Sunday

Holiday time once again, it's a good job they were all booked and paid for before Mum chucked her job in.

Something a bit different this time, Bournemouth Airport which was a new one for us.

Yeah, there were some year 4's we knew having breakfast in the airport.

Fortunatley they were on a different flight to us though.

We were heading for Toulon, on the Cote D'Azur and we were flying on this rather splendid purple plane:

Note the lack of jet engines!

Yeah, propellers.  We were pretty interested in them and as the plane only had two seats on each side of the aisle, getting a window seat was easy.  We watched them start up and quickly become a blur.

It was only a two hour flight, so barely even time to make a small dent in the Ipad charge.

As we started our descent to land, the sea looked beautifully inviting, I really liked the look of France.

If we thought Bournemouth airport was small, Toulon was even smaller.  Apart from a sprinkling of posh looking private jets ours was the only plane there.

And with only one baggage carousel we soon had our things and made our way to the car hire depot.  We'd booked a DS3, but I don't think we've ever got the actual make and model we'd asked for before.

I really wanted the DS3, Mum and I think they are pretty cool.  This time though, we got exactly what we booked, I was well pleased:

And once Dad managed to get all our stuff in the boot okay, so was he.

We hit the road and made our way an hour or so up the toll road (8 euros) to our campsite, just outside of a town called Frejus.

We stumbled accross the place, despite it not quite being where Dad had been lead to believe that it was.

We got checked in and best of all it was only about 3pm. 

So with the sun out and the pool open what else was there to do but get stuck in!

The pool was really cool, even if you did have to wear proper swimming trunks and not board shorts.  The slides were epic and even faster in our enforced attire.

Yeah, the pool was indeed brilliant.

Then it was a bit of an explore to see what else was on offer.

The park was rather excellent too.

Especially the un-policed bouncy castle!

We paid a visit to the on site shop to buy an arm load of pizza's for supper, so a pretty good end to the day.

Made even better when we found out that these bad boys were doing laps of the site to give you a lift from to wherever you wanted to go on site:

So, so cool.

Monday

Mum's eagle eyes had seen that there was horse riding on site in the morning.

So we decided to forego breakfast and delay our supermarket trip until after we'd had a ride.

I was well up for it:

But I was a little uneasy with the very hilly nature of the route.

I loved it of course, the hills made it even better:

Once we'd finished we headed to the massive Carrefour hypermarket just down the road.

It was indeed, huge.

We tried to get it done and out of the way as quickly as possible, of course we paid due care and attention when selecting our ice cream, crisps and biscuits.

Once we were back and had finished our lunch we got ready to go to the pool again.

Getting a ride on the very back seats of the golf buggy, the back seats were the best as they faced backwards!

I was a little disappointed that there weren't many English kids to befriend, it was very much French and German.

We chilled out for a bit colouring in one of those felt pictures, one of kittens for me.

And some Dalmations for me, which Ned chose, thanks Ned!

We went to Frejus Marina for tea, Dad had found a restaurant on Trip Advisor that he wanted to try.

Sadly, it was shut on Mondays.  We ended up in McDonalds instead, so that was a bit of a comedown for him but a right result for us.

We went back and watched what was to become our new favourite programme 24 Hours in the Past on the Ipad.

They sent some celebrities back in time to live and work as Victorians.   It looked a very grim time to live to us.

We rounded the day off playing the Donkey card game (dad lost) and a game of sevens (Dad won).

Tuesday

We had a bit of a lay in.

When we did surface it looked a little bit gloomy, so we decided to take a drive to the Gorge Du Verdon, apparently Europe's answer to the grand canyon.

It was a very twisty turny drive up to the lake and I felt sufficiently sick to get a seat up front, relegating Mum to the back.

It was worth it though, the place was pretty stunning:

The sun shone and the water was an amazing shade of blue.

We found a nice spot by the shore and devoured our picnic in the sunshine.

We made a visit to some really rather clever eco toilets which proved to be quite intriguing.

Before we kitted up and hired ourselves a pedalo to venture into the canyon itself: 

It was lovely sitting on the front, dangling our feet in the water.

I was desperate for a swim, but mum and dad managed to convince me stay dry a bit longer as we had a two hour trip:

The gorge itself was pretty amazing, with soaring rock formations, trees clinging to the sheer sides and waterfalls:

It started off sunny:

But as we rounded a corner towards the end of the permitted range for hire craft it took a decidedly gloomy turn and even started to rain a bit.

We made a u-turn around the bouy markers and hit the pedals hard to outrun the rain.

With Dad and Ned pedalling hard we managed that pretty easily and even blew away an electric motor boat and left them bobbing in our wake.

