Tuesday

I gave gymnastics a miss this week as I got to go to Sashas straight after school for tea.  I was basically being palmed off so Mum and Dad could go and watch Ned play in a Rugby 7's tournament at Pangbourne college.  A good result for both of us then, although he came home a lot muddier and more beaten about than I did

Wednesday

My bout of inactivity continued with us missing Team Kennet today.  Ned was still under the weather and didn't much fancy it and I agreed very willingly.

Thursday

It was world book day:

Here's my shop bought Baloo number which I loved.   I don't care that Ned always had elaborate, had crafted time consuming costumes..... 

I snapped out of my inacticivity today for climbing.  No problem on that front thats for sure.  I lovd it again and seem to be getting on okay.  Mum, Dad and Ned arrived a bit early to pick me up and got to watch for a bit.  They were impressed with my improvement in technique from last week.  My hands and forearms hurt a lot less than last week too, no doubt due to my improved technique. 

Mum as off to the quiz so tonight was our oppurtunty to get busy with the mothers day stuff. We dipped in to Sainsbury's to buy wrapping paper and then head home to make cards and wrap presents:

Very industrious.  Ned was playing some tunes from his phone so we had a bit of a disco as well, he soon got tired of Dad and I busting a few moves though...

Friday

School disco night!  There was an optional dancy dress theme for tonights event, you could go dressed as an explorer......no thanks, I had my cool leather jacket and sequinned top to wear:

We had a good night, Ned's mate Ali was djing.  He did a good job on the while even though the song from Frozen and an Adele number didn't meet with much approval.....never mind.  There were plenty of glow sticks on offer....

Saturday

We all had a bit of a lay in, then a trip to Waitrose for tea, i'd put in my order for a rack of ribs and corn on the cob.  We didn't have to worry about Ned as he was off to a party.

In the afternoon Dad and I made some Mary Berry recipe cheese straws that we saw on telly (wirh parma ham, dijon musrtard and gruyere cheese).  I loved rolling out the pastry, painting on the mustard, sprinkling the grated cheese, folding the whole thing in half and re-rolling before arranging the ham and slicing them into strips.  I twisted them very exeprtly after wayching Mary do it on telly and then they went in the oven......they smelt amazing.
And when they came out of the oven they looked amazing...I couldn't wait to try one but they were red hot.  Once they had cool down enough Dad and I sampled them.....they were amazing!
As were the ribs at tea time, much to Dads disappointment I polished off a whole rack!

Sunday
Early start for mothers day, I know she's supposed to get a lay in but I was so excited about it all I couldn't help myself.  We presented her with her cards and gifts and Ned and I made sure we stared arguing the toss to ensure Mum's dat was extra special.

We headed off to a sculture garden in Farnham.  It was actually really cool, there was about 800 sculptures dotted around a woodland walk and around the lake.  All of them were for sale too, we had a list of the title of each piece and it's purchase price.  Ned loved that, some of them were seriously expensive!

The windchime made a great noise:

Dad liked the mirror pillars dotted around in the trees:

This massive dragon was the real highlight though:

These fellas seemed to like a dance:

One of the exhibits was 

Mum certainly enjoyed herself.  Mission accomplished.

Monday

We had a school trip today to Chedworth Roman villa.  mum came along too as a helper which was nice even though I didn't get to be in her group of course.  It was a really good day, we got to dress up in Roman costumes, learnt a bit, explored the remains of the villa outside (was a lovely sunny day as well, bonus) and made smelly little pomander things just like the Romas did to cure themselves of colds and other ailments.  We put all sorts of herbs and spices in it, it smelt a bit like dinner!
Even Mum loved it, which was good after the last trip she came on didn't quite live up to epsoectations for her.....

Wednesday

I left a little message for mm in the frosty car window on the way to school this morning:

Eloise my friend from school has started going to Team Kennet so thats cool, another little member for my group of friends there!

