as all good things are at the moment.

 For once I was allowed an exotic sundae for pudding, but sadly I missed the sparkler as I was in the toilet and it had burned out by the time I came back.

Mum and I missed it too, we were also in the toilet.  

I'm sure Dad enjoyed the spectacle, alone.

Wednesday:

I managed to swerve school dinners today, yes! Sandwiches for lunch and tea, Mum and Dad didn't really approve though.

I found out that I had indeed been picked for the circus.  There were a few remarks made at school about the nature of the act I was involved in.  Apparently ribbon twirling isn't particularly cool?  Whatever, I reckon they were just jealous anyway.

I came home and made a load more origami dogs of varying sizes to keep the original one happy.

Thursday:

Unlucky ribbon twirling haters, all the while you were doing boring old literacy or something I got to hang out at the circus instead, working out our moves for the show.

I did some more origami dogs, and showed them to the Tesco delivery man, I think he was rather impressed with them.

It was my parents evening that night.....I knew I had nothing to worry about after my report.

We had a great time playing games in the ICT suite.

And we did't want to come home when Mum and Dad were done.

Friday:

It was circus performance day, we got to spend the morning practicing too, yay, yet more literacy dodging.

I was a bit disappointed I didnt get to perform, but there were very few picked from the infants, maybe next time.

It was a packed house (tent) come show time, there were loads of parents, including Dad as well as the whole rest of the school.

Yeah, I was surprised to see Dad hanging about, I gave him a wave and took my seat to be dazzled and amazed by my big brothers skills.

All us performers sat together on one of the stands close to the stage, the team spirit amongst us was very strong and we were having a great time.  The perfomrance went really well on the whole and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I was so glad I got picked to take part.

Once it was all done and Ned had finished milking the audience for all it was worth in a series of very theatric bows we had to go back to class.

Us performers were allowed to be signed out early to our parents if we wanted...result!  Although when we wandered back out of the school grounds I noticed that all my friends were playing 'King ball' in the playground for their golden time.....I decided to stay on and let Dad sit and baste in the afternoon sunshine.

When I came home from school, I had my school report to take home....but good news this year, i'd done really well!  Of course, a treat was in order, but seeing as Ned had already done Pizza Hut last week, I decided I wanted a trip to JJ's.  This was accepted as a suitable outing, although not until the weather was so nice as it gets really hot in there.  I decided this was pretty reasonable, so will have to make sure I don't forget.  Then it was on to swimming, I was on a mission this week, and completed my front crawl width of the big pool without touching the ground once.  This apparently drew plenty of compliments from the other watching Mum's by all accounts.

And instead of Mum arriving and us going home, Mum arrived with a picnic and we headed out to the outdoor pool.  It was most refreshing, even if it was a little tiny bit manky.  The best thing was that you were still allowed to dive in at the deep end!

I loved it, it was cool to have my lesson and then go swimming with everyone.

Then to top off a good day, I once again took the title of Lord Of Catan.  How cool is it when you have 2 vistory points hidden away as development cards?  Brilliant.

Saturday:

Bit of a lay in and then.....STRAWBERRY PICKING!

We hadn't been for years, so it was brilliant to go.

Indeed, as I wandered up the field I proclaimed it the best day ever (I use this quite a lot truth be told).

We only 'sampled' a few before we paid too.

They were lovely though, hiding underneath the leaves ready to be picked.

We had a lovely lunch at home, finished off with masses of eton mess!  

Then in the afternoon we went to watch the circus proper, not us kids performing.

We got great seats at the front.

Although it was rather hot in the big top.

The acts were great, particualrly the ones where the ladies went very high up in the tent on the trapeze or whatever.

And the juggler was very good too.  I even got to join in a bit again as I was chosen as a stand in acrobat.

Hence another very theatrical bow session when he was finished.

We went home and had a session on the Wii (even though the grown ups wouldn't play), before we decided we should go to the pub for a nice cold drink in the evening.

Yeah, it was lovely, even if we were billy no mates and no one else we asked could make it.

Sunday:

Work finally got underway on the house for my cuddly monkey, it's been long enough!  We made a good start though so I can't complain.

While this was going on I had to do my homework....boo hoo!  Still, it's nearly the end of term I suppose.

It was another hot day so we decided to head to Legoland to try out the new waterpark area.  I thought it was totally brilliant.

I wasn't quite so convinced, truth be told it was far too busy and noisy for my liking and I also think I might just have been a little bit old for it.  Having said that, standing under the massive bucket when it emptied with Dad was seriously refreshing.

We dried off, had a picnic under the railway bridge and then came home.

Without even going on any other rides.