When we got nearer to the lake the lure of the water got too strong and I had to have a plunge.  But for some reason I was pretty unsure of it all now.  Dad did his best by getting in and trying to coax me in.

But we left him behind and pedalled the boat back to shore without him, leaving him to swim for it: 

We did look out for him really:

We made our way back to base, and made it in time for a pool session.

Followed by a little spot of drawing.

Then we went down to the sports courts afterwards and had a game of basketball, Dad thought he was a right pro because he could slam dunk the ball until Mum pointed out that the basket was a lot lower than on the telly.

We moved onto volleyball, and in between the seemingly endless mis-hits and bungled efforts there were very occasional flashes of near competence.

It was a right laugh either way.

We had a barbecue for tea and enjoyed some tunes from the really rather decent Ipod dock in the caravan.

Before winding down proceedings with another episode of 24 Hours in the Past.

Wednesday

One of our favourite pastimes on these holidays is lizard spotting.

We were spoiled for choice on this one, they were quite brazen, sunning themselves on our deck.

Who could blame them, the view was lovely:

We did some work on my lines for the end of year play, how cultured we must have appeared, rehearsing Shakespeare on the deck.

We took another trip out, along the coast road to Agay Plage.

It's not like home, you can park, for free, right on the road next to the beach.

So we did.

Snorkelling, a picnic (including a packet of vile peanut flavour crisps, purchased in error) and a game of ball with Dad on the scorching sand, which was so hot under foot we had to scrape the top layer of sand off.  That was great until you dropped the ball and had to leave the relative safety of your cooler spot to retrieve the ball.

It wasn't much safer for Dad out at sea playing ball with me, I wellied the ball at him when he wasn't looking and it hit him like a bullet, right in the chest.  It hit with such force the noise raised concerned looks from everyone on the beach:

We carried on, along the coast road eastwards, the scenery was lovely and the sea looked so lovely.

We stopped at a lay by to get out and have a look round, it turned out to be an old military lookout point from the second world war:

It was a good explore:

With more lovely views:

And a seemingly plentiful supply of soiled toilet roll strewn across some of the marginally more secluded paths.  This led us to assume that public toilets are not qute as common as they might be.  

An assumption seemingly confirmed when further up the road, when we had pulled off to turn around we witnessed a bloke park up his moped and head off into the undergrowth witha purposeful look about him.  

We were in hysterics, speculaing about his intentions.

Once again we were back in time for an afternoon swim:

 And this time I managed to find an English boy to befriend.  Between us we worked out how to get really fast on the longer, twisty slide that we had previously struggled with.

We rode the slides over and over and over and over again....

There was a kids disco on in the evening but depsite repeated prompts that we ought to get our stuff together and go we slugged about so long that we only made it for the last ten minutes.  Which was rather unfortunate as they seemed to have decided to finish it ten minutes early.  I wasn't happy at all, but had no one to blame but myself.

Thursday

We kicked the day off with a bit of cooked breakfast, that I devoured with gusto.

And then the big one for me, a day trip to Monaco.  As soon as we arrived we saw two McLaren P1's roaring up the road.

We drove there and found a relly cool underground multi storey to park in.

The first two floors had residents cars parked in them which included a Ferrari F40 and an F50.  Neither of which looked like they'd been out for a while either.

We stumbled upon the Royal Palace just as a crowd seemed to be gathering.  Dad reckoned that he had read somewhere that the changing of the gaurd was scheduled for 11:55, about ten minutes time.

So we took ringside seats and waited while the square slowly filled right up.

A chime on the the clock set things off and then a marching band fired up:

Their uniforms were very, very white!

It was actually pretty cool.

We carried on in the direction of the aquarium and enjoyed the back streets, finding a lovely shady bench under a tree for lunch.

The bench seemed to be sprung somehow though and it was very wobbly, like having your picnic on a small boat in a rough sea!  

Proper funny it was.

We found the aquarium in a lovely grand old building and headed in:

The first tank looked epic from the uper level.

And it looked even better from down the stairs, it was massive and full of sharks and even a super cool looking turtle:

I liked the kissy fish:

And the glow in the dark jellyfish were mesmerising:

Along with the highest concentration of crowd pleasing Nemo fish we had ever seen:

There were so many fish to see, I loved it.

There was a surprise at the end as well, a shallow tank with sharks in it that you could stroke:

Well, you could if they dedcided to come close enough anyway.

And you had to be paying attention as they seemd to notice if you were looking away and made sure they came right to the surface for a swift flick of the tail to send a large splash out of the tank and over anyone stood in the vicinity.

As part of the deal for the aquarium tickets, we also had a ticket for the open top sightseeing bus.

