Tuesday
Another day with Auntie Chrisitne and Darcey.
We went to see the Charlie Brown film at the cinema, Darcey and I liked it, no one else seemed to?
Then it was on to The Hatchet for lunch:

Lovely as usual.
Next up, a trip to the church....how very seasonal!  It was surprisingly good too, we made christmas decorations to take home (personalised for the lucky recipients) and got to dress up for the nativity scene:

Then back to Auntie Christines for a few games of Monkey Bingo when Mum and Dad came to get us....Ned kept on winning.

We dropped dad off at the pub for his work christmas meal and headed for Tesco and home, only to realise that Mum didn't have a door key.  We had to go back to the pub and get his, I think he was a little bit surprised to see us back again!

Wednesday
So a day at home with Mum now she's finished work for the year, for the first time ever.  How lovely, i'm so excited she changed her job and she will be off all over Christmas.  We had a lovely morning doing bits around the house and palying with my guitar.  I'm feeling very musical at the moment and am often fashioning drumkits from household objects.  Robert came round to play with Ned, so that was the telly taken over by Xbox.  We went slightly stir crazy in the end and ventured out to the park:

Dad met us there and I showed him some of my crazy moves before we headed home.
After tea we went out in the car for our grand tour of domestic christmas lights, the winner had to be up on the Greenham Estate, the whole house was covered and they had a garden full of inflatibles to back it up.  We got very exciteable in the car it has to be said.....

Thursday
Christmas eve had finally arrived, we had a quiet morning in our dressing gowns.  

It was a really wet day, so wet that i noticed the road out the front of the house had filled with water, as high as the kerbs pretty much.  Mum and I left the house to see what the cause was, we thought it might have been a broken water main or something.  Turns out one of the drains around the corner on the main road was blocked with leaves.  I rushed back to the house, grabbed a sturdy broom and headed back out.  I cleared the leaves from the grate and the water that was coursing down the hill from the heavy rain started to diappear down the rather than running into our street.  A man from a couple of doors up came out to help and we had a nice chat while we saved the whole streets christmas!

Dad got home earlier than we thought he would from work, so that was good.  It no doubt contributed to our early peak of excitement it has to be said.

We had a bit of cooking to do, mum and I had already made two Oreo bases for our rich chocolate tarts and managed to clear most of the mess up.  We made the topping, sorted out the baileys creme brulee, made thousands of lovely meringues with the leftover egg whites and headed off out to the Craven Arms pub.  Quite a light workload this year being as we weren't doing christmas dinner.  

Ned certainly got into the spirit of it all:

Loads of us were out, Kimi and Marny, Abbie and Faye, Finlay and Millie and Nate, as well as their respective adults and Andy and Chris and Kirsty.  Quite a turnout.  The weather had finally cleared up a bit so we spent most of the afternoon out in the garden on the playground, although I came in frequently to give Nate a cuddle.

It really was a lovley afternoon and the proper start to our festivities.

Like all good pub trips we rounded it off with a trip to the kebab van, even though it was only 6pm.  I had a lovely pitta bread filled to the brim with chips and cucumber.

We sat and watched telly but there wasn't much on really.

It was time for final preparations, the Santa sign was put into the lawn (very easy this year after all the rain, no need for a brick!)   Dad was sure he could hear the soundy of distant jingling bells, we listened really intently and we could too!  We sprinkled the reindeer food over the drive, completing the outside tasks before heading in and laying out the refreshements:

We headed off to bed, excited, but able to nod off in plenty of time for Santa's visit.

Friday

Christmas day was finally here, how exciting.  We got up at a reasonable time and even better Ned and I woke up at about the same time meaning we could get stuck into the stockings on Mum and Dads bed:

We love the stockings, as Ned says it's like the starter before a nice meal.

We moved on for the downstairs onslaught.....as usual, we weren't disappointed.  I mean, giant sized TY's:

And a proper full sized, full featured keyboard:

Amongst a whole load of other stuff, the most exciting being a whole box set of holly webb books as well as some diary of a wimpy kid ones.

Ned was seriously pleased with his Iphone 5s too.

He even bought me a present, with his own money and everything, how lovely he can be when he wants to.  He got me a mini handbag sized umbrella, in leopard print, awesome!

We went to Alan and Hayleys for lunch, or should I say Nate's now?

