Tuesday

The last day of the holidays was finally upon us.

As is now traditional, Dad had the day off with us.

We hatched a plan to hit the Freespace BMX track and skatepark.

This shot was taken prior to me getting a bit over confident and pulling a wall of death style move right near the top.  It ended pretty badly when I stalled and found myself heading down at a pretty quick rate, headed right for a puddle.  I got pretty wet and the handlebars rammed me in the stomach.  Ouch.

I kept it low on the scooter and managed to stay upright.

The BMX track was in a pretty poor state sadly.

It used to be brilliant, gently downhill from top to bottom with nice big berms.

But now it was pretty overgrown and the surface had been worn away leaving quite a rocky track.

It was a lot more suited to my mountain bike.

I wasn't so keen on Ned's old BMX, it's pretty twitchy and hard to ride at the best of times:

We decided Knightwood, just up the road would be a much better bet:

And the sun came out:

I decide to give photography a go:

As well as riding a few more laps:

I gave Dad a good thrashing of course:

I did a few laps of the pump track without a helmet or gloves, to feel the breeze:

Dad wasn't happy with me for that one, but it's only what he used to do when he was my age!

I was soon kitted back up again for the big track though, it's a lot faster on there:

We rode ourselves pretty much to a standstill:

And spotted the biggest thistle we had ever seen:

Our tummies were telling us it was time for lunch, so while Dad was packing the bikes away we played on the park for a bit before heading for the Asda cafe.

Pepperoni pizza and chips for me.

Massive ham and cheese panini with a side salad for me, perfect!

Followed by a bit of choloate fudge cake that was so big I couldn't manage it all.

And a lovely slighty more fancy than normal chocolate eclair for me:

So once lunch was done and dusted we had to decide what to do for the rest of the day.
Time was getting on so our options were a bit limited but we settled on going back to the park in Marlborough.
Yeah, the one with the really high monkey bars that defeated us a couple of years back.
We nailed it this time round though, after a few false starts and complaints of slippery hands.
The rest of the park is good fun over there too, it was a nice way to while away a late summer afternoon before we made a stop at the garage on the way home for an ice cream.
I still had gymnastics to go to, but as i've gone up to the year three timings I didn't have to go until 5:15.  So that was good, even though we did go straight there from our day trip.  I was pleased to see a few of my friends had also moved up as well as Abi who already goes to the later class.
When we got home the realisation hit that we were back to school tomorrow and hadn't learnt any of our 20 spellings over the holidays.
Speak for yourself, Ii'd learned at least half of mine.
But my policy of leaving it to the last minute really didn't sit well with me now, there were tears....

Wednesday

Back to school day then.

Yep, me into year six, my last year at John Rankin.

And me up to year three, my first year in Juniors, complete with proper shirt and tie combo:

We got eased back in pretty nicely, my new teacher Mrs Buxey seems really nice, she was very impressed with my history knowledge.

And I have Miss Stubbs.  Our main topic of the day was the ancient Egyptians which was brilliant as I already knew a bit about that from Ned!

But what was most cool was being able to see each other at playtimes and that.  We really enjoyed it.  I even gave her a little cuddle when the bell rang and we had to go back to class.

So after a tiring first day back it would have been nice to have a quiet evening and maybe an early night.

No chance, it was Team Kennet.  We're on to the last few weeks of outside training now but the weather has been lovely.  All Sunny evenings with beautiful sunsets over the common, very pleasant indeed.

Thursday/Friday

Not sure what really happened at the end of last week, it's all a bit of a blur of back to school and sleepy evenings really.

We have been really enjoying Robson Green's Extreme Fishing programme of an evening though.

Saturday

Mary Berry was siging books in Mum's shop!

How very exciting.

We took a bike ride into town to see if we could get one.

We bumped into Slim and Trace and Den and Gail having a natter near the market place, so an impromptu family gathering of sorts.  

Yeah, was nice to see them all.

Then we saw the queue outside Mum's shop, it was massive, we decided not to bother waiting.

So went into the shop to see if we could catch a glimpse, this is as close as we could get:

It was lunchtime, we were hungry and I thought i'd chance my arm by suggesting Pizza Express for lunch.....and recieved universal agreement!

Yeah, nice one Ned.

Lovely lovely garlic dough balls and an enquiry about the possibility of having a make your own pizza birthday party for me there next year.

We made our way home and somehow managed to get the grown ups to sort us out an afternoon with Marny and Kimi.

Yeah, I went round theirs to play Skylanders and Minecraft.

And Marny came to us for some arts and crafts stuff:

A bit of mucking about in the pop up tent in the garden and a trip to the park.
We ended up all round theres for tea and a game of hide and seek.
And cat bothering, they have three cats.  This became quite apparent by my red puffy eyes and struggle to breathe...oh dear.