We had to go the first stop or two inside downstairs, but we soon made it up on to the top deck before we hit the good bit of the route, the Grand Prix track famous bits, the starting grid, the first corner and up the (very steep) hill, the tunnel, the Lowes hairpin.  It was like being in a computer game, albeit at a much reduced bus driving speed.  As the race was only the previous weekend most of the grandstands still hadn't been taken down and the painted kerbs and armco was all still clearlyu visible.

We got off at the Casino Square and took a pitstop in the park for a drink and some skittles:

I was quite taken with the place and got busy with the camera:

Then it was on to the Casino itself, to see what was parked outside:

It wasn't bad, there were Rolls Royce's, Bentley's, Maserati's, a Tesla, a load of Porsche's and a Ferrari:

But I don't think it was quite as good as Rodeo Drive last year.  Although I did have a lot of respect for whoever had parked their prestigious Kia alongside as well:

We were quite surprised to see people actually draping themselves over some of the cars to have their photographs taken, I decided there and then that I wouldn't be parking my Lambo here in the future:

 I got into it too and captured this lovely shot:

The jewellery shops in the square had some seriously shiny things in the window, none of which had any price tags on them.....

We got back on the bus and waited for a bit:

Which was a result as two Ferarri 459's took off from a side street together looking like they were going for a lap of track and then a Lambo (with english plates) passed by:

So that was a few more to tick off my list.

We completed the rest of our circuit and ended up back at the palace, the views out over the marina were cool, there were some seriously big boats down there:

But the defences left a lot be desired, I don't reckon these canon balls would be much use:

We were even allowed a euro for the telescope, which is unheard of:

We took a short while to evaluate the tut on offer in the way of souvenirs.

And both went for some rather tasteful keyrings.

We made our way back to the car park and did a little window shopping on the way:

Even the door handles are cool in Monaco:

We got back to a square near where we'd started and Mum happened to spot a Spar shop, always an eye for value we picked up a four pack of Oreo ice creams and a drink each for under 10 euro's.

And even better, the Spar had it's own tables outside so we sat there watching the world go by.

We saw plenty more fast cars go by (including a Porsche 918 spyder) and watched a rather energetic football match between a load of local kids take place.

But the best thing, in all of Monaco was what must have been the cutest dog I have ever seen.  The shape and colouring of a husky, but in tiny, miniature form.  I could have melted with the cuteness on the spot.  I simply had to go and give him a stroke.  So, in a move that was quite bold for me I walked up and asked the young girl who was with him if I could give him some fuss.  She said yes, my day was made!

We finally tracked down the car park, there were concerns about just how much it might cost us when we put the ticket in the machine.  I think there was widespread relief when it was only 15 euros.

We were back on the road, our little DS3 amongst the fancy cars of Monte Carlo.

We were next to a Lamborghine Reventon at the first toll booth on the motorway.  It looked amazing and sounded epic as it blasted away from the barrier once it had risen up (although it looked low enough to go straight underneath anyway).  We saw it again at the next toll booth, stricken at the barrier, both doors up in the air, both passengers stood around looking a bit sheepish and one of the toll operatives wandering about lookng a bit lost.

Maybe they didn't have enough money for the toll?

Our little diesel roared away, leaving them in a cloud of our dust!

Sadly we were too late back for the swimming pool, Dad blamed the keyring shopping of course.

So we settled for another episode of 24 hours in the past.

And then bed.

Friday

Another lovely lay in.

With a bit of a snuggle up too:

Some quality time with the Ipad:

And a leisurley breakfast on the deck:

We could get quite used to this lifestyle.
The sun was out, it was hot already and there didn't seem to be many people about, only one sensible thing to do....get down the pool:

Plenty of sunbeds on offer too:

After lunch we headed out to Frejus, dad had done some research and found a place called Base Nature where there were cycle paths alonng the coast and parks and what have you.  We figured we'd hire a bike each and have a pootle.
Except the hire shops were all shut.
Scratch that then.
We had a walk instead.
Paddling in the warm waters of the med.

From the end of the harbour wall we could see a big wheel round in the next bay, St Raphael.

With that in mind and the prospect of going for a swim we went back to the car and took a drive further round the coast.

The big wheel looked epic, we couldn't wait to get on, especially when we realised the pods themselves would spin round like on the tea cups:

It was so high, we could see for miles:

Even Dad loved it.....ha ha:

Next to it was another one of those double decker merry-go-rounds.  So thats two we've seen in the last couple of months.

Taking the spinning teacup ride theme and running with it, we both opted for the tea cup rather than the horses or the vehicles on offer:

Ned got it going at an amazing speed and then regretted it as he felt sick pretty much instantly.  I didn't and did nothing to try and slow it down:

We staggered off and hit the beach:

It was lovely, after i'd done some swimwear modelling Dad and I did a spot of snorkelling:

We stayed for ages, just chilling out and enjoying the sunshine.

We went back to the camsite, had something to eat and then went to the Wii just Dance evening that was on.

At least we got there on time and didn't miss it!

It was great fun and we got stuck in:

After that hot work what we really needed was an ice cream.  So it was back down to the marina in Frejus to visit one of the ice cream parlours we'd spotted:

There were over 40 flavours to choose from....quite a task for someone as indecisive as myself.

Saturday

We went into Frejus town itself in the morning.

We'd seen an old Roman Amphitheatre on our drives through and thought we'd check it out.

It was a bit rubbish really, but then we had already been to the Collosseum I suppose.

This one had been repaired in a modern way and still hosts events though so that was pretty cool.

We carried on into town, it was market day and there were loads of cool things to look at:

There were some cool old narrow streets:

Postcard style window boxes:

And then this small square with brightly painted bollards all around it:

We loved it and took thousands and thousands of pictures of them all which we'll spare you of here.

We headed back and stayed at the pool until closing time, well it was our last day and we had to make the most of it didn't we?

I also finally got the hang of the twist slide, so made the most of my new found speed.

We got friendly with a couple of German lads and raced them up and down the slides.

But no one got friendly with a little French kid who Mum dubbed 'Le Savage' He was hilarious, he must have only been 3 but seemed to think he was in charge of the slides, making weaker willed kids wait at the bottom of the steps until he was at the top, pushing in left right and charlie.
It was really funny, we ended up waiting for him to come down the slide so we could race him back up the steps with our new found German friends.  We were all way faster than him and got to the top first.
But while we were lining up to go down the slide he just ran under our legs and got straight to the front.
It was quality entertainment.
Once the pool closed it was back to the caravan for our one last episode of 24 hours in the past.
Accompanied by a delicious banquet of all the food we had left (pizza, potato smiley faces, hot dogs and salad, so pretty good really).
But there was no pudding left!!!
Sacre Bleu!
So it was a quick mercy dash down to Carrefour for an ice cream and some baugettes for tomorrows picnic.

Sunday
So sadly it was time to go home.
We had to clear up and pack up.
Well, Mum and Dad did, we just hung about really, until we got sent down the park to get out of the way.
Result.
We drove back to the airport in good time and when we dropped the car off there was another one, exactly the same in the next parking space.
Like it's very own twin!
We left the beautiful, blazing warmth of the French sunshine and came back down thorugh the clouds to be greeted by a grey, soggy and windy Bournemouth.  It looked grim.  I seriously questionned Dad as to the possibility of us just going straight back to France.
But it wasn't really viable apparently so we made our way home.

We watched the final of Ninja Warrior UK.

Bit disappointing, no one completed the course.

And then had to get on with the homework we didn't want to do before holiday.....

Monday
Back to school then, panicking that I hadn't worked on my script for the play enough.
I was all hyped up on pre birthday excitement.
We had our last Quad Kids trainign seesion after school, the weather was horrible but I gave it my all and massivley improved my PB on the middle distance run.  I hope it's enough to get me into the team thats announced tomorrow.
I got an early birthday present when Andy came round to take Mum to the quiz, it was epic, thanks Andy!

Tuesday

Well I was really pleased with myself today, I won our class competition for the best adventure report! You remember when we climbed the island in Cornwall? Well our endeavour was rewarded with a £10 book token and the glory and adulation of the school in assembly.

I also got awarded my bronze times table certificate in assembly, so, a good day for both of us.

It wasn't all good though, we had a few issues in our little friend group of me, Amy and Sasha.  I'm sure we'll get over it.

Things got even worse at home, mum threw me the tv remote and for some reason I didn't catch it and it smacked me on the head.  It made quite a loud crack sort of sound....ouch.

Rugby for me after school.

And gymnastics for me before our late tea....

Wednesday

Well I had a much better day to day, no falling out with my friends and no flying remotes.  Although I did notice that panda had a sticky patch on his fluffy bottom, no doubt down to a sweet of some description.
We got issued with the script for our year six leavers play, before auditions on Friday.  A Midsummer Nights Dream no less!  I made a protest to Miss Buxey that I had football after school, athletics club after tea and my belated birthday party tomorrow night.  She told me that if I wanted a part bad enough, i'd find the time to learn the lines......
We managed to cram a few read throughs in before Team Kennet but it didn't feel like it was going in at all.

I improved my high jump with a new personal best of 115cm this week.

When we got home we had a quick acting masterclass to back up my script learning.  Mum and Dad were very helpful, they gave me all sorts of ideas to bring a bit more to my audtion than just memorising the words.  I got into a bit of a state about it all, worried i'd never remember it all......Dad tried to convince me that it would have sunken in by the morning and Mum read me the childrens book of a Midsummer Nights Dream at bedtime....preparation was certainly thorough.

Thursday

I had an epic shot at football today, from pretty much the half way line, soaring around the wall and only just clipping the crossbar at the corner, denying a goal.

It was Ned's party pretty much straight after school so Ali and Liam came home with us. There were far too many boys in the front room with that lot so I made a point of wishing them 'good day' before retreating to my own private quarters.

We had an Ipad binge session, Instagram, Youtube, Boom Beach.  Al the usuals.  Then we got changed and headed for Pizza Hut.

Yeah, I sat next to Ella which was awesome and Ned even picked me to make our pizzas first with him,

I'm good to my sister.....

I topped mine with lots of ham, lots of cheese and one slice of pepperoni.

I went full bore with the pepperoni.

In between making the pizzas and waiting for them to be cooked we went big on the salad bar.

We had a jalapeno eating contest too, only Liam and Ellis chickened out.

The pizzas were lovely when they arrived:

Once they were dispensed with it as time for the ice cream factory.

We were surprisingly sensible with it as well really.

Even if we did end up making a few dubious drink concoctions to try for dares using various fizzy drinks and salad bar items.........

My birthday cake (a giant mars bar cake) was a bit of an inconvenience really, I had ice cream to eat!

We all had a great time and it went really well.  

We were home by six, which gave us another chance to go through my audition script again.  It was quite a reassuring exercise,I seemed to remember it all really well.

Friday

Well today was the day for the auditions, between break and lunch time.  I was pretty nervois it. Has to be said.  We had to try out in front of the whole of year six, which made a few people nervous.  I was one the only ones who had memorised the script which helped no end as I could concentrate on my improvised acting parts.  Miss Buxey stated that I was a good singer, so I decided to go along with it and not contest her.  It went really well, and a few subsequent auditionees even copied a few of my moves.  We didn't have to wait long to find out who'd got what....I was chosen to play Lysander, one of the main characters.  I do have to sing and be in love with the girls though!  When it was announced the whole class clapped me which was lovely.  It was pretty awkward though as a lot of the girls in our class hadn't got the roles they wanted and there were a few tears being stifled.

We had another disappointing sports afternoon at St Barts, culminating in a game of tag rugby, with no tags, sloppy refereeing and forward passes being allowed!

I came out of school at pick up time with a massive smile on my face, Mum and Dad knew somethng was going on.  I told them quietly about the audition success but dodn't want to milk it too much as some people were still pretty upset.  On the way out of the playground, Mrs Laurie, the other year six teacher congratulated me on my excellent audition!

We played with the wooden railway set when we got home, it's one of our favourite things to go back to and play with even at our age.

After tea I sloped off out with Ali and Hugo for a bit down the park.  I was back in time to go to Abi and Faye's though.

Yeah, I was staying for a sleep over so took my overnight bag.

Kimi and Marny also came along, as did Nate!

He's still got cool hair and he's still super cute.

We made the most of the pleasant weather by playing on their swing and having a game of football and tennis.

After that We watched Big Hero Six together before us girls headed up to our quarters for the night.

I played Alan's game King of Tokyo with the grown up's.  It was really good fun, Mum and I ended up duking it out to the death, with me taking the eventual win well after midnight.

Saturday

We had a nice Ellis free lie in, much needed after last nights late one. I put the word out about going down the park and soon had Dylan for company.  We hung out down the park or at home all day, until sone of the others appeared to join us later in the afternoon (Tilly, Josh, Hugo).

I came back just in time for lunch which was a result. I spent the afternoon helping Mum do some cleaning ang hanging about in the garden which was nice.

We had to have an early night though as we had an early start to look forward to on Sunday....

Tuesday 28th

Tag rugby after school was good fun, it's quite nice to play with no pressure.  I'm scoring plenty of tries too.

It was Gymnastics viewing week this week, they seem to come round really quickly.  Mum and Dad were impressed with our cartwheel practice regime.

Then when we got home it was a massive chili induced sulk.....

We hate chili!

Wednesday 29th

Team Kennet summer season continues.

Although it was a bit unnerving this week with the sound of the security siren going off at the the secure hospital next door......

Thursday 30th

Parents evening, we weren't exactly sure how it would go.

Turns out we had nothing to worry about, we both got really good comments.

Yeah, thats a relief.

Mum and Dad loved this picture I labelled in my book.  I think it was the attention to detail in regards to the accessories, the high heels and the belt:

Friday 1st

Last day of the week, the bank holiday weekend looming.

And a trip to Cornwall to look forward to.

I couldn't wait to go.

I could, I don't really enjoy the journey it has to be said.  Having said that, Dad had a eureka moment and rigged up the Ipad between the back seats at head rest height.