It was lovely, the lunch was very nice indeed and the company was excellent.  How exciting to share Nates first Christmas with him.  He seemed to enjoy odd bits and pieces of the christmas dinner too.

Presents after lunch, Nate loved what we got him:

We had a game or two of Ned's Mr and Mrs game which was highly entertaining.  Hayley and I paired up for one of the games and we did really well.

We came home for tea and left a very tired looking Alan to get over the trauma of the day.

Saturday

Boxing day then, a quiet start going through our presents and feeling truly grateful that mum didn't have to go to work as she would have done if she was still at Camps.

Fortunatley though the peace and quiet was broken by the Flacks, complete with GG and of course Auntie Trish...how cool.  More awesome presents, thanks very much.  Board games, cool penguin cakes with a face inside and lots of laughs.  Thanks so much for coming, it really made it feel like Christmas to see so many friends and family over three days.

Sunday

We had arranged to meet Anne and Mike as well as Nate, Alan and Hayley for lunch in the Hatchet.  We got a bit of shopping in town done first while Anne and Mike snagged us a lovely table by the window.  We are still loving the hatchet and had yet another hot dog dinner in there.  There were yet more presents (a leather biker jacket for me, it's awesome) and cuddles with Nate, brilliant.

Andy came round for tea in the evening, we introduced him to Mum's cool new card game, Sushi Go and a few goes on my new One Night Werewolf game.

Monday

One of the cool things about everyone being off of over Christmas was the oppurtunity to sneak a few days away in.  We explored all sorts of various options but nothing seemed quite such a good idea as going back to the cottage we stayed in at Easter in Norfolk.
We loaded up and headed east, arriving at the horse sanctuary we had to rush around last time in plenty of time to have a proper visit.
It was pretty muddy, so it was a good job we didn't bother changing into our wellies and just left them in the car.....
Anyway, it turns out i'm something of a horse whisperer, I managed to get pretty much all of them to come over to the fence for some loving from the remostest corners of their fields.
The donkeys though were especially cute and soft and worthy of sepcial attention:

We stayed long enough to have a proper walk around this time before heading back to the car and making our way to the cottage.  Having been stayed there already we knew where we going.  When we arrived there was a lovely christmas tree up, with a selelction box each underneath for Ned and I, how cool.  We helped unpack the car, got everything put away and had a quick chat with the owner before the real reason we came.....hot tub time!
It was so lovely in there, good to be back!

We got dried off, had something to eat and then had a Sushi go session.  I loved it and am really into it now....we're learnign quite a lot about sushi too, not too sure I would actually want to eat it in real life though.....

Dad was uncharacteristically tired, he didn't even play and fell asleep on the sofa the lightweight!

Tuesday

A long morning session in the hot tub, the sun was out, barely a cloud in the sky and a glorious day in amongst all the wet, murky weather.  It was so lovely.
We couldn't stay in there all day though, so we took a trip to Holkham beach on the advice of a lady at Dad's work.  We didn't have high hopes after our previous visits to the regions coastal spots but this place was quite a revelation.  There was a long row of brightly painted beach huts backing onto woodlands and then miles and miles of sand before you reached the sea.  It was low tide.....very low tide!  We had a lovely picnic on the dunes, threw some vortex and then headed off for the waters edge....an hour or so later we got there:

I celebrated with a cartwhel or two.

We walked back as the sun started to go down and before the tide came in.
We went back towards the woodlands, it was like the Gruffalo's woods, well, I thought it was anyway!

When we got back to the cottage it was full of the smells of a roasting turkey....Mum had conquered the oven timer!  So we had a full on christmas dinner followed by a rather disappointing pudding....a Birds Trifle.  Apparently Mum and Dad thought we would love it....ummm, hello?  It was pretty grim.  Good job we had a few of the seemingly everlasting meringues we made for back up.
Once ating was done and dusted we had another Sushi Go session, this time with full participation.

Wednesday

Another session in the hot tub, is there a better way to start the day?
We took a trip into Norwich, once we had actually got to the correct park and ride for the city centre rather than th euniversity or hospital.
We were front of the queue for the bus which meant we could pick our seats:

Epic front row secured!  Brilliant, we loved the trip into town from our vantage point.
The main reason for our trip was to satisfy Ned with a Pizza Hut visit.  We got a cool booth seat right in the window and enjoyed watching everyone walking past, trying to spot as many new christmas shoes as we could.  We went for the buffet option and fed our faces good and proper.
We did a little shopping afterwards, spent some of out christmas money.  I got myself another TY (obviously) and a Little Live Pets Turtle that I thought would be great in the hot tub.