It was still rather warm when we got home, so we managed to get Mum to have a water fight with us.

It was awesome of course.

Monday:

I got another shell for doing over a whole page of writing....it was under threat of not being allowed out for playtime though.

In the afternoon we performed three routines for our end of show dance performance, great fun, although I did take it rather seriously at times (as you could see from the concentration on my face apparently).  At the end we were all presented witha lovely shiney medal for our efforts this year.

And we had our final week of quad kids club.  With the added bonus of water pistol races and rocket lollies.  A great way to end a most enjoyable season.

Tuesday:

I caused quite a shock on Tuesday when I issued a full run down of my school day in fairly great detail.  This made a massive change from my usual replies that range between 'nothing' or 'I've forgotten'

It was gymnastics day, still the only day of the week I actually seem to know what i'm doing after school.  Probably because I love going.

I got told I did very well at netball after club had finished, I was pretty pleased with the compliment.

When we got home things in the kitchen were not as they should have been, two of our jacket potatoes had exploded all over the inside of the oven.

Yeah, it was quite a mess.  Still, the pizza suffered no such fate.  Owen arrived shortly afterwards to out out cycling with Dad, he reckons even Uncle Ian can cook a jacket potato properly.  They keep going out on their bikes to all these cool places without me, I can't wait until the summer holidays when i'm allowed to go too.

Wednesday:

Well we were feeling rather tired by the middle of the week.

Yeah, so much so that I was quite tempted to spend the evening on the sofa rather than running round an athletics track.  I decided against it in the end though and I was glad I did go to athletics as i really enjoyed it.

Thursday:

I came home from school, fired up the PC and after hassling mum for a bit about the correct spelling of the word Origami I found myself a website and set about following the instructions to make myself a doggie face.  It was nothing short of brilliant by the time i'd done my folding and some colouring in.  I think I amazed everyone with it actually.

It was decided that I really ought to knuckle down and learn my lines for our class assembly.  What I hadn't told anyone is that we'd been doing a bit at school and I pretty much had them down already. 

Friday:

So we got to have a lay in and didn't have to go to breakfast club on Friday.

Due to Mum coming to my aforementioned class assembly.  I was well excited about this, mostly because the parents were allowed back to our classrooms for 'refreshments' afterwards....cake!  Biscuits!  I was also pretty excited as my bits to say in the assembly were all about Hoplites and Phalanx's. It went really well and we were soon enough back to the classroom for the main event.  I managed to do quite well on the refreshments front.

It was good not going to breakfast club, I got to play in the playground before we went into school.  Having said that, I did miss the oppurtunity to do something creative before we started proper school for the day, on balance, I think i'd rather go to breakfast club.

Swimming was a bit rubbish when Edward failed to materialise.

And I didn't do too well in the pool, the old familiar failing of putting my feet down during front crawl.

The big news was our camping trip though, after a bried kerfuffle regarding our attire we met up with Andy and Owen and heaed west.

I slept pretty much the whole way down.

While I devoted some serious time to the Ipod.

The great thing about going to Croyde at this time of year is that it's still light when we get there, it makes putting the tent up so much easier.

But not as easy as having Owen and Andy on hand to help.  We were like a well oiled machine and soon had everything set up and ready for bed.

The weather was glorious, and after spending the best part of the day on the beach, digging, surfing and playing boule we headed back up to base for a rest:

Then it was BBQ time (three different varities of Tesco disposables, all of them rubbish) and a game of cards for money.  I had the genius idea of going accross to the arcade to get change for our 10p 'lives':

I nearly won as well, would have been nice to pick up the winners pot....hope you enjoy your new found wealth Owen.

There was a little bit of sunset football/throw and catch too:

Before we turned in for the night.

Sunday:

We had another beach session on Sunday morning as once again the weather was still lovely.

But the main highlight of the day was a spud gun each and a packet of rather large baking potatoes....brilliant.  

How have we managed to not discover spud guns up until now?

It was time to pack up our things soon enough.

But not before we had an ice cream though.

Monday:

Our secret dance preparations have carried on, I didn't get to use my smart animal ears that Dad had made for me, i'm keeping them for the performance next week.  Which I have divulged one secret of, it's going to be on the satge, not on the hall floor as we usually do.

As we went down to pick Ned up from the juniors, Dad fell off Ned's scooter and made a right mess of his knee and hand.  Silly old fool, he'll be milking that for days I expect.