Sunday
We awoke pretty late, the picnic was already in the bag, Legoland day! 
Once we'd had our breakfast we set off, but we didn't get there until midday really.
Luckily though, the place was deserted!
Yeah, there were no real queues for anything so we filled our boots and went on stuff over and over again.
As well as a few things we hadn't been on for years.
But what I really wanted to do was play in the water park.
It was a nice sunny and warm day so why not?

It was great fun, sliding, splashing and all that, but snuggling?  That was even better!

We got dried off and changed, despite being terrorised by the spiders in the changing rooms and carried on around the park until closing time.
And I also got to have a photo with none other than Emmet:

There wasn't even any traffic to contend with coming home, how lovely.

Monday
Well the start of our first full week back.
Which meant clubs are starting up again.
Yeah, so now we both go to the same same Dance class session after school.
Which makes it much harder for Dad to watch us both at the same time, in opposite corners of the hall.
We went for a walk after tea, just down the park.
I managed to climb up the park sign for the first time ever.
And we really enjoyed seeing large groups of birds flying over in well smart V shaped patterns.


backtoschool14 from Part Time on Vimeo.

Tuesday

A day with Auntie Christine and Darcey.

We all know that means a trip to 4 Kingdoms

Not that we're complaining, we love it.

Us girls had face paints:

And it was also pirate day, which meant I got to sword fight a pirate:

It was gymnastics day as well, Dad came to pick us up.

But I managed to avoid it and stayed with Darcey and Auntie Christine until well after it had finished, what a result.

Gymnastics was good though, hardly anyone there again which meant we got plenty of coaching.

Wednesday

We had a rather quiet day with Auntie Christine today.

Which suited us just fine.

We went out for a little walk and a bit of blackberry picking, which is something i'm really in to at the moment:

I also did a bit of drawing and colouring.

And I enjoyed playing with the set of giant dominoes she'd just aquired form somewhere.

We also had to be guinea pigs for a different cake recipe she'd tried out.

Oh, what hardship!  I thought it was very nice, even if the general consensus wasn't as favourable.

So Dad comes to collect us, and we get a trip to the dentist!
He really knows how to entertain us kids in the holidays doesn't he?
It was okay though, the dentist said that I had very clean, nice teeth.
But I had to brush mine a little more carefully apparently.
We had half an hour to kill in town, so decided a soon-back-to-school haircut was a good idea!
We still love haircut time.
I nattered away to the lady doing mine the whole time I was sat there.
And the lady cutting mine stopped halfway through and turned to Dad to tell him how beautiful she thought I was!
It was a very quick pitstop for tea before heading off to Team Kennet.
No Abi this week, which was a shame.
It was the last of the badge week competitions too.
Sadly, I was in the team that came second AGAIN!  So, still no badge for me.

Thursday

Mum had the day off today, so we could have a bit of a lie in and what have you.

Although I got a knock on the door, it was Ali, he was giving Mrs Watkins' dog a walk and wanted to know if I wanted to go with him.  Seemed like a good idea.  It was hilarious watching him trying to keep hold of the somewhat urgent dog at times.

We picked Dad up from work at lunchtime and made our way to Bournemouth to check out the air festival.

Well, you say Bournemouth, we actually ended up in Southbourne, quite a way from Bournemouth.  The plan was to catch the land train into Bournemouth, which seemed like a good idea.

Except the land train wasn't running because of the air festival.

So we set about walking.  It was a very, very long way.

We made it as far as Boscombe pier in time for the red arrows display.

We set out the blanket and cracked out the Digestives to take in the show:

It was utterly brilliant, completely captivating.

I played in the sand mostly, although the heart they drew in the sky was pretty good.

We carried on our epic stroll and as we got closer to Bournemouth there were more and more things going on.

Like a load of fairground rides that we weren't allowed a go on.

And then even better a load of (free) army stuff that we were!

There was a well cool boat with two massive engines in it:

There was a Royal Engineers section where you could have a go at metal detecting in the sand.  I found all of mine:

But I missed one, so could have been blown up if it was a mine:

There was also a section for the Royal Artillery.  They had loads of cool tanks that you could get in, the best one was an anti aircraft gun thingy, it had a turret that you put your head up into, it span round and had built in binoculars that you could see miles and miles through.  No doubt very useful for seeing distant aircraft to shoot at.

There was a battle of Britain fly past as well.

A lancaster, a Hurricane and a Spitfire too.  The Spitfire sounded really epic looping and diving during it's solo display.

So four and a half miles or so later we reached Bournemouth.

But it was getting pretty late so we thought we had to head back ro the car really.

We decided a bus would be a good idea, but the road we found with bus stops on it was closed. 

Because of the air show!

So we had to walk further inland until we found a bus driver to ask, he pointed us in the right direction and we were soon on the bus, heading back in the vague direction of the car.