I was right, it was brilliant, swimming about under it's own steam, walking from the side into the water.  I loved it.  We stayed in the hot tub for ages.....I reckon I clocked up two hours?  Wrinkly prune for sure.
We had another Sushi Go session afterwards, perfect.

Thursday

Our last day, we had to be out by 10 so made sure we made the most of it by getting the car packed up, skipping breakfast and getting in the tub.  We stayed there until 9:30, Ned and Dad eeked it out until 9:45!  Then it was off to Mcdonalds for a sausage and pancake breakfast, a very rare treat. My hot chocolate turned out to be coffee, but we got it changed, even though there was less than half a cup left by the time we'd all tried it to validate my claim.
It was time to hit the road and head home again.  Out first ever christmas mini holiday done and dusted.  We'd had a great time and Norfolk once again delivered plenty of sunshine and blue skies while the rest of the country seemingly got subjected to sustained downpours.
When we got home we had a bit of a slump and a play with our christmas stuff for the afternoon.
But what with it being the last day of the year it was party time!  Round to Kimi and Marny's then, along with Abi and Faye.  The grown ups sat around a table grazing and playing some boring looking game while we made ourselves busy.  I overcame my allergic reaction to the cats with a combination of piriton, pringles, cheesy balls and Oreo's.  We made it easily to midnight and celebrated with a brief interlude of party poppers, Happy New year everyone!

Friday

So we didn't get home until nearly 2am, meaning a lie in was definitley in order.  I surpassed myself by managing to last until 1 in the afternoon.  Even then Mum woke me up as she was worried I would stay in bed so long that I would have to go back again almost instatly if she left me too long.
We watched the film Inside Out which was really good, had something to eat and then watched Billionaire Boy on TV.  We all loved that one.  Then it was time for bed again....what an exciting start to 2016!

Saturday

So weirdly it was Saturday, the weekend?  Who knew after such a long time of not knowing what day it actually was?
We went to town for Ned to get a well overdue haircut.  While he was waiting I went shopping with Dad, got myself a couple of Mini Zelf's.
Ned had gone to Legends for his haircut so he thinks he's proper cool now.
When we got home Alan and Hayley dropped Nate off for us to look after, how exciting!
We loaded him up in the car and took him to a family gathering at Auntie Christines in the afternoon, a last hurrah for Christmas, everyone was there:

As always, it was great fun and so lovely to see everyone.
The present game was hilarious of course although I sadly didn't win the crate this year.

Sunday
I had another reasonable lie in, by the time I got up the decorations were all down and the mammoth task of extracting the christmas tree was about to get underway.  It was quite an operation, with meticulous planning put into it.  It couldn't stop the epic tide of pine needles though, they were everywhere.  Ned and I set about trying to get the bulk of them up using a dustpan and brush and a cardboard box, we did a very good job too.  There was only minimal hoovering to be done afterwards.
The rest of the day was very low key.

Monday
Dad had to go back to work which was a shame.  We had another day off with Mum and reverted to our usual positions, slumped on the sofa with the telly or the Ipad or the Kindle....We eventually left the house to go to Tesco, Ned needed hair product and we all needed some food as apparently we can't survive on selection boxes alone?

So, thats us back up to date, we hope everyone had as good a Christmas as we did, I ranked it the ' Best one ever'  Thanks to all our friends and family for making it so brilliant!
Have a couple of videos.....

Christmas video:


Norfolk Video:

Tuesday

Final Christmas play rehearsals were not going well, three people were off school so their places needed to be filled.  Added to that everyone was stood in the wrong places at the wrong times during the show and strees leveles were rising!  And all this in front of the lower school. Still, as they say, it'll be alright on the night.It was a pleasant enough afternoon so took the pavement with my scoooter and cones and then the skateboard for a bit, I haven't lost it!  Despite not using it since we were on holiday.  I don't think Mum and Dad were too pleased with my choice of footwear though....my nice leather, lace up school shoes.

In other wheel based news, I sold my old 16" wheeled bike!  I hadn't used it in over a year and Dad had cleaned it up really nicely.  The lady that came round took one look and said she would take it there and then.  Easy sale.  She paid on her phone and Mum saw the money ping into her account on the Ipad.  How very modern.  The downside was that I couldn't get my hands on the cold, hard cash and blitz it on TY toys....

