Tuesday

Day off with Mum, and as we had a bit of a lazy morning we thought we'd have a fringe trim.  It went really well actually.

After lunch we went to pick Dad up from work and went to Legoland.  It was heaving, as busy as we'd ever seen it.  But we're Legoland experts so knew the things that wouldn't be busy, the Pirate boat for a start, we even got on one of the end rows.  We managed to get on the spinning spider easily too and of course got off feeling sick.  We also managed the knights quest and the wave runner which Mum totally loves and even managed to finish off with a go on the driving school.....not bad for a couple of hours!
We also got to add a little facial hair to Mia courtesy of a couple of stray bricks:

We had a wander around miniland too and took a couple of selfies:

We even managed to escape from the car park pretty easily without queing for hours.  We stopped off for a McDonalds onthe way home and were treated to a rather epic rainbow sisplay abovethe gloomy Calcot skies.
Wednesday
Dragon club day in our crazy mixed up summer holiday schedule.  Im not complaining though, it keeps it interesting to keep mixing things up.  I was Super Dragon for today...yes!!! 

water game on head.
I didn't want to leave when Dad came to pick us up, we were halfway through the film Jumanji!

Once Mum was home from work we hit Sainsbury's cafe for a Slush Puppie....lush.

Thursday
Mum was off with us today, nothing much happened really.  I helped her sort some packing out for holiday.  We did manage to play a few board games though which was nice.

Friday
Our last day at Dragon club!  We were both made Super Dragons as well, nice to go out on a high.  We had our last day riding home too, but as it had been wet for a while we gave the towpath a miss and stuck to the roads instead.

Once we were home we made ourselves comfy while Dad and then Mum raced around frantically packing our things and making our tea before we set off for Cornwall......I got as far as Bridgewater before I needed a wee which I thought was quite impressive.

Saturday

We had a lovely lie in while mum and Dad collected the Tesco order.  It wasn't long before we had a visit from Darcey whi had come down a whole day earlier than us with Auntie Christine, Uncle Ian, Auntie Trish and Laura.  How cool.  We were soon down the beach enjoying the sunshine:

After a good stint of surfing e tide had dropped far enough for us to get stuck into the rock pools for a spot of fishing.  Ned netted an absoloute monster specimen and squealed like anything because he was scared of it flapping about so Dad had to help him out.  We paraded it around the beach but I was pretty gutted I hadn't caught it.

We put Dad to work, digging and building sand castles, he loves it:

There was snuggle time too which was nice:

Kimi and Marny appeared later in the afternoon too, even more excitement.

So a rather good day on the beach, so a bit of a shame that it was marred by Ned and I squabbling....mostly over nothing.  But hey, whats more important, everyone having a nice time or us to arguing over something trivial?

Sunday

So we headed to the golf course for lunch, it was nice to get everyone out together:

There was more cuddle time which is always welcome:

It's a shame it took so long for the meal to come out but at least it gave Ned and I more time to snipe at each other........

down the beach again in the afternoon, lovely.  The waves were still good too, bonus!

Monday

Another day of locely sunshine, so down to the beach once again.

Darcey was having a lovely time being my shadow and I loved it too.

In the evening we had a barbecue on Kimi and Marny's posh caravan decking overlooking the sea.  Guest of honour was Connie who came over with John and Sarah and Mark and Amy.  It was quite a gathering.  Teh real highlight though was Dad's rather excellent idea of having smores on the barbecue once the meat was all cooked and eaten.  He got the idea when we were in America and we sat around toasting marshmallows to a delicious soft consistency before sandwiching them between a couple of biscuits (digestives were best i reckon).

There was of course a side order of Ellis and Ned bickering to help grind people down.

Tuesday

A walk? To the next beach along Portcothan? Yeah, cool, especially as Dad and Andy had already dropped our car off over there so we wouldn't have to walk back!

The scenery was lovely and some of the inaccessible beaches in coves down a cliff face looked amazing, if only we had a boat....,

The last stretch of path down to the beach was in no way as scary as someone else had thought: 

We settled on the sand for our picnic and some Pringles sillyness:

Before making a making a wishing well out of slates:

We went back to the car, via the ice cream shop and got changed into our wetsuits, grabbed thesnorkels  and the dinghy and hit the water. 