Thursday

Well after Ned had started his climbing course on Monday I was desperate to get a piece of the action.  It turns out after a bit of research that there was a course for us younger ones on a Thursday evening.  So here I was, ready for action.  I couldn't wait to get started, we learned how to harness ourselves up and tie our ropes:

There was only three of us so we got loads of climbing done.  I really loved it and cannot wait to go again.  We even got a piece of climbing rope to take home and do our homework knot tying practice.

Friday

Mum went out for tea, so we dropped her off and then went round to Owen's new house, I made quite an entrance in my cool leather jacket.  Darcey was already there and very pleased to see me:

It's a really cool place, we reckon Owen and Kirsty have done very well for themselves.

Saturday

It was a bit of a late night so there was some lie in action on Saturday morning.

Ned went off to town with his friends so we were free to do ad we pleased.

First up Sainsbury's car wash:

I still love the car wash, this time It was soundtracked by me mixing and scratching some tunes on Dads phone DJ app which drove Mum mad.

We carried on into Sansbury's, I used some of my own money to buy myself a lovely snuggly blanket that Mum and I tested as soon as we got home:

It was perfect for a saturday night tv snuggle up.

Sunday

We had Uncle Trevor round for lunch, I was so excited about him coming.  He seemed to really enjoy himself so that was good.  

We went for an afternoon bike ride, we headed west on the canal towpath:

We rode a pretty long way before we headed back.

Monday

Sasha, Molly and I worked out a dance routine today, I wrote it down in note form for future reference.

After school I went off to the shops to buy so e Toxic Waste. Super sour sweets, this weeks in thing.  Ned dared me to eat three at once....which I did, albeit with a bit of a wince.

Tuesday

What with it being the holidays it was a Dagon Club day.

Ned wanted to ride so he set off a little bit before us in the car.  He was there waiting for us when we arrived and had apparently been waiting there for some time.

We had a great time, I loved playing with Jack and had to make the most of it as he was only in for the day.

Mum came to pick me up when she had finished work, which caused a bit of a situation as I really wanted to stay on a bit longer........

Ned did, and when he did finally leave we tracked him all the way on the find my iphone feature on his Ipad.  It was really cool watching the little dot weaving it's way across town. 

Wednesday

A day with the Aunties today, Auntie Christine, Auntie Trish and a side order of Darcey.  Cool.  We had a lovely day, with a trip to pizza hut and some baking of some lovely biscuits from a very posh recipe.

Thursday

Dragon club resumed today, we enjoyed the new laptops and played some pool.  We also baked some brownies and thought we had been extremely clever by quadrupling the amount of chocolate in the recipe.  We had to go home before they had finished bakng though....

Friday

Dragon club, and a chance to check out our brownies!

They were so rock hard we had to smash them into pieces using a wooden tool.  This may have been down to the huge quantity of chocolate we sneaked in setting solid after it had been baked.  Oh well, it tasted nice enough.

So thats Dragon Club done and dusted until Easter, we got picked up early today as we were off to Butlins, I wasn't complaing!

Well, you didn't think we weren't going to sneak a trip away in during the holidays did you?

A bit different this time, we were off to Minehaed rather than Bognor and rather than the hotel we were going to have an apartment.  So it was a bit further than we're used to but it didn't really matter as we were there just after 6.  We got checked in and Ned navigated us successfully to our accomodation.  I thought it was a really cool little flat, even if it was on the third floor which was quite a struggle with the heavy bags.

We were soon unpacked and went out for a walk.

It was much bigger than Bognor and took a bit of wandering around, good job I had my heely's on!

Of course, when we're at Butlins all roads lead to the arcade:

We love the arcade, we really, really love the arcade. 

Saturday

We woke up to a wet, grey and windy morning.  Not the most motivating scenario to get us up and out it has to be said.  Having said that, the fairground was open.....

It was brilliant, very quiet, not surprising given the weather conditions but that meant no queues!

Dad and I went on the waltzer then we all went on the dodgems, the paraglider and the pirate boat.  We tried a couple of times to get on the chairoplanes but the strong winds put paid to that, same as the helter skelter.  I then dcided I wanted to try and win something on one of the game booths,against popular advice, so imagne my pleasure when I won a cute mini panda!  Boo yaa!  We worked up quite an appetite so took refuge from the weather in the pub for a spot of lunch.