Wednesday

No team Kennet this week, as it was time to perfomr the school play, in the evnings for the Mums and Dads.  I wasn't particulalrly nervous and skipped off down the school after tea to get into my costume.  It went okay on the whole, even if someone did speak over my lines when they got their timing all wrong.  I was buzzing when Mum, Dad and Ned came to pick me up afterwards.

Thursday
Christmas lunch day at school, so it was on with the Christmas jumper, Christmas tights (that I got told off for wearing last week as they aren't strictly uniform) and on with the hats we make every year.

So that was all great, shame about the meal though, it wasn't very nice at all.....
The last performance of our Christmas play, The tale of La Befana, based on a traditional Italian folk story. Mum, Dad and Ned were coming toinght so we all walked in together.  Well, Mum and Dad walked, Ned and I heelied!
The show went much better than the first night so that was a relief.  It was cool seeing Mum, Dad and Ned there, especially as they sat at the end of the centre aisle so I got to pass by them very closely during the bits where we wandered around the audience, they loved our candlelit procession around while singing silent night in Italian!!  I got a candle to carry both nights too (not a real one sadly, one of those flickery battery ones which was still seriously cool).  There were plenty of comedy moments in the script and plenty of adaptations of welll known songs (Lady Madonna and the Proclaimers 500 miles being the real highlight).
I got to deliver my lines without any interruptions too tonight which was a relief.

The feedback was good, especially for our singing which was so clear, lous and even in tune!
We stayed on afterwards to help tidy up all the chairs, a task made much easier in Heely's. We thanked Mr Percy and Miss Newman for all their efforts on the way out, I think it had been quite a challenge for them.

Friday
My school photo finally came home, despite me losing it between being given it at the end of the day and meeting Dad in the playground.  We retraced my steps but couldn't see it anywhere.  It had already been handed into the office, after a positive ID check we took it home:

Ned had done food tech, Macaroni Cheese!  So we had said we would go and collect hime rather than him riding home with a large pyrex dish full of dinner on his back.  The problem was that Mum still had the car!  We offered to walk up and meet him, so I donned my Heely's and engaged talk mode all the way up the hill.  Somehow, we managed to miss him as we took his usual route round the back of Sainsburys rather then the other way past Budgens.  He did the opposite.  We couldn't find him and he wasn't answering his phone as usual.  He did finally ring, by which point he was already half way down the hill.  Heelying back down the hill was a lot better than up it but he still beat us home.

It was film night at school, Minions, which i've already seen, but you know, it's film night isn't it?  It was a good night, Andy came to pick me up as Mum and Dad had gone out Mums work christmas party.  We had a great night, if maybe a little late to bed......

Saturday
Christmas Tree day!  Leaving the house was an emotional experience, lots of whingeing and moaning and not doing anything that was requested of us.  By the time we had got to fifth road in the car we had escalated to arguing and fighting so Dad decided he wasn't prepared to get the tree at all.  We went back home, with much more wailing and protestation.  Ned went off to bed and I sulked on the sofa.
Things cooled down a bit, we had a civilised lunch together so tree shopping was back on, much to our relief.  We went to Yattendon and even though it was pretty busy there were loads of trees on offer once we had negotiated the wealth of decorations and trinkets on sale.  We had been a little disappointed with the size of trees on offer for the last few years as we hadn't got the cherub on top even close to the cieling.  With this in mind we were on a mission to get the biggest one Dad would agree too:

We did very well on that front, it was massive.  Even the man that worked there that helped us bag it commented on what a lovely tree it was and how we would be back tomorrow for a refund and a smaller one.  We got it home and cleared a space for it, took another look and then cleared even more space for it.  It went in the bucket easily enough and we pulled it into place.  It needed some more space, so the sofa got pulled right up to the door into the hallway, taking that out of comission for the next few weeks...oh well, a small price to pay if you ask me.  We set about decorating it and for the first time I can remember we didn't have any decorations left in the box to speak of in the end:

it was my turn to put the cherub on top, which was not the easiest operation it has to be said.  Eventually Dad hoisted me up while stood on a chair and held me aloft like superman.  I was not at all happy with this We sat back and enjoyed the warm glow of the fairty lights, very happy with our efforts.

Auntie Trish came round to babysit in the evning, yeah, Mum and Dad going out wo nights running, outrageous!!