 It's brilliant at low tide with a big lagoon, interesting rock formations and lovely clear water to splash about in.  

The snorkels were a waste of time as there wasn't a fish to be seen anywhere.  We made our way out to sea to a small rock outcrop we'd seen people diving from and fancied a go  ourselves.  Dad and Andy were loving it but we both got really nervous for some reason, it took ages before we finally jumped.

I let Dad have a go in the Dinghy:

We had a load of arguments to spice things up too of course.

We were back to Treyarnon in time to catch up with the others who were on the beach enjoying the sunshine.  The waves had died off a bit so it was nice to just go for a swim and take the dinghy out. Having said that when the tide was really low a weird thing happened.  It got deeper and deeper aswe waded out, then, all of a suddenit started getting shallower again.  So shallow it was barely up to my waist!  It felt so weird to bepaddling so far from the shore.  Another welcome side affect was that there were surfable waves over this sandbar it was epic!

We had a fun game of cricket too, spreading quite a way accross the beach.

Wednesday

The weather had turned a bit grotty, so we tried to make the best of it with a trip to Annes Cottage surf shop.  I spent some of my birthday money on a lime green trendy skateboard with light up wheels, much to Dad's disgust.  Ha, i loved it.  It was dry enough to try it out back at the campsite, it was pretty tricky but an older chap came over and offered a couple of really good tips, I was soon rolling along on it very nicely!  We spent the rest of the day watching Big Hero Six on DVD and playing Jungle Speed....my favourite!

Oh, and we made sure we fitted in some more arguing of course.

We also bid a fond farewell to Darcey, I had great fun with her and hope shen enjoyed herself, even if it wasn't as good as Portugal in her eyes.

Thursday

Another gloomy day, we had planned on going go karting but that was deemed a bad idea as it was chucking it down, but it was dry enough to venture out to St Merryn park for some basketball, scootering in the skate bowl and a go on the park:

The best see saw ever!

Here I an on my ultra cool skateboard:

When we got back we went for a rockpool session over at Constantine:

We didn't catch much:

But it was a lovely explore and I got to do my very best gnome impression:

We said goodbye to Kimi and Marny today as they headed for home, which was a shame.

More arguments? Of course.

Friday

Well it was far from tropical but it was dry enough to at least try go karting.  When we got there it was still wet on the track abd there were plenty of people spinning on the tight hairpin.....and it looked fun!  We decided it was a great idea, get signed in and kitted up.  There wasn't much of a queue so we were soon on and raring to go.  The formation lap was a pretty cautious affair but we were soon roaring the circuit.  I did really well and didn't spin once, unlike Ned and Dad.

Here I am taking one of the trickier corners that caught plenty of others out:

By the time we had got back the weather had got worse, but someone decided we should get our wetsuits on and go down the beach anyway......good call!  The low tide swimming pool was there in all it's splendour....with hardly anyone in it except a few hardy souls leaping from the rock.  It would be rude not to join them really.  We had a great time splashing about in there as we always do when we make the effort.  When we'd had enough we scrambled up the rocks rather than climb down into the rising tide that was swirling around below.  It was a good call as the climb up was surprisingly easy.  It was the grass and mud at the top on the level ground that was really treacherous though, we we're slipping and sliding all over the place on the rain soaked ground.

New blood arrived in the shape of Abi and Faye with Nick and Carol, how cool.

We also had another visit from Connie in the evening, the weather improved and we went for a walk down the beach.  It was great fun, Connie went mad for her tennis ball and Abi and Faye were super excited about having a paddle and doing some rock climbing.

We also got to congratulate John on his GCSE results.  They were so good he can do his first choice course in Newquay, working towards being a zoo keeper, how cool is that?

There was of course some more arguing.  Of course there was.

Saturday

A slightly better day today weather wise, still no improvement on the arguong front of course.

Another beach day but this time with Abi and Faye.