After that we headed for the pool.  It was great fun, especially the lazy river that ran through the wave machine section of the pool causing quite a choppy section of water which we loved.  There was also a section by a jacuzzi that produced loads and loads of white foam.  Dad and I worked out that if we joined arms and rested them on the surface of the water we could contain and harvest it.  It made excellent Santa Calus beards or Marje Simpson hair do's. 

The highlight of the weekends entertainment schedule was dance outfit Diversity.  We made our way down to the complex and joined a pretty long queue and there was still half an hour before the doors even opened.  We passed the time by eating candy floss, fresh from the machine:

We got reasonable seats for the show, albeit with a bit of pillar in the way.  The show itself as really good, loud music, great lighting and brilliant gmnastics and dancing.  The only downer was that despite our best nominating skills, Dad didn’t get picked for the Dads dance off....I reckon he looked too keen. 

Once it was all done and dusted we headed back to the apartment for something to eat and a Saturday night tv binge.  Saturday night takeaway and Take me out.

Sunday

We woke to a much brighter and drier day, so it seemed like a good idea to go and rent some Go karts:

We soon gave Mum and Dad the slip and tore round the site like a pair of teenage joyriders from Police Camera Action.  Brilliant.

Nxt up was a sssion on a really good playground that it had been too wet to sample yesterday.  It loads of cool tunnels buried beneath it to explore.

Then we took a ride on the land train:

It took us right to the back of the park where things were certainly less than luxury it has to be said.

We paid another visit to the fair and even though it seemed jst as windy as yesterday the chairoplanes and the helter skelter were both open.  The chairoplanes were brilliant, especially with the wind blowing so hard it was spinning us almost right round on our chains.  Ned seemedto dookay on the helter skelter but I came to a complete halt about halfway down.

The swing boats were great fun too, we certainly got them going to a great height:

 

So that pretty much ticked off everything we missed yesterday.  We had another go on the dodgems, Ned and Mum had a nasty smash and both of them got off a bit injured.

We decided that would do for the fair and went back to the arcade.....we had more tickets to winbefore we cashed in for the weekend.  I found a 2p falls that paid out tickets every ti e the coins fell down and rinsed it! We did really well at the prize booth though, there was a lovely man working there who let us have much better prizes than we had tickets for.  We ended up with a rubiks cube and sweets each and I also got a mini frisbee!

The last thing on our agenda was the Aladdin Rocks Panto....oh no it wasn't.

It waspretty good fun as well, there were some funny bits, some good songs and an excellent scene when Aladdin flew our over the front rows on a magic carpet!

I think it was fair to say that neither of us wanted to go home, there was still loads more fun to be had at Butlins and going home meant a return to school tomorrow.  

We had a nice chat as a family on the way home and the journey went pretty quick.  True to form we fell asleep just before we got home.....

Monday

Back to school then, we took some shifting this morning!

I had a goid day though, I came really closeto passing my 6 times table challenge.  Next time for sure!  We had a real laugh at lunchtime, culminating in Sasha bursting into laughter with such for e she accidentally spat on my cheese wrap!

Everyone bar me seemingly knew that dance had been cancelled after school.....hence a long wait for Mum and Dad for me in the playground while I needlessly changed into my dance gear...oops?

Ned had the first of his rock climbing sessions at the Waterside centre to ight, I was welljealous when we dropped him off, I want to!  Shame it's for 11 years olds and over.  I had to make do with a trip round Pets at home and not be allowed a rabbit, or a guinwa pig or a hamster or even a fish!  It's not fair.

Tuesday
No gymnastics today, transport and meal time logistics meant we had to get Ned up to his school in time for their evening Christmas Concert.  It was seriously warm in his school hall and we could only get seats right at the back.  It was pretty boring on the whole to be brutally honest.  It was mostly the school orchestra and choir, neither of which featured Ned so held little interest, despite their undoubted talent.  Teh Jazz drum solo was really very loud.  The year sevens did their own segment of christmas songs, it was lovely to just about catch a glimpse of him, smiling away and giving it 100% like he always does with these sorts of things.