Yeah, I hope he hasn't scratched my scooter.  Quad kids was a pretty hot afffair this week.  I was a very good boy though and remembered to apply sunscreen all by myself.  This is as rare an action as me washing my hands voluntarily!  While i'm on the subject of good news, I also got my school report for the year.  Although it was addressed to Mum and Dad I decided to open it and have a look first.  It was pretty good, although I had a couple of B's to blot the run of A's!  I'm apparently beyond my age level in English, Maths and Science and the comments from my teacher at the back painted a glorious picture of my attitude to school and others.  This has got to be worth a trip to Pizza Hut surely?

Tuesday

I got to go on the special chair today, it wasn't even my birthday or anything.  Thats one up on Ned, I don't think he ever got to sit on it all the while he was in infants.

It wasn't all good news though, apparently, you aren't allowed to shout during 'quiet reading' for some strange reason?

We have been told who's class we are in for next year, as happens every year I didn't get the teacher I wanted (Mr Armstrong) so at least it's consistant I suppose.

Wednesday

The school dinners on Wednesdays is still proving to be a bit of an issue with me.

Not with me, i'm loving my jacket potato with cheese, i'm even eating the potato skin.

I've been in a rather creative mood lately, i made an entire zooblies village which I was very pleased with.

Since i've decided i'm not quite so bad as I thought at running i'm doing really rather well.  Even Mum, my harshest critic things I did a couple of really good 400 metre runs at Team Kennet in the evening.

I didn't notice, I was too busy taking my panda family for a ride round in my dolls push chair.

Thursday

My creativity has continued and before school I made this rather fantastic structure:

A full on flag flying panda family home.  We better get Kevin Mcloud around to have a look.

After school dance club has now gone into secrecy mode in preparation for our end of term performance.

I finally started trying to learn my lines for the end of term play....theres a lot of them....oh dear.

Friday

The bad news, sports day was cancelled due to the rain....the god news? We spent all day doing art instead!  We're quite used to sports day being cancelled as it seems to happen every year. I think we're going to try again quite soon so fingers crossed.

Swimming lessons are still going well, we worked on butterfly this week, I was awesome at it.  I really enjoy doing butterfly, even if Mum cannot see the point of us learning it.

I took to my room to spend the evening watching DVD's.

And I played the booby trap game with Mum and Dad and endured a number of comedy hair bunch styles, the best of which was judged to be the 'pineapple'  Although both Dad and myself were very impressed with Mums platting skills.

Saturday

Coral Reef alert!

Yeah, we hadn't been here for ages.

There was a new slide off the pirate ship.

Which hurt my butt upon landing so much I didn't have another go.

But the outside section was open and the flumes were brilliant as always.

In the afternoon we were hurried into town for haircuts.  Rather unusually we didn't have to wait at all, brilliant.

So seeing as we were smart looking and presentable, it was a god time to go and get my passport photo taken for my renewal now my original one is five years old.  The picture on it at the moment bares no resemblence to me at all.

My highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly going to Hugo's for a sleepover on Saturday night.  His Mum and Dad made me feel really welcome and we had a lovely time. Loads of X Box was played and lots of giggling was had.  We weren't even that late to sleep and had a moderate lie in on Sunday too.

So while Ned was away we had a lovelt tea of whinge free spaghetti! I asked Dad for lads, and it was loads I got.  One of our bowls full right to the top with spaghetti, topped with a moderate dollop of bolognese sauce and a lovely little bowl of parmesan all to myself. I ate the lt, my tummy was like a little bowling ball when i'd finished.

Sunday

I had Charlotte's birthday party at Bucklebury Farm Park, last time I went here I was a few months old apparently so it was all new to me.  What a great place, slides, playgrounds and animals, loads of animals.  We fed baby dear, collected chickens eggs from their field, had a Tractor ride and then had our lunch in a teepee.  It was really good.

Meanwhile we were rinsing the last few minutes out of the X Box before we had a trip to the park with our bikes before Mum and Dad came to pick me up.  I'd had a great evening and going to fetch Ellis wasn't too much of a hardship, there were various older siblings also on collection duty so we had a great time on the go karts, the bouncing pillow and the drop slide,  all without having to pay to get in.

When we got home we decided to give the roast dinner a miss and go for a barbecue instead, a much better idea considering it was such a lovely day.

We even got the waterslide and the water pistols out!

Monday

Monday was whole school shuffle day, I was seriously excited about this.  I went up to Mrs Jacksons class and got to be a year 2 for a while.

And I got to go up to my new class in year 5, Mrs. Titchband, I was quite impressed actually. 

Our dance sessions have also gone secret undercover style in preparation for our end of term performance.

Quad kids is still going strong too, we're really enjoying it, doing some track stuff and a few relays to mix things up a bit.  My good running form has seemingly continued and I got a number of compliments on my speed.