We had a lovely evening, she loved our mega tree!

Sunday
Up after a modest lay on for the Berkshire under 11 sportshall athletics competition.  Our team of little 8 year olds against them big old 11 yrpear olds....i did okay on the while, my running is still a bit lacking in terms of outright speed but I doubled my distance for the foam javelin compared to our last competition.  Looking at Dad here you would think he was the on putting in the effort rather than just being a convenient, portable sofa:

Our little team came, ummmm, last on the day.  Hey ho, we've got another two years before it really counts.

We were all a bit tired and irritable on Sunday night, so there were early nights all round.

Monday
It was the week of our Christmas dance routine,the highlight of which. According to Mum was our human sleigh arrangement.

After tea it was a surprise visit (for us anyway) to see Hayley.  A most fortunate forgetting of Hayley's birthday present by Mum and Dad when they went out on Saturday night for her birthday lead to a Nate visit!  He was of course super cute and we got him laughing away as he laid on his mat!

Tuesday

It was badge week at gymnastics and I achieved bronze status for apparatus!  Get me, another one for my cool file I keep them in.

Wednesday

Neds last rugby match of the season was a rather spirited affair. Nhe mad a fantastic run the whole length of the pitch to score a fantastic try, only for it to be disallowed by the ref who was so far away he couldn't see that he touched the ball down over the line.  He was devastated.  There were like loads of high tackles from Trinity which is against the rules by all accounts? This riled the Park House lot up rather so the tackles inreased in ferocity, ultimatlely ending up in one of Neds team who is pretty much as tall as Dad getting high tackled and what can only be described as a fight breaking out.  I thought it was seriously exciting stuff, even if Ned wasn't involved.

Straight from the rugby club to Team Kennet again for me......I'm glad the rugby season has finished.

Thursday

Another day rehearsing the play, adding to Mr Percy's stress levels.  After school Mum and I went to Best One to get ourselves some sweets for tomorrows Panto trip.....

Friday

Panto trip with the school, Mum got an invite too as she's been a reading helper.  Fortunatley I didn't have to sit with her, she sat with the other invited grown ups.  I sat with Harrison, like it was the back row of the cinema, all cuddled up.  It was great fun, the loud thing i've ever been involved in...so much shouting and screaming and when we all had to stamp it was like an earthquake!  Mr Percy got a lot of stick from the Dame character too.

In the evening we went with the Halfords for a meal at the newish pub up by Tesco.  Sadly the lovely Hartley wasn't allowed to come with us.  We walked from their house all the way along Monks Lane which gave plenty of oppurtunity for larking about with the boys, it was great fun, we all know how much I like a walk!  The meal took a little while to arrive which was a shame as we were starving, but we filled the time with plenty of fun and I enjoyed it when it dida rrive.  I love a kids menu when you can put your own bits together, chicken nuggets, mash and salad sticks...perfect for me.
The walk home was just as much fun too, I even managed to get Dad to sit me on his shoulders for a bit which was quite an achievement as he had banned me from this earlier in the year on the grounds that I was way too big.

Saturday

A very rare event took place this morning, we washed the car!  The poor thing was filthy.  I love car washing, well, I love getting the water everywhere, getting soaked then clearing off indoors before it's finished anyway.
It may be a few years since we left, but the Infant school Christmas fete is still one of the highlights of our Christmas preparations, Ned included!

There were all the usual attractions, Miss Stricklands face painting is still brilliant and I was thrilled she still remembered me:

I still love the biscuit decorating stall, I think you can see the benefit of my exeprience now, i'm not so prone to throwing as much decoration at it as I can manage anymore and take the less is more approach:

It didn't last long though.....

Even I can't resist a decorated biscuit:

And in a drastic upturn in fortunes, I won things on the tombolas!  It was a remarkable upturn over previous years where i's spend all my money and not win a thing and have to envy Ned's bagfull sof prizes.  It must be said, he did pretty well again this year and came home with a whole lot of edible goodies.

Sunday

I got another trip to the Panto with Sasha (who's Mum had aquired some free tickets apparently) and Jess.  It was ace going out with them and we loved the panto still, even if it wasn't quite as raucous as the full school trip. 

Tuesday

Well I finally got a few extra lines in the play, so thats pleased me.  Mr Percy is getting well stressy about people not knowing their lines well enough.  I have also been appointed one of the dance captains for ryhe show.  This means that having nailed the routines for tye performance, anyone who's struggling to remember their steps should copy my lead.

Wednesday

Darcey and auntie Christine came round for a visit after school which is as well cool.

They dropped us off at the rugby club on their way home to watch Ned play again.  The weather was pretty horrible, but I took a tub full of soap soloution with me and the strong gusts of wind carried my bubbles right across the pitch.  Dad met us up there on his bike straight from work, so that meant we had to walk home once Ned was finished.  It took a while, so I let Dad sit me on his massive bike and push me along.

In light of the walk home and the industrial grade clean up operation Ned needed to get him clean of mud we didn't bother with Team Kennet.

Thursday 

I love as feeling very creative, so after school I made this rather lovely sock puppet:

Friday

It was Team Kennet presentation evening, and I was in line for a medal.  Ned wasn't, so he really didn't want to go.  But being the good all round egg that he is he came along.  He was very supportive too and was genuinely pleased for me to collect my medal:

It was for being in the winning team for the Oxford Athletics league.  I pressive eh? I only went to the last round as well!

Saturday

Mum and Dad went off shopping for the day, so we had a day withthe Aunties.  We went to the cinema to see the good dinosaur.  I was a bit worried that it would be a sad film and I wouldn't like it, I loved it!  We even had proper popcorn as well. Ned cleared off with his mates so we had a ladies only lunch in the Hatchet, Laura turned up too, how cool:

We had such a lovely day, thanks ladies!

Sunday

Mum and Dad decided it was time for a family day out as apparently we haven'e done that for a while. They made us go to Marwell zoo.  We hadn't been there for a while, so I was reasonably up for it.

It was good actually, there was a lot of new things since last time we went.  The penguins were obviously super cute, the giraffes were cool and the leopards were awesome.

There was a speed trap thing to see how fast we could go compared to a cheetah:

We were no where close of course.

The zebras were really striking, their markings were amazing:

Meerkats, of course:

But they were upstaged by the mongeese(?). They were having a right old game of tag and it was hilarious to watch.

Monday

I walked into school with Darcey after she knocked for me:

Tuesday

So our PE teacher Mr Gilham is leaving (again), we don't know what will happen to after school sports clubs and more importantly, Sports Council. 

Wednesday

We had Neds first parents evening today.  The run up hadn't gone well, he had to book his own appointments with his teachers and had managed to lose his original form and his replacement copy......we were down to him writing down what he managed to remember and confidence was low.  Imagine our surpise when he managed to get them all pretty much spot on, he even managed to get a few extra appointments that he hadn't even booked by sharking about.  Even more impressive was his general demeanour around school, he seemed really comfortable and I was very impressed that he knew his way around such a big school so well.  He got really good feedback from all his teachers too, the only critiscism being that his focus can wander........

We then had a quick dash to McDonalds for something to eat before going straight back to Park House for team Kennet.  Still loving it in the competition group.

Thursday

Went down to play with Charlie after school, the oppurtunities for this are few and far between these days what with the sporting commitments and it getting dark so early.  A shame then that I accidentally got a Nerf bullet in the eye.  Then had a big old sulk because no one was quite apologetic enough for my liking and I came home early.

Friday

Dad cleared off out with the boys to see some 120 year old pop group and Ned had his first school disco at Park House leaving mum and I to have a nice girls night of snuggling, laughing and book reading.  A lovely way to spend an evening now and again.

Saturday

I woke up feeling rather creative, so after a lot of drawing and cutting and sticking I finally came up with these rather splendid pom pom glasses:

You couldn't see much out if them but who cares when you look this cool?

Marlborough was calling, lunch out and an advent calendar to choose.

Lunch was brilliant, we had proper posh hot chocolates as well, in tall glasses.

Ned was on top form as well, he had all sorts of entertaining banter, the highlight being his version of Mr and Mrs played between Mum and Dad and me and him.  

We then got on with the main task of the day, calendars.  It's always a tough choice, such an important countdown to mark.

We were home in plenty of time to go roller skating for once, sadly it wasn't on this week so it was a night in front of the telly instead.

Sunday

Sportshall round two today, we were both feeling a bit under the weather.  There was no way we could let our teams down at such short notice so we soldiered on.  We did pretty well too, especially as i ended up doing 6 events, the runn bg ones were all pretty long races too.

Monday

We did a song from High school musical at dance club.  Mum and Dad reckoned they could really tell the difference when i'm really into it and loving the music.

I got all excited to help Mum do some shredding with our new shredder after tea.  Sadly the shredderr was total rubbish, it only works for two minutes before the motor cuts out for twenty minutes too cool down.  We packed it up and are going to take it back....

Tuesday

We had a game of Dixit before gymnastics, Ned free zone too, I loved it.

It was our final practice session for the gymnastics competition this week, so we're as ready as we're going to be.

I did a lot of practice of the sample script we had for the christmas play in preparation for auditions.  I got it down really well too.

Once I was home from gymnastics and we'd had tea we played the board Game Ticket To Ride.  I've never really been one for board games but I loved this one this time.  Other than Dixit it's the only game i've ever really played through to the end.  This telly and Ipad game is actually turning out to be pretty good........

Wednesday

Took my super cute white fluffy (battery operated) dog on mine and Mums walk to the little shop tonight.  It seemed a great idea in principle, but the dog does move rather slowly and is prone to walking round and round in circles.  Progress was slow.

Next up Parents evening, wasn't worried about it this year.  I don't think they got a great deal of feedback anyway......

Then it was a rush job for Team Kennet, no Ned this week, he was playing rugby again.

I had a great time in the competition group again.

Thursday

I went up a reading level at school, yay.  I'm so pleased, the choice of lime labelled books was very limited indeed.  I now how the choice of the red and black label ones instead.

It wasn't all good news though, we had the christmas play auditions and it didn't go as i had planned.  I wasn't allowed to read the part i'd been practicing at home for so long which wasn't ideal.  I didn't know the other role they wanted me to do nearly so well.  I got given a crappy part with only one line to say.....not happy about that at all.

It didn't get much better at home,we had a cake making session for the following days Children In Need cake sale....plenty of arguments with Znec getting involved.....he didn't even have a bake sale at his school!

Friday

Children in need day...that means I get to wear my onesie for school!  Mr Percy even wore his pyjamas all day too.

Mum got to go to her first ever bake sale after school.  She was utterly shocked at the amount of noise and commotion.  Quite honestly neither Mum nor I had to appetite to get involved in the scrum for cakes so just got a couple of bits from the far less busy sweetie stall.  Ned used to be in his element at these sorts of things......

When I got home I dug the Weables out and had a play with them, I was fascinated at them not falling over and was interested in how they worked.  After a quick chat with dad about it. We made our own using a Kinder egg, a blob of blue tack and a couple of pound coins:

He was epic, and just like the real Weables he didn't fall down!

I then helped cleaning and tidying with mum.  I really got into it too, I cleaned the toilet and arranged the coasters extremely accuratley using a ruler.  Apparently I did such a good job that Mum evn paid me...not that I was expecting any money.

Nate came round to see us, he's even more with it now, apparently he's started waving too.  The first person he waved at was Simon Cowell on the telly.  I even got to help feed him his jar of food.  He bought Alan and Hayley along too, and Andy turned up so we played the werewolf game!  I looooove the Werewolf game.

Saturday

Mum had her shareholder meeting to go to for her old work.  Faced with the awful weather and the prospect of dealing with us alone the telly and Ipad ban was lifted a day early.  Thank goodness for that, we spent the morning getting seriously square eyes!

Once mum was home we played another game of Ticket To Ride which I was very pleased about as i'd been desperate to have another go.

Then in the evening we went bowling with Auntie Christine, Laura, Auntie Trish, Uncle Slim and Auntie Tracey.  It was great fun and I did really well and even got a strike!  Add to that Auntie Trish's sweetie stash and we were having a great time.

We went back to Auntie Christines afterwards for a chinese takeaway and some games....lovely.

Sunday

We took Ned for his first driving lesson in the morning, up at the Newbury Showground.  He had it for his birthday so it had taken a while to get it organised.  I was seriously jealous of him and can't wait until i'm 11 and I can have a go too.

He got sat in the car and after a few adjstemts and a few words from the instructor he was off:

He looked really comfortable and very relaxed too he even gave us a wave as he went past:

There was one really long straight and he went along it seriously fast.  It was actually quite shocking to think Ned was driving a real car at that sort of speed.  At the end of the session he even reverse parked, impressive stuff.  The instructor, Mark said he'd done very well and certainky wasn't afraid of using the throttle.  He reckoned they got up to nearly 50mph (in second gear) and the main thing Ned should concentrate onwas his road positioning, he was a bit too keen to drive on the right.  We put this down to our recent trip to Tenerife.

We met up with Kimi and Marny for lunch in the pub afterwards. We hadn't seen them for ages and ages.  It was good to catch up, we had a lovely feed:

Then we managed to get them to come round to ours afterwards for a bit of a play....excellent.

We had a bit of a quiet time once they left, watched some telly and then revved up for the gymnastics competition.  I signed in and met up with Sasha, Lola and Eloise and made our way in to the gym.  There was a lot of people watching and I could have got quite nervous if i'd thought about it...but im getting quite good at putting this sort of thing out of mind these days.  I was in a group with Lola so that was good, we have a great time when we're together.  We competed on the floor, the bars, the vault and the beam.  The good news was that I didn't fall off anything or land on my bottom at any point suring proceedings so i'll take that as a good result.  I didn't get a top three in any of the individual events but we all got a medal for effort:

Monday

Rehearsals for the play have started in earnest and we've been getting stuck into the songs, which i'm really enjoying.

After school dancing was another one in the dark, this time a disco themed number complete with disco lights and everything.

We got home to find the house overrun with Ned and his mates having a Nerf gun war....obviously I had to get stuck in too! 

Tuesday

We're giving Sasha a lift home after gymnastics at the moment, it's reat funin the car listening to Radio 3 on the way back.

Wednesday

We had a visit from the Sealed Not at school to tie in with our current civil war topic.  It was really good, we got to handle spears and a load of other weapons.

Ned was playing rugby for the school up at Newbury Rugby club so we went up to watch for a bit.  It was a horrible afternoon, sideways rain and windy.  Their performance was every bit as unpleasant when they played their first game too.  They did pick it up a bit for their second game though but mum and I had to leave before the end of the game to get me to Team Kennet in time.

Ned gave it a miss in favour of a much needed shower and a hot meal.

Thursday

Bonfire night, and the school had it on the day of the 5th rather than the weekend.  The weather was pretty wet so the field was a bit on the boggy side.  Mr Jones had once again done the business with a lovely roaring bonfire:

In a surprise addidtion to proceedings there was also a fire act, involving a couple of blokes (a pupils dad) doing some fire juggling, some fire skipping and some fire breathing which was all very entertaining.  I wasn't quite so keenon the bit of the act that involved setting fire to a very cute and cuddly teddy bear.

The fireworks themselves were up the usual high standard and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

Friday

We went Abi and Fayes for the evening.  The highlight was of course Holly the Hamster.  Seriously cute but a bit too skittish and fast for me to be totally comfortable cuddling her.  I loved watching her run around the house in her ball.

Saturday

We went to watch Ned play rugby in Reading inthe morning, it was chucking it down and seriously windy.  So much so it turned both of our umbrellas inside out.  They played a lot better than last time, Ned seemed up for it and we were thrilled when he scored his first try.  Sadly they did lose narrowly.  Here's me and Panda trying to use dad as a shield from the wet weather:

And here's the mucky little urchin himself.  He was really muddy but the rain was sufficient to wash most of it off again:

I had an invite to go round Sashas and play for the afternoon and stay for tea.  It was brilliant once we'd barricaded ourselves in her room away from her brothers and their friends.

Sunday

Up reasonably early to go and watch Minions at the cinema.  I really loved it, Ned liked it too but both Mum and Dad thought it was a bit pants apparently.

Next on the agenda was a shopping trip to sort Mum out with some jumpers to keep her warm at work over the winter.  Now our love of shopping is well known, but we were really going to try and keep this one on track.  It started off well enough with a very pleasant lunch in the M & S cafe but things went downhill very rapidly once the actual shopping started.  I don't really want to go into too much detail about what happened but we were marched back to the car and had a very quiet drive home indeed.  Oh dear, I hope Mum doesn't freeze.......

Monday

Glow stick dance week!  Mum hadn't seen one of these before and thought it was brilliant.  She was really quite taken by it all actually.  

As part of the fallout from the shopping trip debacle we were banned from telly and Ipads dor a week......A WEEK!!!!!!  So while Ned has been burying himself in homework to break the tedium I have been resorting to something a bit more creative and made this lego man collage from my Lego magazine that plopped through the door (well, I used Mums actually as she gets one posted to her too for some reason):