Wednesday
It was the schools Carol concert at St Johns church.  It was a bit rubbish really, I had to sit on a marble floor which was most unpleasant, only the choir got to sing the Italian version of silent night, I couldn't see Mum and then we had to walk home afterwards.

Team Kennet fancy dress night, the costumes came together in the end and we were all set.  It was quite tricky doing long jump in a 5 foot long flag it has to be said, although it did flutter rather magnificently in the chocolate relay, almost superhero-esque!

So then it was on to the fancy dress judging, Ned flipping well won the boys and I didn't even get a place finish....I was totally devastated.  Dad spent hours on that head-dress!  I reckon it was the horse that clinched it for Ned.

Thursday
It was our school Bazaar in the afternoon, Dad came along with some money for me....good job too.  I visited the stalls in record time, secured myself a sock snowman that our class had made, a marsh mallow snowman on a stick, a fir cone tree decoration and a small packet of reindeer food.  We werre all done by 2:45, Mr Percy was really surprised by our rapid exit as he manned the door.

Friday
The last day of term at long last, excellent.  We did colouring, reading and had a bit of a christmas party with music and christmas lights.  For the first time ever Mum came to pick me up on our early finish, how exciting.

Ned cleared off down the town with his friend so Mum and I had a snuggle for a bit.  When dad came home i helped him with the pigs in blankets for the freezer:

I made sure we did plenty.

Next on the agenda was the Christmas plates and glasses that needed getting out of storage.  We gave them a freshen up and packed the normal glasses away for a few weeks.  Then in a remarkable turn of events we actually did Das christmas present from a coupke of years ago, a map that you can scrape off the countries you have visited.  Even with our frequent trips away we didn't scrape very much off...

Saturday
We had a Lovely walk at Snelsmore in the morning.  There was loads of squelchy mud and tree climbing:

The real highlight was the rope swings though, we swung around for ages on them:

We dropped in to Waitrose on the way home for a few provisons and then came home for a late lunch.  Followed by a Christmas film, Elf!  It was great fun and we loved it.

Aftre that it was christmas party week at roller skating.  Kimi and Marny came along for their first time too, we were so excited.  It was brilliant, christmas music, plenty of christmas hats and jumpers, games to win sweets.....

Kimi and Marny really went for it and made amazing progress in a really short time, we were seriously impressed.  I think they enjoyed themselves so hopefully they'll come again next time.

The evnin finished with a visit from Santa on wheels and a lot of rather ill advised conga trains, of quite substantial length that invariably culminated in a heap of bodies on the floor.  Luckily there were no serious injuries.

Sunday
Lazy morning, nice, a few christmas chocolates after breakfast and some telly.

We had a late lunch, then a quick visit to Tsco before dropping in to see Sue.  She's had a bit of a rough time of it lately with a rather painful sounding operation.
When we got home we made a massive meringue, although it took such a long time we couldn't even try it.

Monday
A day at Auntie Christines, just before Christmas? What could possibly be more festive:

We decorated a ginger bread house:

Pretty pro eh? This is Ned's bit:

Darcey and I made cheese straws....sooooo nice:

We had such a lovely day.

Tuesday

Gymnastics, i'm still loving it.  I'm not sure how much Mum and Sasha's Mum like picking us up on an alternate basis with the sheer amount of talking and silliness we get involved in during the mercifully short trip back home.
It was of course pancake day!  I thought I was up for several hundred as Ned had gone to his friends for tea......he must have smelt tham (and so did the boiler repair man) as they both turned up within seconds of Dad heating up the frying pan!  I can't complain though, I certainly had more than enough.  They were of a very hogh standard this year it must be said.  Even the first one made was fit to eat!

Despite weeks and weeks of frequent reminders my Learning Log short story project remained unfinished up until the very last minute and neded Mum's help to finish it off...ooops.

Wednesday

Team Kennet is going well too, Eloise from school went tonight so that was fun to see her as well as my other friends.  The club has new sponsor and they've had new t-shirts done for everyone who has competed for the club.  It was really good being included in the rather select (ish) band queing up for one.  They are dead posh too, really nice material and cool printing on them.