We got off at what the driver assured us was as close as we were going to get to our car and started walking.

It was another long old stroll it has to be said.

But eventually we made it back.

We'd done very well, walked a hell of a long way with very little whingeing at all.

Tired and hungry we headed for home....

Stopping off at a Harvester for something to refuel us.

Turned out to be a good call, it was very quick, pretty cheap (which pleased Mum) and pretty nice food too.

We had a right old laugh sat around the table, probably because we were so delirious from all our walking.

I think my face sums our mood up quite well here:

Friday

Today we were lucky enough to have a day out with Laura and Darcey.

We were so excited.

We went to the Butterfly place near Swindon, Studley Grange Farm.

We loved it, even though it did take ages for me to tempt a butterfly to land on me:

I had no such trouble, in fact I could hardly move for butterflies:

They loved me:

And we all loved the baby meerkats.

One of which ended up actually in the food bowl.

We loved the cafe, you could see the butterflies.

And we loved the ice creams, and Darcey of course:

Saturday

Well we were in no hurry to get up this morning. 

The lure of a swimming trip to the Oasis got us moving though, we hadn't been to the pool for ages.

It wasn't even that busy there either, which was a result.

As we were late going, it made lunch quite a late affair.

But we're pretty adaptable.

We had an afternoon trip to Sainsburys for a slush puppie in the afternoon:

Then it was home again, I was pretty keen to watch the new series of the X Factor.

None of the rest of us were.....

Sunday

We were up bright and early on Sunday morning for a bike race Dad had found out about.

This was a cross country mountainbike race, so a new one for all of us.

The race was in Checkendon, sort of Between Reading and Oxford so it took a while to get there.

When we got there Mum signed us opin while Dad sorted our bikes out.

We got given our race numbers and had time for a little practice ride.

Our inexperience showed though and Dad sent us off around the adults three mile loop by mistake for a little warm up ride.

Which might have been okay if our races weren't due to start in 10 minutes!

A course marshall spotted is though after Mum spoke to the race controller, he guided us back to the start area just in time.

Yeah, so I lined up for my first ever bike race, puffed out and with no idea where the track I would be racing actually went or what it was like.

I was seriously impressed Ellis.

I managed the first lap of three, but quite honestly I found it all a bit much so decided i'd stop there.

I was up next, there were some serious looking competitors, club logo racing kits and clip in pedals:

We were doing four laps and although the course wasn't that difficult the first lap was ridden at a pretty high pace.  I managed a mid pack fourth place which I was very pleased with.

We both really enjoyed ourselves and our keen to have another go next month, I might even try to finish the race next time:

Even better than the bike riding though was this massive hammock that was slung between a couple of trees:

It was brilliant fun, swinging back and forth and trying to climb to the top.

We had a picnic out in the field, surrounded by lovely trees and enjoying the sunshine.

We played Logo Billionaire when we got home, I got accused of witchcraft when I cut the cards three times in a row for Mum, and the first one was a 'Bust' card.  I think she thought I was cheating somehow.

Anyway, while all that was going on I stormed in for the win!

Monday:

Our last day with Auntie Christine and Darcey of the summer holidays.

With the added bonus of Auntie Trish along too, awesome.

So then, Four Kingdoms?  Bit rude not to really I think.

We had a great time of course, not withstanding melting my coat using it to gain extra speed on the bumpy slide...oops.

Dad looked up when my gymnastics class would be on now i'm going into year 3, he found a picture of me on the club website:

Fame on the KD Gymnastics website!

I was very pleased indeed about this as you can imagine!!!

And without further ado, here's our Cornwall video:

Tuesday

Mum had the rest of the week off, which meant we could keep doing cool stuff.

So today we went into town by bike with her.

I replenished my loom band stocks after visiting the entertainer and the works to make sure I got the best available deal.

And I spent some of my money on some Zooblies.

We got home in time for a visit from Auntie Christine and Darcey.

She loved my Zooblies.

Once they had gone we packed a picnic and went to pick Dad up from work.

We were heading straight for Legoland.

We hadn't been for a while as our tickets had run out ages ago.

Once we'd renewed our passes we were in, and we still had over three hours to enjoy there.

We went on the cars, the pirate boat, the brand new playground......

......the Atlantis submarine and the boating school:

It was good to be back:

Wednesday

We didn't have too much planned today, we had to be back in time for team Kennet.

We did however meet Dad in the park on his way home from work, we rode down again!

The real purpose of todays trip was to have a go on the boating lake.

Yeah, I wanted a kayak.

But I was really unsure, it looked quite tricky to me.  I was convinced by everyone else that it was a good idea though (well, they were right about the zip wire).

It was great fun, we got used to it pretty quick and were soon zooming across the lake.

We then fed the ducks and swans, there were plenty of them:

The afternoon sort of ran away with us a bit, we had to shovel our tea down as quickly as possible before Team Kennet.

I'm sure thats just the sort of regime Usain Bolt has too.

It was team competitions week still, and for the icing on the cake Ellis and I were on the same team.  

We loved that, though it would have been better to have Abi with us as well.

We came second this week, so no pin badge this time around.

I really want one of those...maybe next week!

Thursday

We couldn't decide on what film to go and watch at the cinema so we settled on getting the DVD of Rio 2.

And more importantly pick and mix from Tesco, which we are never allowed.

We loved the film.

We loved the sweets.

Then when Dad came home we went off to Avebury, to see the stones:

It was a pretty nice walk, the stones that were still left were massive:

We loved pondering their origins and what might have gone on here all those years ago.

The visitor centre had a rather cool connect four game outside.

And a daughts set, I gave Dad a right hiding at that.

We drove home via a couple of hillside white horses which was sort of cool too.

Friday

Trip into town, again by bike to get new shoes for the new school year.

The foot measuring thing was very sophisticated, like an Ipad gizmo thing.

I was a 12.5 F

And I was a 3.5 H.

We also had a visit to the new ice cream place in Parkway.

I'd been well excited about this for ages.

I was a cheap date, only having a scoop on a cone:

I wasn't, and went for the full on sundae:

Which I had to help him finish as his eyes were bigger than his belly.

Once Dad came home from work we loaded the beach things and headed for the seaside.

Well, we'd been back from Cornwall for 5 days and were starting to miss it a bit, so the Witterings seemed the next best thing.

We took the camping stove and a big packet of bacon:

It was delicious, pretty much my favourite meal, no doubt helped by the location.

There was a lengthy game of boules played.

Quite honestly, I played out of my skin and barely lost a game:

We couldn't possibly not go in the sea could we?

No way, the waves looked pretty good as well so we got the boards out too:

I was all over it, catching wave after wave after wave, I loved it.

I didn't do quite as well as Ned, but did enjoy a lovely warm cuddle from Mum once i'd wiggled out of my wetsuit.

We enjoyed a lovely sunset before heading home:

Saturday

After some careful internet research by Mum we came up with a bike ride for Saturday.

Yes, carefully picked to not be too far for my little legs.

So the Phoenix trail from Princes Risborough to Thame it was.

An old disused railway line like the Camel trail in Cornwall, so we should be pretty safe from any nasty hills.

We loved it, it was nice not to have to look out for traffic as we rode along.

And we saw plenty of cows, sheep, horses and pigs as we made our way.

But the fresh air made us hungry and pretty soon we'd found a suitable picnic stop:

Feeling refreshed we carried on, there were various interesting things along the way, like these railway signals you could flip up and down:

Obviously we were miles from any sort of toilets and I really needed a wee.  I was eventually convinced to make a pitstop down a bank in amongst some blackberry bushes.

We made good progress and had pretty soon got to the outskirts of Thame:

I did a spot of modelling for a possible bike catalogue:

When we reached the end of the trail we made our way towards town.

I had a pretty epic crash, and ended up bumping my head on the pavement (albeit quite lightly).  I was soon back on the bike though.

After a tip off from a local we found an ace park for a bit of a play and the second round of our picnic:

We had a quick look down Thame high street (looking for toilets) and then saddled up for the ride back.

Where we noticed people picking blackberries in the exact same spot I had my emergency wee!

It didn't take long to get back at all, we'd done 12 miles in total.

I was very pleased with myself.

Yeah, well done Ellis!

We had a well deserved saturday night slump in front of the telly.

Sunday

Well our good run of well cool activities had to come to an end, it was time for a shopping trip.

Yeah, but in all honesty it wasn't too bad.

No, we quite like Kingston, especially rhe big glass tunnel like bridge across the road, a great place to spot the odd Ferarri or Bentley.

I got myself a new school bag, fit for purpose at the junior school.

In the evening, Andy, Alan and Hayley came round.

We played Hayleys new game from the geeky game show we went earlier in the year, Agrocola.

It was pretty complicated by the looks of it, I helped dish out some cards and playing pieces and then decided i'd be better off going to bed.

It did look pretty difficult to get to grips with, so I got paired up with Dad, how's my luck eh?

Anyway, turns out he wasn't too bad at it, well, at least he was not as bad as everyone else appeared to be on our first ever go.  We won!  But it was a very long and drawn out affair, I didn't get to bed until 1:30am.

Monday

Meaning I had a 10 o'clock lie in.

I got up a bit earlier, Mum came down too, we had a lovely cuddle on the sofa until the boys appeared.

The day itself was wet outside.

Very wet indeed.  We stayed in all day.

We did some reading.

We played some Wii party.

And we stuffed our faces on our first roast dinner for what must be months.

We rounded out the day watching the magician Dynamo, one of my most favourite shows.