Tuesday
Our first week of proper Netball club, I loved it.  We actually did a bit of proper netball, not just passing and catching.  I played Centre, we did a lot of work on pivoting and Miss Knowles gave me a house point!
It was a bit of a tight schedule to get to Gymnastics on time afterwards.  We made it but we're going to move to Monday gymnastics to see if that eases my schedule a bit.

Wednesday
Ned was off sick today, bit of a turn up, not like him at all.
I was nursing a bad knee so was quite relievd there was no Team Kennet.
We went to Alans though, it was his birthday and for once we weren't on holiday so took the oppurtunity to deliver his card and present.....and see Nate of course.

Thursday
Massive news today, I recieved my pen licence at school!

Ned managed to get all the way through John Rankin without getting one so it's quite a big deal for me.

I went down the town with Mum after school for a much needed trim, it looks much tidier now.

Friday
It was Awards assembly time at school, Mum was there so it was clear that I was in line for something.....effort and increased contribution and work rate, sounds rather good I reckon:

So that and the pen licence were a great way to end the term at school, I reckoned i'd earnt a week off and maybe even a holiday...... 

Saturday
What I actually got was a very early morning wake up, but I didnt mind as we were finally off to Venice.  I'd been getting super excited about this one for ages.  We had an early flight from Luton, take off was 7am.  So, we left nice and early, got parked up and waited for the bus to the terminal:

We didnt have any hold luggage to check in (hand luggage only experiment) so thought we would have plenty of time, but with the inside of the airport seemingly in chaos, we ended up cutting it a bit fine.  The queues for security were massive and it took ages to get through. Dad made this even worse just before we went through the scanner when he accidentally removed his t-shirt as well as his hoodie before passing through, so embarassing.  Due to how long it had taken to get as far as the departure gate we were last in the queue and were told that our luggage would have to go in the hold after all....pah. Still, at least we didnt have to pay for it.

It was only a two hour flight so it passed really quickly.  The view out of the window as we flew over the snowy mountains was epic.  As we made our descent and flew accross the lagoon area we noticed just how much boat traffic there was in organised lanes, it looked like a busy road system rather than the water.  We even saw the island of Venice as we did a little fly past before touching down. it looked really cool.
It was lovely and warm when we got off the the plane, always one of my holiday highlights that is.  Despite out bags going in the hold they were soon on the reclaim carousel and we were on our way to get our hire car.  It was quite a long walk and a portion of it was shaded by a plastic half tunnel to keep you out of the suns glare.  Thing is, it just acted like a greenhouse and it was stifling under there as we dodged the oncoming flow of thousands of cruise ship passengers all dropped off en-masse to fly home.
As usual when in Italy, the car hire collection is never a swift process:

We had booked a 'fiesta' but what we got was not quite as good as we had hoped for, despite the cool name, the Panda was not quite what we had in mind.  ned was almost as distraught as he was when we got the pope mobile in Fuerteventura.
We got all the bags in nicely though and it wasn't too bad in the back once the air con had finally kicked in.  We made our way out of the airport and headed around the lagoon to our campsite.  It was a pleasant drive through mostly farm lands, punctuated by loads of canals.
Apart from a bit of congestion at one junction (where the locals seemed to run out patience and were making u-turns left right and centre) we were soon at the campsite.  It looked lovely too.  Mum and I went to het us checked in and got our parking pass sticker and we drove round to get our keys.  We had a brand new caravan, it was proper lovely.  We were really close to the sandy waterpark and a straight flat walk to the beach, perfect!
We had a brief walk around, there was a pond, full of cute turtles! 

(even thought things turned naty here later in the week when one of the big ones decided one of the small ones looked like a tasty snack, much to the horror of the international onlookers).
The beach was lovely:

We'd been here for a a good while so it was high time we went for a swim:

The lagoon pool was brilliant, sourrounded by lovely soft sand.  There were slides, jacuzzi's, climbing frames and a wave pool.....brilliant, we loved it.
We followed this up with an ice cream:

Then a quiet few minutes back at the van for a recharge after our early start and full on day. Without anything in the store cupbaord because we hadn't been shopping it was pizza for tea:

Sunday
We had a trip out to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies and to check out what weird and wonderful things were on offer.  They had slabs of Parmesan as big as breeze blocks, it was food heaven!
We got back and had a game of bat and ball outside in the road, opposite our new Danish neighbours that had arrived in a car full to the roof with Red Bull.
Our 'road' had filled up a bit so that added a bit of international holiday atmousphere.
It was a bit grey and overcast but still lovely and warm so we went for a swim at the ther pool.  This one had a more traditional pool, a few jacuzzi's, a playground and best of all a brilliant lazy river with inflatable tubes to ride round on.
There wasn't many people there, and there were even less when it started raining.  It actually started to raon pretty hard and there was only us and another English family there while the lifegaurds huddled under their umbrella, looking a bit peeved off.  I think they were relieved when the thunder started and they ordered us out of the water! 
We had some lunch by which time the weather had cleared up and took a drive out to Punto Sabbioni at the end of the peninsular to have a nosey around and find out about taking the boat into Venice itself.
We walked out on a jetty that went way out into the sea: 

Then visited the little village and got some information on Venice before heading back to the campsite.  Dad fired up the barbecue but as soon as the meat hit the grill it statred to rain....so the grill was fired up and we cooked it indoors, playing farmyard donkey as it cooked.
It did clear up again as soon as were finished eating so we went out for a walk to the playground and down to the beach again.

Monday
Our big day trip today, having seen the forecast was overcast for the day with the rest of the week set to be sunny, we decided it was the day to visit Venice.   We made our way back to Punto Sabbioni (10 minutes down the road), parked up in a lovely waterside carpark with each space covered by a sun canopy (not that we thought that would be needed).  We got our boat tickets and waited for it to leave:

We made our way out across the lagoon, taking in the sights as we went.
After 20 minutes or so Venice came into view:

We arrived pretty early in the morning, so it wasn't that busy when we disembarked.  We wandered along the waterfront, straight past the Bridge of Sighs, good job nNed noticed and got the selfie stick out:

Note Mum's stripey, Nautical top, almost like a gondoliers, she claims it was unintentional.
We then made our way into St Mark's Square, which was pretty busy with people queueing up for the church and what have you:

We didn't bother with that and set off for a wander.  The place was so cool, all narrow alleys and bridges over the canal.  We were happy to dispel the myth that it was smelly here, it wasn't!  Getting anywhere was quite difficult as you had to have a bridge going in the right direction to cross.  It really was every bit as cool as we hoped it would be.
There were plenty of tut shops which I obviously loved:

As theres no roads, all the restaurants and shops and hotels have to have their stuff delivered by hand carts, dragged along by blokes shouting to watch out in Italian as they bumped them up and down the steps of the bridges, everything from fresh fruit to massive drums of cooking oil all the same way.  
We sat for lunch by the Punto Rialto (sadly undergoing refurbishment so partially obscured) at the waters edge watching the world go by.  Builders had the venice quivalent of a white van, concrete splattered barges loaded with building supplies, while they still wore their hi-vis jackets and hard hats. The most impressive thing though was the ambulance.  We heard the siren blaring long before we saw it coming, so did the gondoliers who effortlessly seemed to drift to the outside of the grand canal just in time for the ambulance boat to blast through at an incredible speed.  There were about 5 paramedics on this ricket boat, all dressed in their uniforms and leaning in heavily as they made a sharp turn around the bend and under the bridge.  The wake from this was pretty considerable but the gondoliers didn't even flinch, it was a good job mum noticed the incoming mini tsunami though or we'd have got wet feet!
We resumed lunch and featured in the background of the seemingly endless string of people who wanted a picture of a seagull sat on a nearby jetty for some reason. We'd already decided there was going to be no Gondola trip for us due to the reputed expense.
It just looked too cool not to, I mean, you can't make the effort to go all the way to Venice and not really can you?  The gondolas themselves were so beautifully finished, each with individual carvings, highly polished silver or gold bits and upholstery and all them so shiny and black.  So here we are on board (it wasn't actually that expensive at all):

It was however, absoloutley wonderful.  The sun came out and we made our way off from the Grand Canal and off down the side 'streets'  It was so gentle and peaceful.  It was like being famous, everytime we passed under a bridge a gaggle of people would appear to take a photo:

Our gondolier pointed out the homes of Marco Polo and Casanova as he paddled us along without a splash or a crash.  We soaked it all up and were loving it, seeing the sights go by, houses with a built in boat shed under them, the back doors of restaurants open, with steps down to the water, so normal yet so weird.

We turned back out onto the Grand Canal and went under the Punto Rialto:

Before making our way back to where we started from to complete our trip.
We got a quick shot in the seats that Mum and Dad sat in as we were told by the gondolier they were for for the grown ups!

We got off buzzing, we loved every second of it and were very grateful indeed we had done it.
We carried on along the canal a bit, visited a few more tut shops:

Picked up a few souvenirs and thought we may as well head back, via St Marks square again:

Along the waterfront, where Ned took this tourist board quality picture:

Wandered past the looky-looky men that had set up since we arrived and found the pontoon for our boat back.
Once we were back to the campsite I couldnt wait to try my mini gondoliers hat on my soft toy model:

We were back in plenty of time to round out the afternoon at the pool, bobbing round in the lazy river and having a nice lie down in the sun (well under a towel as it was hot):

We ventured down to the beach in the evening for a game of volleyball, the quality of play was patchy at best:

Tuesday
Ned woke early with a gritty eye, I think the whole campsite heard about it.  He then cleared off to play football for the morning with the camp sports coach and a load of other kids.
We had a decent breakfast and then made our way to the pool for the day.  It was lovely to just hang out in the water, bathed in sunshine.
Ned met up with us in the afternoon, he seemd to enjoy his footbal and we spent the rest of the day bobbing about in the pool in the sunshine.  There were dark clouds loomimg inland but they never seemed to get as far as our sunny seaside spot until after tea.

We went off to play mini golf in the evening, the man in the hut pointed out there were no refunds if the weather turned wet and it was up to us.....it looked okay so we pressed on with the game.  The course was brilliant, we loved it and didnt even argue with each other despite loosing a ball or two . The holes were really inventive, even though some were very tricky indeed:

There was even a hole with a moving bridge that you had to pull along the water using an overhead rope.

The rain held off too!

Wednesday
After a nice lay in we decided it was high time we hit the beach.  We got there and it was red flagged.  The waves were barely a foot high.  What was all that about?  What would they make of Cornwall?  The sun was blazing though and we wrre sure it would only be a temporary restriction so set our stuff down and had a game of volleyball.  It was a hot day so after the exertion of volleyball we really wanted a dip in the sea so we decided to break ranks and take our chances in the red flag conditions.  It was lovely in the Adriatic, but even if you walked out miles it was still only waist deep. The lifegaurds didn't exactly rush to get us out of the water so a load of others decided to get in as well.  There's some video footage to follow later I think.

We took a trip out to a nearby town Jesolo in the afternoon.  It was a pretty cool place, there were a load of old retired people having a really fun and well organised boules match in the sand so we stood and watched that for a while.  We wandered along the beach, it was punctuated by a little childs playground every 50 metres or so which we loved.

The place was otherwise largely deserted in the late afternoon.

We found a cool little pier that reached pretty far out to sea and strolled along it:

Even that far out the sea looked pretty shallow:

I probably really should mention the ice cream parlour at this point, it was amazing.  More flavours than we could possibly have sampled in a week and very reasonably priced (a round of four ice creams,5 euros).  We had time for more pool time too, another great day.

Thursday
Ned went off to football again leaving us for another leisurely breakfast and pool visit.  We did a lot of swimming, which was perfect for me.  I made friends with some other girls and we had a great time larking about all day.  Ned arrived pink and hot from running around a football pitch in the heat the mad fool.  He certainly needed some pool time.  He befriended some lads who turned out to be from Thatcham and the elder one used to go to Team Kennet too, what are the chances of that?
We had lunch from the poolside bar on our sunloungers and everything, it was like being on holiday or something!

The day finished with an organised(ish) game of water polo.  It was great fun, the sports coach rounded up a number of participants from the pool area and the goals were floated out into the water.  Ned was in his element of course although i found it a little harder going as 

I was a little out of my depth.

On the first night we had seen an amazing playground on the campsite with a masdive inflatable slide.  We didnt go on it then as we were pretty tired and wouldnt do it justice, so every night we looked hopefully for it to be open again......but it wasn't, until tonight!
And here's Ned and I trying it out at last:

There were loads of things to play on:

Including the worlds highest and most dangerous looking jumping pillow.  It was open until 11pm too, as our accomodation was very close by Mum and Dad left us to it.  We ended up making friends with a big group of English kids and had a brilliant time.  I was the youngest by a long way but they were great fun and even sang me happy birthday for tomorrow when we left at 11.  Late night then, for my last day of being 8.

Friday
My 9th birthday.  I'd been banging on about this pretty much since Christmas.  After the late night at least I wasn't up too early.  I was told not to expect too much in the way of presents as we were limited by our hand luggage.  Ned even stopped giving me a hard time for a cuddle:

I had a few cards:

And some cool little presents they managed to sneak into the bags.  Ned got me some lovely key ring ice cream themed lip balms (that he bought during a trip to town with his friends using his own money).

He still cleared off for football though.Our usual arrangement, the rest of us headed to the pool (lazy river version) to meet up with my friends from yesterday.
Ned met up with us for a dip before heading back for lunch (lovely bread from the bakery and the rest of our parmesan supplies).  Then the first of the days treats, a four scoop ice cream from the ice cream parlour:

Lovely:

Ned had four scoops too:

Mum and Dad didn't, the lightweights, only having three.  Despite all this scoopage it was still cheaper than a single magnm from the ice cream van at Treyarnon.

We took a wander down the beach to see if they were hiring out the pedaloes....they were! So it was a quick change and back to the beach to take to the high seas.

The pedalo itself as amazing, it had a full size slide in the middle of it, plunging the slider into the sea.  How cool is that?  We paddled out to deeper water, so about three miles..ha ha before I decided to give the slide a try.  The first go was quite tricky as it was dry....but subsequent efforts were much better and great fun.  Ned apparently didnt want to go in the water.  Yeah right, he couldnt resist having a go.  His head first effort was teally very accomplished.

Once we were done on the pedalo,we made our way straight to the sandy pool complex for our last pool visit of the holiday.  The big head first slide really was brilliant. Two lanes that went completely dark after the first corner but punctuated with strips of different colours od see through plastic making it look like a disco in there.  The lifegaurd at the top was on good form too, giving people differnet car makes as they took off.  I was a Ferarri, poor old Dad was a Dacia...he laughed at his own hilarity as we sped off down the slide.
We spent the majority of the afternoon bobbing about in the wave pool and met up with most of the kids from the playground the night before.  They sang happy birthday to me again with a number of other randoms in the pool joining in, it was so embarassing but I loved it really.
We stayed in until pool closing time, Dad and I even tried to hide behind a wall but the lifegaurd had no doubt seen that trick before and soon spotted us. 
There was only really one option for a birthday evening meal on our last night of holiday:

A delicious pizza outside on the patio, unbeatable!
 
Saturday
We had to be up early for home, what a downer.  However, I was quite excited to get home and see if I had any more presents.  We packed up our things even more efficiently than when we packed at home (we almost had an empty bag somehow) and made our way to the airport, it was grey and wet and thundery so we had certainly had the best of the weather on our week.  We dropped off the Pandaand good riddance to that!!

The airport was far better than Luton, much more organised, far less queueing at security and passport control so we had plenty of time to sit about before we boarded.  Turned out we had plenty of time to sit when we had boarded too as the Italians refuse to refuel planes if there's thunder and lightning in the area?  So we sat there for the best part of an hour until it passed.  It was a bit of a nightmare thoigh as I finished my book (Diary of a wimpy kid - Old School) so had nothing to read.
We arrived back to Luton which was still rubbish and disorganised by the looks of it (note to self, don't let Mum book flights from Luton again).
It didn't take long to get home, and waiting for me were presents and a mountain of cards through the door:

A new bodyboard, a crystal growing set, some Elves Lego, and a gorw your owen butterflies kit.  I was thrilled.
Dad went out to get some food supplies and also secure a birthday cake:

So, a bit of a disjointed birthday, but a very good one all the same!

Sunday
No rest day for us after holiday, straight back into it with a trip to Gamesexpo at the NEC in Birmingham for Alan's geek day out.  We took a few along this year though:

We had a really good day out actually, despite the shock of having to pay £12 to park the car. 

It didn't ake long before I needed lunch though:

Refreshed and rejuvinatedI was so excited to play a giant sized Yeti:

The penguin flicking thing was good fun:

And this game with an airship thing was brilliant:

I loved it there actually, getting stuck into plenty of games with experts on hand to help with the rules.  Ned spent most of the day wandering about on his own getting stuck into tank games much to Alans delight!
 
Monday
Back to schooltoday....for a rest!
 
  

venice edit from Part Time on Vimeo.

Tuesday

The rescheduled Netball trials took place this week, I enjoyed it, we did mostly throwing and catching rather than full games this time.  It was a quick turn around to get me off to gymnastics in time.  At lwast there was a nice big hearty roast dinner ready for me when I got home.

Wednesday

It was raining like mad so we decided to give Team Kennet a miss.  We stayed at home and played Wii party instead, well, I say play Wii party, it was merely the excuse to allow is to argue like crazy, and fight and issue abuse to each other.

Friday

So to temper any end of week excitement I was forced to go along to a flipping rugby tournament that Ned was playing in.  I really did not want to go, not at all.  Having said that, it was a much better in the spring warmth than the more usual rugby weather of cold, howling wind with rain.

They did well actually, and came second!  There were also hotdogs on offer that were surprisingly good.

Saturday

Lilly Yeoman was having her birthday party at the ceramic painting place today.  I picked a princess to paint which raised a few eyebrows.  It was however, the best thing to paint, plenty of oppurtunity for colour variation over something like a horse thats all one colour.  I really went to town on it a d cant wait to see it fired.  We had a jolly good feed and got the biggest party bags ever¡

Mum, Dad and Ned came to pick me up and we headed straight to Reading for a spot of shopping.  It took sges to find somewhere to park which was a bit of a pain, but apparently par for the course in Reading.

We actually quite enjoyed ourselves, comedy glasses anyone?:

We all got a little something to top up our summer wardrobes before heading home, too late for roller skating sadly.

Sunday

Up early and off  , how exciting.  I couldnt wait to go on Dragons Fury again, especially as Dad missed it ladt time.  The weather was certainky better than last time!

We kicked things off on the Vampire, then made our way through Bubbleworks (probably our favourite),working our way around the surprisingly quiet park:

It was brilliant going on Dragons Fury with all of us, Mum and Dad sat the same side which certainly made for a spinnier ride!  It was brilliant.

I also went on the cobra for the first time and loved that too.  I tried really hard to be 140cm tall for the Rameses Revenge but came up a little bit short.....gutted.  I really want to go on that with the boys.  We rckon if we come back in October i'll be okay....

We went on the dodgems, the chair-o-planes and the laser shooter ride which was also surprisngly good fun.

Of course we stayed until closing time before heading home.  Stopping off at fleet services for a McDonalds and enjoying the foitbridge over the M3, we got a couple of waves from the cars speeding below.

Monday

I found out that i'd made the school netball squad, yay!  So thats Tuesday after schools taken care of for the foreseeable future.  It i going to be a tight schedule with gymnastics though.....

I did sone rather tense maths homework with Mum.  We don't see eye to eye about this subject really and I need to get some serious focus together to bother to so anything!

Tuesday

Netball trials were cancelled this week due to heavy rain.  Shame, I was quite up for it.  I went back to Sashas straight after scool to play before going to gymnastics.

We've made up after our minor disagreement so thats good.

Wednesday

In a recurring theme, Team kennet was cancelled due to rain as well as netball yesterday.  Summer is here!   Did rain a lot though....the playground was completely flooded at one point.

Thursday

Well the rain eased enough for us to participate in a six a side girls football tournament up at the rugby club:

We were in high spirits, despite me having to go in goal for the first game, not a position ive played before, having said that we haven't really done much practice at all:

I managed to keep a clean sheet for the first game as we drew 0-0.

That was to be the theme of our tournament, we drew a further three games 0-0 and eventually lost our last game 4-1.  So we hadnt done enough to qualify for the semi finals sadly.  

When I got home the garage had been re-roofed, the timber they used smelt lovely, going in there smelt like a giant rabbbit hutch!

Friday

I got home from school to smell my favourite meal cooking, yes we having ribs for tea!

A full rack, with corn on the cob and potato wedges...lovely.

We went down the park after tea dor some athletics training but had to abandon that due to some squabbling issues between Ned and I.  Oh dear.

Saturday

I was a late recruit to the quad kids team, despite not having attended any of the training sessions the Innov-8 coaches put me forward.  Everyone at home was really pleased as Ned has a long history of particiating in this event.  So theres four events, standing long jump, 400 metre run, 50 metre sprint and the vortex throw.

We started off with the standing longjump.  I put in a decent effort on this one, its certainly one of my favoured events.  Next up was my 400 metre run, my least favourite event.  Our team made a pact to not allow ourselves to come last.  I was delighted to come comfortably mid pack in my heat:

Next up was the sprint, which I normally struggle to make a good start on.  This time though I was away like a bullet and finished my heat in second place, I was very pleased with that.

Leaving the final event, the vortex, my favourite.  The feedback from Mum and Dad wasnt that positive for my throwing efforts....I thought i'd done okay though, and they couldn't see properly from where they were watching from.

We had a great day, the weather was perfect as well for once as we normally get at least a bit of rain.  There was a bit of time to kill as the results were collated:

Our school didn't win any of the overall prizes or individuals for that matter.  I have since found out though that I finished 15th overall (out of 120), and even better, I won the girls vortex throw overall.  I am so mega pleased about this.

In the evening we made a trip out to the Craven Arms with Alan and Nate.  Now Nates getting a bit bigger he can have a go on the swings:

And drink Capri Sun's:

We even got to take him home with us afterwards to watch the Eurovision song contest (which was pretty rubbish):

Sunday

We walked up to Park House late morning, there was a rynning event on and a few school bits and bobs too.  Ned couldnt get enough of the sumo wrestling set up:

He was pretty good actually.

I favoured the bouncy slide/castle/obstacle course:

And the archery was pretty good too:

The highlight of the day was the Dog Show though.  Talia was showing her dog, Rolo so that was an added bonus. There were various categories, including best trick and best six legs (meaning the owner and the dog trotting across rhe ring in unison). The best trick was a dog that howled along to its owner playing a harmonica.  And the six legs category provided the most comedic moment when Talia unintentionally dragged her other dog across the ring by its lead as it was having a lie down to enjoy the sunshine!

We had a burger from the barbecue and then an ice cream from the van.....a double cornet too!  

We walked back home, had a quiet afternoon, played Wii party and had a crack at some homework.

Monday

It was today that the Quad Kids results were posted, so that induced high levels of excitement as i've already mentioned.  I got two lots of words to remember for our class assembly on Friday so thats good.  And also found my school shoes (they had been missing for about a week) and about 58 drinks bottles i'd lost over the last couple of weeks (one of which was Ned's so thats calmed him down a bit).

Tuesday

In light of recent selection for the school football team, we took a trip to the sports shop after gymnastics.....I needed some football boots.  Great, another excuse for yet more footwear! 

Wednesday

I'm not a morning sort of person, sometimes, well it's a real struggle:

I had perked up enough by the time I got home form school to get my new boots on and go for some football practice down the park.  Ned came along too and was actually a really good coach and we didn't even end up having a fight!  I even had enough energy to put in a decent effort at Team Kennet in the evening too, it's a good job I keep something back in the mornings I reckon.

Thursday

More football practice down the park after school, this time though a load of the lads from my class were playing so I joined in with them instead.

Friday

Mum had seen an advert for a free dance show taking place in the market place so we rtook a walk in to town on a reasonably nice evening to see what was going on.  It all looked rather promising it has to be said, there was a carousel set up in the middle with benches all set up around it so we got a seat and waited for the forst of the acts to start.  It was a juggling act and it wasn't anywhere near where we had sat!  Having made the effort to go and have a look we were a little bit on the disappointed side with the act.  We were hoping the Dance performance was going to be better..It was, I loved it!  The show was called Carousel, it featured some amazing dancing and acrobatics as wll as a scary witch character.  I was really into it and danced all the way home....
Street theatre dance show

Saturday

We were up reasonably early for another of Ned's driving lessons at the showground.
In the adjoining field were a load of lorries parked up to let a load of racing pigeons go.  I was seriously intrigued by this and when one of the smaller lorries let their pigeons go it looked amazing as hundreds of them flew off, their wings catching the sun as they banked and weave before setting off for their home.
We watched Ned pull away again very expertly and then he sort of disappeared off into the far reaches of the road system at the show ground.
We had a kick about on the field (I had taken my boots of course) and before any time at all he was back!!!  Apparently he got up to 4th gear this time so was mighty pleased with himself.

We went home, got the bikes out and rode into town for lunch with Nate, Alan, Hayley, Anne and Mike.  Anne seems to have recovered from her horse riding incident so thats good.  We went to the 'Spoons so that was a good start to things, we still love it in there!
Once we'd done lunch we went for a wander around town with Nate, Alan and Hayley before deciding on going back to our house for a game of Yeti, a play with Nate (who took a few steps unaided) and some tea.
We rounded the day off watching Britains Got Talent.  Brilliant. 

Sunday

We woke up to a hot and sunny summers day!  Ned and I started off by cracking out the waterpistols for a waterfight and after a bit of uncalled for grumpiness from Dad the waterslide came out too, brilliant, we loooove the waterslide (video clip at end of post).
we decided a picnic at the river in Hungerford was a good idea, sadly so did a few other people so we couldn't get our usual spot on the far bank.

We went for a good old explore paddle:

Here I am in full Bear Grylls mode:

We stayed until just before the shops shut so we could get ice lollies on the way home.

We're starting on Greek mythology at school so I spent the evening starting on my Minotaur homework.

Sunny mid May 2016 from Part Time on Vimeo.

Tuesday

Weird weather day, sunshine, rain and epic hail:

I couldn't resist going out in it before I went off to gymnastics.

Wednesday

At least the hail had stopped today, a good thing seeing as Team Kennet is outside for the summer.

It was cold though....really cold.

Thursday

I got picked for the school team for an upcoming football tournament, im so excited!

It was baking night at home, I made some of my signature cheese and ham straws and made mum a couple of jam tarts.  Ned did a chocolate cake when he finally bothered to come home from school.

Friday

With a long weekend looming, it was only right and proper that we packed  up and set off for Cornwall. The car got loaded up, we had tea and then got on the road, I was so excited.

We got as far as Exeter before I needed a 'comfort break' so that was pretty good going. We weren't that late getting there really.....although I really do not enjoy the journey.  The ends certainly justifies the means though.  We were soon tucked up in bed, listening to the sound of the waves crashing in the distance.

Saturday

We had a reasonable lie in then took a leisurley breakfast, we slip into Cornwall mode very easily.  We ventured down to Gary's shop for some supplies, some jokes and to check out the surf.  The waves were better than the jokes, so we suited up and got in the sea.  Ned had his new board so I got to use his old one which is better than my falling apart one.

It was lovely too, sunny and everything, there should be a video attached at some point. Getting changed afterwards was a real pleasure, so much so that we got the blanket out on the grass and did some basking:

We certainly enjoyed the sunshine in the afternoon:

So a pretty perfect Cornwall day rounded off with some Camel Cup and Britains Got Talent on telly.

Sunday

Andy had arrived overnight, so that was a most welcome addition.  He'd bought some pretty grim weather with him though...it was grey and very wet.  In light of this we had a cooked breakfast and waited to see if things would brighten up.....they didn't.  We had a game of Camel Cup, tucked into the home baking and waited some more.....still grey and wet!

There was supposed to be the English national surfing championships at Watetgate Bay so we got in the car and went to have a look.  There wasn't much doing, with the greyness and drizzle we would have been surprised if the judges could have actually seen anything.  The boys decided to go for a surf, the mad fools.  We waited for them to get changed in the rainy car park before going for a wander around the shops there and then out onto the deserted beach:

It was pretty wet it has to be said.  In fact, I reckon we were wetter than the surfers when they came back.  Watching them get changed in the car park didn't look much fun thats for sure...

We headed back to the van to dry out and warm up.

We played a couple of games of sevens which 'The Shadow' won (Dad, what an embarrassment he is) before moving on to Mum's new game Yeti (very good).

Monday

Bit gloomy first thing but we had a visit to Padstow lined up to see the May Day event, a parade of the Obby Oss.  It sounded pretty weird to me, a bloke in a horse outfit prancing around the narrow streets?  We parked up and walked into town, it looked noticeably different to normal as there was loads and loads of bunting, flags and tree branches attached to all the buildings and across the streets:

We made our way into the town centre and it was getting busier and busier.  Then we could hear some music and some singing....we'd found the Blue Oss!

It was swirling and prancing about, wafting his skirt around.....weird!

Everyone seemed to love it though.  It wandered off through the town, accompanied by its band of drummers and accordian players and we made our way to the maypole:

It looked really lovely all decked out with the spring flowers.

Ned got on the internet and found out that the Red Oss was due to appear at 11:00, outside the Golden Lion Inn so we headed there.  There was already a pretty sizeable crown gathering outside and we hung about for a bit until 11.  First off loads of accordian players came out of the pub, there were loads of them and they lined the streets before being joined by the drummers and the singing began in earnest.  There was quite a lot of people by this point and there was a bit of a mild crush going on which i wasn't that keen on.  I left Ned right next to the deafening accordian players and went back to the safety of Mum and Dad.  They hoisted me up and I got to see the Oss do his thing as he emerged from the pub.  He soon pranced off up the street and the crowds started to dissolve.

I really wasn't sure what to make of it all!

We headed back to camp and the others decided they would go in the sea.  Id din't much fancy ot so went over to see Andy's Mum and Dad.  I did some drawing, ate some crisps and then Connie arrived so that was epic!

We went to the Youth Hostel for lunch as the sun broke through.

Just as we were finishing we spotted the rest of the Shepherd family wandering past with Connie on her walk.....so we tagged along and wandered over to Constantine Bay with them.  It was a lovely afternoon, Connie loved jumping into the rock pool to fetch her ball and as usual we had a questions (us) and answers (John) session with John:

We hung it out as long as we could but we couldn't deny it was time to pack up and go home.....but there was just time to play one last game of Yeti....

And heres the hastily cobbled together video, Ned did the slo-mo Obby Oss bit, it doesn't seem to like it very much with the weird coloured bars going on?

Cornwall may 2016 from Part Time on Vimeo.

Tuesday

Feeling very creative at the moment, here we have a Blu-Tac mermaid I rustled up before school:

Wednesday

We did cross country in PE at school, which is a shame for a couple of reasons...one I dont like it and two it made my ankles and feet hurt before Team Kennet in the evening.  I'm loving it at the moment as Eloise is there every week.  We gave her a lift home so her Mum didn't have to stay up there, Mum and Dad dont mind hanging about seemingly?

Friday

Had Sasha round for tea after school, her mum said she doesn't usually eat much but she certainly put it away!  We made some perfume concoctions, fussed my soft toy collection and just enjoyed hanging out before film night at school.
We got dressed up for it of course:

We may have overdone it a little with the body glitter.....and used it in my hair....quite a lot of it.  I was certainly sparkly!!!
The film was Hotel Transylvannia 2, brilliant, I hadn't seen it!

Saturday

We rode into town to get a few bits (Ned bought himself a selfie stick that i'm very jealous of).  We had lunch by the canal before riding home again.  My bike riding is coming on really nicely now, i'm a lot less wobbly and more confident in traffic.
I had to pack my stuff for Sasha's, it was her birthday party (cake decorating at her house) and then I was staying for a sleepover.  I also took my roller skates as we were going to try and fit that in too. The party was really good, we made lots of lovely cakes and had a great time.  We did manage roller skating too which was good.  The sleepover was really good too, we were asleep by 11 which is apparently quite early for such an event.  We both do like our sleep though....

Sunday

We had Bacon sandwiches for breakfast.....lovely!  Then it was back home as Sasha's brother was at a restaurant rugby tournament.

I had a very pleasant surprise when I got home as everyone had decided to go to Hollycombe Steam Fair and drag Nate and Alan along.

I bagsied sitting next to Nate in the car, best journey ever....he's so fun at the moment.

We had a picnic when we arrived, the donkeys in the field were very interested in it:

They desperatley wanted to tuck into the picnic, but when they couldnt reach that, they tried to eat Alans coat!  Nate loved them but did insist on trying to poke his finger up their nostrils.

Once inside we took him on the carousel:

Which he loved, until the organ music starting booming out!

Mum and I went on the Razzle Dazzle, its still brutal but really fun.

He loved waving at me and Alan and Mum and Ned on the big wheel:

Dad was relieved he didnt have to go on it anyway.

Ned almost got himself stuck on the childrens roundabout:

We had a go on the swing boats, and for the first time ever I was actually tall enough to go on the bigger grownup ones.  Ned and I went together at first, so obviously we argued like hell.  We decided to swap around with Mum joining Ned and I went in with Dad.  We were soon so high we were scraping the nearby tree tops.

Ned thenhad a go with Alan and almost went into orbit!

We had to take the little man on the train of course:

After that it was in to the cafe for a hot chocolate (it was a really cold day) and then home.

Ned sat next to Nate who promptly fell asleep....as did I!

Monday

Back to school after a packed weekend.

We took Ned kayaking again and headed off down the park again.  We got dressed in more appropriate clothing this week as it was pretty cold.  Ned certainly looked a bit chilly when we saw him, he was soaked and had quite obviously been right in the canal!