Friday

The last day of term, a week off to look forward to!
We didn't see much of Ned, he was pretty late home from school and then went of finto town with his mates.
That left me free to play sleeping queens with Mum and Dad and get as much Nan bread as I wanted to accompany my tea.

Saturday

A saturday trip to Waitrose, to load up on essentials (cheesecake and chorizo snack sticks, 5 for £2 on the deli counter).
Then home for lunch and a game of Ned free Dixit.  I still love that game, even though I seem to come last a lot.
The weather was pretty grim it must be said, cold, wet, windy.  So quite what it was that prompted Mum to suggest riding the bikes down to town I don't know?  Anyway, we were pretty keen to get out so off we went.  First stop the library.  They were doing a needlecraft thing up stairs, making hearts for Valentines day.  We got stuck in to that and loved it.  Yes, even Ned!
I had to finish it off at home:

It was nice to have got some fresh air and been outside for a bit.  It was equally nice to get on the sofa and watch some saturday night tv.

Sunday

We'd booked to see the film Pan at the Cinema.  It was a lovelty bright morning so we decided it would be a good idea to ride again.  How cool.
I loved the film, i'd wanted to see it for ages and wasn't disappointed.
We rode back and spent the afternoon doing Lego (my unfinished set from my birthday).

And then we watched a film called Zoolander that Ned's been going on about.  It was pretty funny actually......

Monday

So first day proper of the holidays, Mum off work and on duty.  Bowling on the agenda, all good until we get in the car and it won't start......
So we have a choice, don't go bowling or bust out the trusty bikes again!!!
Bikes it was, third day running, get a load if us, we're like eco warriors or something!
Bowling was good, even though, as usual the equipment was pretty shoddy and we had to get moved to two different lanes!
ned thought he would be able to beat Mum being as she couldn't take her bowling ball in her bike basket but she had him covered!
At least the candy floss machine worked okay:

We even got a surprise visit from Dad who popped down for a flying visit on his lunch break.
We made the ride back okay but it did rather delay lunch, as did bumping into Uncle Trevor!  
The car got fixed and we made more Lego in the afternoon.  So not a bad day after all!

Tuesday

Badge week at gymnastics.......I didn't pass for the first time ever!!!  It was super hard though...next time....next time!

Wednesday

Ned took to his sick bed today, he hadn't been on top form for a little while which might explain why he's been quite sucha grumpy so and so (especially with me).  So he got to spend the day on the sofa with the Now TV box, lucky boy.
I decided to take the oppurtunity to have an evening off from Team Kennet training after our busy competition schedule, ahem.

Thursday

Ned passed the baton over to Dad today who decided it was his turn to babysit the Now TV box.  Meant he was a captive audience for after school cuddles though.....

Friday

The end of the week, what better way to celebrate than an ill-mannered family game of Monopoly?

Saturday

We had a day out, an actual day out.  We went to Beaulieu, the car museum.  It started off really well, we asked if we could have a quid fo rthe radio controlled cars we came accross outside the Top Gear section.....and Mum said yes!!!  We were thrilled, genuinely thrilled:

The top gear section itself was brilliant, we loved it.  They had loads of the cars from their silly challenges and the 'reasonably priced car' from the celebrity laps:

There was also this life size Stig which I thought was super cool:

So far so good.

We had another total result when the man in the restaurant said we could eat our picnic in there no problem at all, but would be nice of we bought just a little something to go with it....how about a whipped cream hot chocolate for Ned and myself?  Yes please!

As we sat there, sheltering from the wind and occasional rain we saw my school friend Mollie wandering accross the grounds, how cool was that?  She came in for a quick chat.

We headed off to the main museum, which I really loved.  Some of the cars were sooooo old, even older than Mum and Dad.  It was really interesting to see how much they used to cost and I was really rather struck by some of the design features.  A lot of them looked like a horse and cart, but without the cart.  A lot of them seemed to have sofa's rather than car seats which I certainly liked the look of.