Dad was desperate to dig:

So I commissioned him for a mermaid:

We surprised ourselves by how good it actually turned out.

We spent ages making dams accross the rockpools, paddling and of course falling out with each other.

We also fitted in a rather lengthy game of kingball which the Hardy's seemed to really enjoy and drew quite a crowd at one point.

We hadn't got our wetsuits as we'd originally only come down for some digging but we couldn't resist getting in with Abi for some serious wave jumping and splashing about, hence my rather soggy dress:

It was not as warm as a wetsuit I can tell you

Sunday

Our last day, so we had to make sure we got some more arguing in.

The sun was out though and it was a lovely day.  Once Andy had made some running repairs to the caravan (it developed a bit of a leak during the previous evenings thunder storm) we hit the surf for our last session.  It was busy, really busy but we managed to find space enough for some good waves and we loved it.

We had lunch at the youth hostel, overlooking the bay bathed in glorious sunshine as has become so ething of a custom for us:

We packed up our stuff and cleaned up the caravan and had enough time to make a final wander around the Constantine loop before setting off for home, via Bridgewater services for a piddle stop.

Monday

So Dad back to work, Ned off to summer school at Park House leaving Mum and I at home.  We got stuck into the washing after holiday and a trip to Tesco to stock up on provisions (Hot Dogs for lunch and Roast Chicken for tea....my favourites) and stationery for my return to school.  I can't wait to go back to school......

Tuesday

Another day off with Mum, not much doing, but we like it like that sometimes.

We did go for a walk with Dad at lunchtime though.  We met him during his work lunch break and had a lap of the housing estate over there.  Turned into a bit of a nature walk as it goes, i'm really into blackberrying at the moment:

This great big dragonfly must have been too!

Dad went back to work and we carried on into town.  We went to the library where I collected my medal for finishing the reading challenge.  Unlike Ned though I didn't give up reading books after reaching my goal and got a couple more to keep me in reading material.  We carried on to the shops where I got a new fleecey cardy that I needed and a panda patterned coat that according to Dad I certainly did not.  It's so cool though......

It was badge week at gymnastics.  I gained a bronze vault award this week which I was very pleased with.

Wednesday

Dragon club day to day and as luck would have it, it was wheelie Wednesday.  A day themed for all things wheeled so it was rather excellent we had our bikes with us! The highlight of the day were the bike races that Ned and I did very well at.  He even managed to get the crowd chanting my name during my races.  He also gave me a few tips regarding gear selection which proved to be very helpful. I headed for the indoor activities in the afternoon, the main draw being den making involving draping sheets and blankets over the pool table and any other bits of furniture we could drag near enough. We created a right old rabbit warren in the end and it took quite a while for me to get out when Dad came to pick us up.

Thursday

We paid Nate a visit (and Hayley of course)

He's still proper cute.  He's a lot more interested in the world now which is cool.

Afterwards we went to Waitrose for a few bits, Panda came along for the ride:

He caused quite a stir!

Once Dad was home we headed for the seaside.  We did a spot of browsing in the surf shop in East Wittering and in a shocking turn of events I didn't buy anything.  We checked out the sea, but the waves were pounding into the pebble bank with such ferocity that no one really fancied a surf.  We carried on to West Wittering instead, the sea was a lot calmer and we enjoyed climbing the dunes and wandering along having a paddle.  We worked up a bit of an appetite in all that sea air so had hot dogs cooked on the camping stove:

We rounded the trip off with a game of boules.  I really got my eye in and played very well.

Friday

Another day at Dragon club, excellent.

We had a bit of a sports day, loads of tennis and what have you.  In the afternoon we watched a film and ate freshly made popcorn.  The day was topped of by Ned going in the stocks.  That'll teach him for being super dragon again.

After tea we took a walk up to Wash Common park again to shoot some hoops and throw a bit of vortex.

Saturday

The weather forecast was looking good so we rounded a few of the gang up, packed a picnic and went to the pool.  Kimi and Marny were already there when we got there and were loving it.  Later on Nate turned up for his first ever trip to a swimming pool.  We got to watch him take his first dip, how cool is that? He seemed to really like it too, well, he didn't burst into tears or anything anyway.

Finlay and Millie came along in the afternoon too, it was a great day out.

We went home and watched a load of rubbishy saturday night game shows, Mum tried to snuggle up with me but I was such a fidget I drove her mad.

Sunday

Not much happened today, which Dad wasn't happy about the grumpy bum.  There were quite a few disagreements which was a bit of a shame.

We did go out for a walk around the chase in the afternoon though.

Monday

Double Aunties on duty......and Darcey around, how cool.  Even better news, we were going Bowling.  We love bowling and hardly ever seem to go.  

The candy floss machine was a big hit:

As was the trip to Pizza Hut afterwards, could today be any more epic?  Well, yeah, with a trip to Sports Direct to buy a new giant pink tennis ball that i've been coveting for months seemed to confirm it could.  We had a lovely day, thanks ver much Auntie Trish and Auntie Christine.

It put us in such a good mood Ned and I didn't even argue when we got home.  Remarkabke at the moment.

Right, things are changing round here as of this week, i'm taking over.  With Ned on his way to secondary school and a lot more independence we can't really keep up with what he's up to these days.  You can find him under the name of 'Nednoodle95' on Instagram if you're down with the kids enough to want to look him up but frankly I wouldn't bother unless you want to see screen grabs of computer games, pictures of fast cars or pictures of him down the park with the girls.  He's had a good run on here though, including three years of it all to himself before I came along.  I can now have those three years back.  I'm sure we'll cover any real land mark events in his life for the foreseeable future......

Tuesday

So, here we go then, flying solo.  We'll kick off with a day off with Mum.  The first day of the telly and Ipad ban being lifted and it was a right binge on the previously banned devices.  We had a nice walk up to  Sainsbury's by Park House, Mum and I are getting quite into our walks.

When we got home I got my head into my library books and managed to finish the summer reading challenge.  Pretty good going, thats only two weeks.  We took the books back to the library by bike of course, we're really racking up the miles lately.

Gymnastics carries on through the holidays, the advantage being that with not many turning up we got to choose whatever we wanted to do.  I chose bars obviously, loved it!

I arranged my TY toys when I got home, got quite a collection going on:

Although there's always room for more.....

Wednesday

Our first visit of the summer to Dragon club, so we were a little bit tentative.  That went put of the window pretty much straight away, it was great to be back, there was even a boy there who remembered me from nursery.  It was sport day as luck would have it.  We had all sorts to do, including a dressing up race and an obstacle race.  The high Light was designing the team mascot though. Our team settled on a dog/dolphin hybrid creature, like you do.  Dad picked us up and we biked home.....more biking!

Team kennet in the evening, much like gymnastics turnout is low over the holidays.  Suits me fine, we get loads more goes and loads more coaching.  I did really well at long jump this week, the coaches were impressd too and commented that we had a real long jumper on our hands.

Thursday

I've been desperate to go blackberry picking for ages so we gave it a go with Mum in the morning.....we didn't find many so headed to Cobbs farm for some strawberry picking instead:

Lovely, lovely strawberries.

We had a quiet afternoon, and when Ned and Dad went to Tidworth on the bikes Mum and I went to the park.  We took the vortex and the tape measure and I finally hit my 20 metre target!  Brilliant, thats a trip to JJ's in the bag then.  A load of my friends were also down there including Jess and Tilly which was good, we had a great time it was good to catch up!

Friday

Another day at Dragon club, and a friday too which is always great fun.  It was nature day featuring bug hunts and all the rest of it.  Best of all though the face paints were out.....and not confined to just faces, I had a lovely, entirely pink arm when Dad came to pick us up.

Camping was on the agenda so when we got home it was all hands to the pump to get things sorted.  We hit the road, planning on going to the Gower Peninsula in Wales for a bit of surf action.  Sadly the M4 had other ideas....the traffic was horrific and progress was very slow indeeed.  It became pretty clear that we'd never get to Wales in time for the 9pm pitching deadline so we turned back for home.  I was very, very upset indeed.  But all was not lost, Mum was frantically Googling on her phone and managed to get a phone number for a nearby campsite that looked pretty good.  She gave them a ring and the man at the other end said they had just had a cancellation....what a result!  It wasn't easy to find initially so we stopped at a pub to ask directions.  the bloke Mum asked seemd to be some sort of local tour guide and gave her plenty of information about how lovely the campsite was, local towns to visit and where to get a good meal.  The place was called Stowford Manor Farm, just outside of Bradford Upon Avon and as far as I was concerned it was a little bit of paradise.  A lovely field, a river, a load of rope swings and an old war bunker to explore, what could be better?

We got set up in record time, I think the daylight helped.  We were soon tucked up in bed, we've decided that it's time we all had our own bedrooms in the tent now too, so Ned took the one next to Mum and Dad and I took what was previously the storage room downt the other end next to Andy.  Bearing in mind the time of year it was a pretty cold night, but I was wrapped up nice and warm and slept very well.

Saturday

It was lovely to wake up to the sound of the river trickling by, and after I got pretty much every change of clothes I bought with me wet, I finally put my wetsuit on for a paddle:

The swing was great fun:

Snuggling was very agreeable of course:

We made our way into Bradford on Avon for lunch, it was quite a lively sort of place with loads of weddings seemingly going on.  We had a nice lunch in a cafe then headed back to the campsite for some pudding.

We took a wander along the river to the Farleigh River Swimming club, the oldest in the country and possibly the world:

it was just a stretch of river with a weir at the end.  But in addition there was a variety of steps to get back out and a platform to jump from:

Andy was first in of course, then Dad, then Me, Ned and then Mum". It was cold, i'm not going to lie about that but it was seriously good fun.

Here's my splash, Dad's trigger finger on the camera wasn't up to much:

The best thing of the weekend was provided by mother nature.  Weird little sticky thistle bud things.  They were in abundance and stuck to anything you threw them at.  I harvested millions of them to throw at everyone and thought it was the best thing ever.  We sabotaged Mum when she visited the toilet:

And got her good and proper:

This escalated to a pretty much full on war accross the field which only came to a halt because we were laughing so much.

Barbecue time, which just so happened to coincide with a short but pretty heavy downpour....oh well.

Once it had cleared up it was a bit of al fresco Yahtzee:

Under a rainbow that you can just about make out (it looked better in real life):

And then it was bedtime:

Sunday

Andy and I hatched a plan to go river wading, to see how far downstream we could get:

It got pretty deep and I wasn't prepared to carry on, so I made my way back to the bank.  He carried on though, and made it all the way to the swiming club area!  

I freshened up in the shower, the showers were pretty cool too, they were in an old cattle shed with the original cobbles still on the floor.  It was all hands to the deck packing up again after that and we got it done in record time.  We packed the tent away without removing the rooms or groundsheets.....lets hope it goes up okay next time?

We had lunch in Bradford on Avon along the canal.  We'd spotted a place the day before (as remcommended by mums pub tour guid bloke).  It was pretty busy but there were tables available on the boat that belonged ot the pub moored up alongside:

How cool is that?  It was cosy inside, if a bit wobbly as other boats passed by from the nearby lock:

We wandered along the canal, saw loads of cute doggies out for a walk and found a park to play in for a bit.  

It took no time at all to come home, especially compared to Wales or our usual Croyde so that was certainyl a welcome bonus.

We snuggled up on the sofa and watched an animal programme with a funny man called Julian Clary when we got in, perfect.

So well done Mum for saving the weekend, it was the best camping place ever and I can't wait to go back!

Monday

A day with Auntie Christine and Darcey, and despite the overcast weather we went ot the outdoor pool!

When we arrived we were the only ones there and had the whole place to ourselves.  Darcey loved it, for that matter so did Auntie Christine, she hadn't been there for a while and was quite impressed I think:

We had a walk after tea up to Sainsbury's garage to pick up a few things and Ned got to try his cashpoint card for the first time which was rather exciting and pretty cool.