This meant that with the little adaptor to connect two sets of headphones we could watch I player in style.

The traffic was pretty rubbish it had to be said.

We enjoyed waving at Andy as he pssed us and then we passed him on the busy motorway.

We arrived pretty late, even by our standards.

Saturday 2nd

That was all forgotten Saturday morning though, as we woke to the sound of the distant roar of waves.

Yeah, brilliant, I love it.

We had to go out for a walk, what is it with going for a walk all the time?

Constantine was cool, and I found this cute little centipede chap on the way out of the dunes:

As we made our way around to Treyarnon the tide was coming in and the waves were looking good.

So we got kitted up and and hit the surf.

It hit me back, hard.  It was so cold, colder than i've ever known it.  Especially with me in a shorty wetsuit and evryone else being in a long one, with actual arms and legs.

Yeah, my new one definatley kept me warm, I couldn't get enough.

I could, I hightailed it back to the caravan pretty quickly to warm up.  I also issued a bit of a climb down and conceeded that a new, full length wetsuit might not in actual fact be a bad idea after all......

We warmed up with a hot chocolate and a good helping of Britains got talent.

Sunday 3rd

So first thing it was a trip to Annes Cottage for a new wetsuit.  They had the exact same make and colour as my current shorty, so I was well happy with that.  Twinned with the luxury of some wetsuit socks borrowed from Andy's mum (what a revelation, I shall be eternally gratefull for those) my new wetsuit was toasty warm and we stayed in the cold water for ages.

Yeah, the waves were brilliant again and we got loads.

Connie came over with John and Sarah in the afternoon, Sarah came down for a few waves too but John is just about to start his GCSE's so he took advantage of a little bit of downtime before it all kicked off for him.

We finally watched some of my Dynamo DVD in the afternoon, he is so cool.

Even if Mum does insist on trying to spoil it, trying to work out how he does it all.

Sarah was staying the night with at the Shepherds so she came down with us for the evening and played Camel Up and Labyrinth, the second time she played each game she won.....there's a lesson here I think.

Yeah, Sarah is a quick learner, only play her at something once!

Monday 4th

A lovely sunny morning so we took the cricket set over to Constantine for a knock about.

Sarah came too so that was good numbers with us four and Andy.

We found a nice spot in the middle of the beach and set up the stumps.

The real surprise package turned out to be Mum, who having said she had never even managed to connect the bat with the ball before proceeded to wack the ball for a six on just about every bowl.  
It was a pretty amazing exhibition it has to be said.

It was certainty better than Dad and Andy who seemed to have claimed a number of unsuspecting victims out for a stroll with their wayward efforts.

We took lunch at the youth hostel, we had to sit inside as it was a bit nippy.

And they had run out of chorizo, what a disaster.

My pizza was as lush as ever though.

There were still decent waves to be had, so we got back amongst them again.

Although I got out quite quickly to play ball with Connie instead.

Then, sadly it was packing up time before heading off home.

Until next time......

Tuesday 5th

So after the bank holiday, it was business as usual with us nearly being late for school.

It's a good job we live so close really isn't it?

And in another strange turn of events, while were at school, Mum went Legoland!

We couldn't believe it, how rude is that.

She was claiming to be helping Laura and Auntie Trish take Darcey there for her birthday treat.

So I reckon we'll let her off.....

I went home with Sasha after school for tea and then onto gymnastics with her, epic!!!

At least I got to see Darcey when the Legolanders returned home, so I got to give her her birthday present!

Wednesday 6th

So with the looming General Election making the headlines, we had a school election to mimic the real thing.  Sadly, I was made Nigel Farage for the day as I don't think anyone else wanted to.  I'm always up for standing on the stage in assembly though, even if it is to deliver the Ukip manifesto.

Team Kennet was cancelled due to horrible weather, wet windy and raining like hell.

So instead of that, we went to the actual supermarket to do the food shopping.  In person.

It was sort of cool and maybe even a tiny bit interesting, although we're inno hurry to repeat the experience any time soon.

This weeks food revelation, quiche! It's so lush.

It so isn't.  Revolting.

Thursday 7th

So the real election today and our results were announced at school.  I managed the grand total of four votes!  The Tories won by a mile.

We walked down to the real Polling Station after tea so Mum and Dad could vote.

There was the loveliest old doggie ever waiting outside, his name was Fergus and he loved a fuss.

The polling station was well busy, mostly with people we knew from school.

Tilly's mum was even working in there!

Friday 8th

Robert came round for tea after school.  Xbox, Ipad, Top Gear Cards and pizza!

Saturday 9th

We had a trip out to a place called Alice Holt, as recommended by auntie Christine.

First impressions were good, there was a good playground with a little hut that had a small bench table inside it.  I decided it would be a great place to have our picnic.

Yeah, and it was, especially if you like having random small children sticking there heads in every minute or so to gawp at you.

There was a trail around the woods with a load of cool play structures dotted along the route:

Yeah, it broke up the walking for sure:

And on the other side was this rather well carved Gruffalo:

We also found some cool tree trunks that had fallen down over some pretty good sized dips:

But the best thing was the pond near the cafe, there were hundreds and hundreds of tadpoles bombing around the water.

Roller skating in the evening, we hadn't been for ages.

It was super busy though and they had run out of most sizes of rental skates, except mine which was lucky.

I spent pretty much the whole night zooming round holding dads hand, except for my race, which I won rather handsomely.

I had to duck out early this week as it was Frankies birthday, on the Wobsticle!  It was great fun, but did lack the drama of my party as the lifegaurds remained dry throughout.  Having said that they were great fun and wobbled it like mad to try and get us to fall off.

It was quite fun watching them upstairs with Evie once roller skating had finished.

Sunday 10th

An early start for a bike ride around Swinley forest with Dad.  We hadn't been for a while so we were both looking forward to it.  We set off at a good pace, which we managed to pretty much maintain for the whole trip (red trail and blue trail, 23km's in all).  We even managed to find the jump gulley this time, in fact, I can't believe we ever managed to miss it before!  I loved it, and Dad wad borderline impressive until someone much better turned up.  My real genius moment of the day though was stretching Haribo rings over my gloved fingers, so I could nibble one off on the move without having to stop.

So while they were enjoying themselves/tiring themselves out in the woods mum and I had been delegated the sunday lunch.  I love peeling and chopping, we also made a chocolate brownie for pud as well as the Yorkshire pudding batter.  Everything was a resounding success and was pretty much ready when the boys returned home.

Yeah that was impressive, which is more than can be said for the yorkshires:

Okay they were a bit flat maybe, but check that one out with the spikes either side, like some sort of 1950's Soviet satellite.

The aftenoon activity as chose by me was a trip to the river in Hungerford.  I've carping on about going here for weeks, since the first of the spring sunshine crept out from the winter murk.

Another ruddy walk then?

But it's so cool down there, even if the water was pretty cold for a paddle:

We lounged around on the blanket, listening to the radio.

And I climbed really high in the tree opposite, right out over the river.

We walked back along the canal and met a lovely old doggie.  He walked up to us quite confidently and then somehow seemed to instruct us using wise old dog mind tricks to make a fuss of him.

Yeah, it was really cute, it was like you are kids, you need to fuss me right now!

Monday 11th

Well we were all a bit surpised when Dad got up rather ill in the morning.

Yeah, not like him at all.  He had a fever and a bad leg...off to the doctors for him!

Not the best of starts for me in SATS week, I am a bit of a worryguts at these sort of times.

Especially with the first one being reading comprehension, safe to say, not my favourite subject.

After school dance was the can can and I loved it!  

By the time we got home Dad had been diagnosed with a leg infection and had taken to the sofa, with his leg up on a table.

With a course of what can only be described as horse tablets.

So that was good news, even if Mum having to step into the role of house chef probably wasn't......

Tuesday 12th

Dad still led up, struggling to get about.

Me having to do SATS Spag test, spelling, punctuation and grammar.

And Mum still cooking.

I think it's safe to say we all had a rubbish day.

Wednesday 13th

Things were on the up, I had mental Maths SATS today, much more my bag.

Dad was feeling marginally better.

Mum's cooking still hadn't poisoned anyone.

And team Kennet took place in beautiful evening sunshine, even though Dad opted to stay at home.

I did high jump again of course.

And I managed a third place in our long distance run, including the boys!

Thursday 14th

Last SATS, more maths, that will do for me.  Glad it's finally over.  I haven't reallly enjoyed it in all honesty.  Having said that, I think I've done okay on the whole.  The proof will be when the results come out I suppose.

Friday 15th

The great thing about Mum being at home at the moment is that she can come to all my class assemblies.  Todays focussed on the subject of the workings of the ear.  As usual I delivered my lines loudly and clearly audible.  I got to take Mum back to the classroom sfaterwards and got to show her my Jesus picture:

We were only supposed to be doing the crown, but it sort of took on a life of it's own and grew into the full face.

As a reward for our efforts with the SATS all week we watched a film (Planes, epic) and then had a class trip to the park for a play and a picnic.

Once we were home we got outvoted by the adults and had to watch a film that Ned had got for christmas called Gaurdians of the Galaxy.

I wasn't sure I wanted to see it really, but Mum and Dad did.

It was actually pretty cool.

Yeah, it was quite good.

But Mum and Dad totally loved it.

Saturday 16th

I spent day knocking about with Dylan.  We went to the park, we played Ipad, Xbox, Nerf and even a game of Jenga (pretty old school or what?) later on we went to Dylan's, he has a new kitten, it was soo cool.

I was off to a joint party at Northcroft, Lilly and Elouise, a joint affair on the bouncy stuff in the sports hall.

Fever pitched levels of excitement Saturday night for the visit of Nate!

And Alan, and Andy, with his new car (which we got to go around the block in when he arrived).

Yeah, we couldn't wait to see him again.

Alan was really cool, he let us get him out of his car seat,

Give him a cuddle, 

And even give him his milk!

He even sat at the table with us for a bit of a game of King of Tokyo:

Sunday 17th

Things were certainly looking up, Dad had re-taken control in the kitchen.

Sadly he was cooking a roast and not a pizza but hey ho,it was good he was on the mend.

In the afternoon it was Darcey's party at KD gymnastics.

We were the oldest kids there by miles, at the request of the birthday girl herself.

We loved it, and I don't think we made any of the little ones cry, unlike Owen.

We had a lovely time, we hope Darcey did too:

We couldn't believe she was four already.

Monday 18th

Well it was back to school, at least the SATS were over, only to be replaced by some sort of poetry drive, deep joy.

And I wasn't vaguley interested in after school dance club after the year sixes were put in charge of choreography, totally ignoring any of my suggestions.

We also had a visit from Anne,she had bought my birthday present and apologised for how late it was....it was certainly worth the wait.  How does a half hour driving lesson sound? Yeah, brilliant, i'm so excited and I can't wait to get behind the wheel!

Tuesday

Well sadly it was back to school time.

Yeah, it seemed like we'd been off for ages.

I handed my 'Adventure' project in, no one else seemed to though....

After the kerfuffle regarding badge week at gymnastics over the holidays I was glad to find out we were having a badge session for those that missed it last week due to being away.  I was very pleased with my 'Bronze Fitness' award, until Mum pointed out that i had already got a gold one for the same discipline last month.....

Wednesday

Not quite so warm and sunny at Team kennet tonight.

Nope, and I struggled with a stitch during running.

I seemed to have my high jump mojo from last time as well.

I'm sure we'll be back on form next time.

Friday

Went to Roberts after school for tea, well, ot turned out to be Pizza Hut, epic!  It was lovely, Robert had chips which he said he was going to share with me, before proceeding to douse them in vinegar.  What is wrong with him, revolting stuff.

So I got Mum and Dad to myself.  Hot dogs for tea (my new favourite) and then a trip to the park.  Here I am modelling my new 'show girl/eco warrior' look:

We did more Nerf practice and I laughed at mum and dad using the exercise equipment...they are so lame.

Saturday

A morning stroll up to Budgens.

Yeah, someone had apparently driven through the window of the newsagents next door, the windows were all boarded up but you could still see tyre marks on the floor inside.

We got back just in time for Andy to pick me up, we were going to watch Fulham play Middlesborough.  I was pretty excited to see a proper football match and between us we had a decent selection of sweets for the day.

In light of Ned's trip out, we had arranged Sasha to come and play for the afternoon.  We had a great time painting our nails, dressing up, and having a tea party in the pop up tent in the garden.

I arrived home full of excitement, despite everyone's warnings that Fulham would lose, they won, 4-3 in the end.  There was all sorts of drama, two penalties, a red card and lots of goals.  It was brilliant fun, I think Andy actually enjoyed it as well, which I understand is rare.

Andy stayed for tea, cool.

We had a game of Dixit and in a remarkable turn of fortune, I seemed to have picked up some form and won the game!

Once Ellis was in bed we had a game of Agricola, it went on for a while.  I narrowly lost out to Mum, Andy and Dad were miles behind.

Sunday

Urghhh, Sunday morning homework session, how drab.

Still, we decided to go swimming, haven't been for ages so 

I was dead excited.

I wasn't when we got to the Coral Reef and saw the massive queue.

So we decided to try Basingstoke instead.

This proved to be a great idea as it was very quiet, and the slides are brilliant.

And there's a 'proper pool' for more swimming orientated fun as well.  Shame I cut my foot on the floor....

We had a game of Dixit again after tea, once again I won but Mum seems to have taken over my mantle of being really awful at it.

Monday

After school Dance was back on again after a lengthy rest.  Our routine was cool, especially the freestyle section I worked on with Lilly.

And Quad kids had started again.  Mr Gilham had said I might not make the team this year, so I made sure I really went for it 100%.  There's certainly plenty of us at the session this time.

Mum and I fancied a walk after tea, so we wandered down to the City Playground.

I spent some quality time with the Ipad while Dad cut the grass.

We didn't know why, he's done ot once this year already....