We loved the racing car section, especially this one:

Plenty of photo opprtunities:

This one had us in stitches:

It just seemed the right thing to do, stick your head through and oull your best 'racing face':

This was apparentluy Mum's favourite car when she was younger:

We had to admit that it was pretty cool.....even by todays standards.
We went out for a wander accross the grounds towards the stately home, on the way we found a pretty cool park where Ned took me for a few high speed laps in one of those oh so small cozy coupes...ahem.  The man on these electric cars let us both have a go despite Ned being well over the height limit:

We made it to the manor house and went in for a poke around.  I loved it, there was a lovely roaring open fire, fabulous cielings and a piano in every room!  Perfect for me.
As we left the house the weather had taken rather a tunr for the worse, but as luck would have it a chap had appeared in a stretch golf cart and asked us if we wanted a lift back rather than walking.....well of course:

It was a brilliant way to finish the day.
We stopped off at McDonalds on the way home, to end our month long ban imposed by Mum.  She was much happier to return than the rest of us it has to be said...
Then it was on to Rollerskating, Sasha, Lola and Chelsea came along this week and we had a great time.  Especially when I pulled them all along after me like a train...

Sunday

Very exciting day today, Nate was coming for Sunday lunch!
I got my make up done early and helped Dad make the dinner.  I chopped the carrots with great precision and ensured we had a lump free cheese sauce for the cauliflower cheese too.  They were only a little bit late arriving which was good as I was at fever pitch!

He sat up with us for a bit of lunch and then the serious business began.  I got to babysit him while Ned went off down the park with Hugo and Alastair and the grown ups played Agricola (what looks to be the worlds most complicated board game).

We tinkled the ivories:

He only dribbled on it a little bit.

Then the best bit, a snuggled up snooze:

He's so cute and cuddly it was lovely.

Monday

After school dance.....stunts week, enough said.

I recouperated watching Take Me Out snuggled up with Mum, then, rather controversially Dad during an advert break switch around.

It's January, the weathers cold and wet, Christmas is a distant memory, there's just not much going on.  Hence this weeks entry is a bit on the sparse side.

Friday

It's hard to get out of bed this time of year, even when i'm compelled to play some music:

So the duvet came down with me for this mornings keyboard session.
Darcey came round for tea after school, it was great fun.  I think she enjoyed herself, I know I did!

Saturday

I had a morning trip to Sashas which we managed to hastily arrange.  Good work on that one Sasha.  I took my remote control dog, she loved it, so did her big brother!  We did some lovely nail painting too.
Had a lovely walk around the lake in Thatcham in the afternoon sunshine, played on the park, did a jigsaw in the visitor centre....all very nice.  We tried to go bowling but the place was heaving.  We booked in for 5:30 and went home instead.
So, back to the bowling alley, Nate came along with Alan and Hayley.  We had a game even better than bowling going on...Pass the Nate between goes!  We all got lots of cuddles.

Sunday

It was the last sportshall match of the season at Eton.  Being the last one it meant we had the Grand Prix race, a kind of obstacle race which we were all really looking forward to.  I was running the last leg of the relay and my three team mates had put in a brilliant performance so far, I was handed the baton with a pretty decent lead.  It was os exciting running at the front and I was determined to stay out there for my lap.  I managed it, I corssed the line first and Team Kennet erupted!  It's fair to say we haven't won much in our little team of 7 and 8 year olds in the under 11 category but we've certainly enjoyed ourselves.  Our team manager also told Mum and Dad she was seriously impressed with my effort and determination over the season....how cool!  Ned's lot did very well too, coming fourth overall in the team competition, just missing out on a medal.  They were also the young ones in their category and have another year in the under 13's being year 7's. 

Monday

I was very relaxed at after school dance this week, we had to choreograph our own routine.  As such the pressure was off and we just enjoyed it for what it was really.

Not quite such a relaxing activity once I was home though, boxing:

I fashioned myself some toilet roll boxing gloves and burst into the front room linking a few moves together.  These went down very well, i'm not sure I was as threatening as I was funny though: