Another quick fire update to get us back up to date after holidays I think....

Yeah, good idea.  We got back from hoilday with a bump and it was a family outing to Tesco on the monday so we had something to eat and drink for the week.

It wasn't too bad a trip actually, we had to buy presents for the run of birthday parties i've been invited to over the next few weeks so that was nice.

We also bought our own set of Uno cards as well, brilliant, home for Uno it was then!

Mum was off with us for the whole week so a lazy morning was in order on Tuesday with plenty of telly to watch.

Dad got home at lunchtime and then we had to go out shopping...urrrgh! 

Having sid that, it wasn't actually too bad.  We went to get shoes for everyone bar Mum.  SHe had a lovely time trying 'fascinators' on though, they made us laugh thats for sure.

I made up for that by getting two pairs, one for Alan and Hayleys wedding and a pair of new trainers (my old ones were so smelly they had to be disposed of).

Wednesday morning we had a trip tp the park.

Which meant time away from my precious television.

And then in the afternoon we headed for Legoland.  We hadn't ever been in the holidays before and my word was it busy!

Yeah it was, but I think that helped us sneak in when it turned out that our 'annual' passes don't actually seem to work during school holiday?

We had a lovely time playng in the water park, here I am plugging a water jet with my head:

While Mum and Ellis queued up for the boats, I decided that the cars were the way forward.  I managed to get two goes before Mum and Ellis got on.

I really enjoyed it on the boats though so it was well worth the wait:

The queues seem to be dieing out a bit by late afternoon and seeing as it was open until 8, we had plenty of time to get on the rides:

And after we'd ridden the Viking River Splash, the Pirate Ship, The Spinning Spiders, the little Train, a good stint on the playgound, Supersonic Racers and Scarab Bouncers we managed to squeeze another go on the cars in:

Thursday Morning saw another one of my main summer holiday objectives fulfilled when we visited the new(ish) Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe in town.

Before heading to the cinema to see the Smurf's film.

I loved it.

I wasn't so sure really.

On Friday afternoon we went to the Corn Exchange to see a show, Mr Benn.

Apparently this was on telly when Mum and Dad were kids?  Never heard of it myself but they seemed keen enough.

It was really good though, plenty of laughs, adventure and even a sprinkling of magic tricks.

After that we hit the shoe shops yet again for my third new pair of the week, this time though it was for my school shoes.....it won't be long now and i'm proper excited.  Almost as excited as I am about my dancing classes starting again.  I do put on the occasional performance at home of me dancing skills (in my proper dancing outfit of course).

Saturday was my nursery graduation party.  I'd already had my last day of course so this was my final farewell.

I was quite keen to go back as well to see what I could get up to.

It turned out to be a bit of a party actually, we had a bouncy castle, loads of outdoor games to play, music and a good turnout of my friends and their mums and dads as well as the nursery ladies.

There was even some running races, which I loved of course:

There were parents races too, Dad put in a respectable performance, as did Mum, at least she didn't fall over like some of the other mums.

I decided against the cloak and mortar board we had been made and went in a more casual style to pick up my certificate from my favourites Claire Bear and Jenny:

After the presentation the old gang got together for a few pictures, my posing was causing quite a stir:

From left to right-Luca (sitting down, going to my school), Poppy, Ella, Neeve (going to my school), Eva, Lois and my good self.  We had some lunch and some more games in the playground before saying our goodbyes.  I think Mum almost managed to not have a cry again.

We went over to Waitrose to get some lunch and bumped into Auntie Christine and Uncle Ian.  We put our food order in for later in the week when she was going to look after us again.

After lunch we had a wander down the park, I rode my bike really well.

I walked, I hate wearing my crash helmet so i'd rather not ride my bike at all.  Ben from school was down there and I think he was pretty pleased to see me.  We took off and climbed trees at the other end of the field.

And I ride my bike loads.

We got packed off to bed before Alan and Owen came round to play their geeky board games in the evening, I was so gutted.

Sunday was party day again fo r me, this time for Lois' birthday at Krazy Klub.  I helped mum wrap the present and wrote the card myself.

While they were at the party Dad and I went bowling.  I found it a bit of an ordeal really, I tried my hardest but Dad gave me a total stuffing.  I was really pleased with my one strike...until he got five!  The arcade machines were great fun though, I whooped him on the motorbike one, drew at air hockey and managed to make a quid last a very long tme indeed on the 10p falls (even if we didn't win the Haribo's teetering over the edge).  We went to a bike shop afterwards to try me for size on a mountainbike.  I hope 'Father Christmas' brings me one this year.....

We had a great time at the party, even if I didn't want to join in the musical chairs until half way through.  Apparently you can't do that.  I helped Ella overcome her fear of the slide though by holding her hand as we went down together though.

Monday was a bank holiday of course, but Mum went to work anyway, she says it was because she could then have wednesday off to look after us.  Dad reckons she just wanted a rest after having a week off with us.

We took her to work and went straight to Victoria park.  We stayed for over an hour an had a great time.

Mum only worked a short day, so we soon went to pick her up and Dad insisted on having a barbecue before we run out of 'summer'

Luckily he cooked the food outside and then bought it in, it wasn't a very nice day really for sitting outside.

I was forced, once again to go out after tea for a bloomin' walk.  I can't see the point but Mum, Dad and Ellis seem to love it?

Well if you hadn't guessed we've been on our holidays.
To Cornwall of course.
But going back to before that we've got a bit to catch up on.
I rode my scooter all the way to nursery again on Tuesday, well until it started raining and I took to the buggy for cover.
In the afternoon we went to the park, we all took our bikes so it was perfect for me to spend some time riding Ellis' tiny little bike as well as Dad's massive mountain bike.  He couldn't believe I could ride it, it wasn't long until I was challenging my friends down there to races and blowing them away on it.
Thusday was a big day for me, my last day at nursery.  How about that?  I wasn't too worried about it all really, just another day at nursery.  Doesn't seem to have applied to Mum or indeed Claire-Bear though when she dropped me off, they thought they'd mark the occasion with a bit of a cry.  Bless them eh?  Even Dad got a bit worked up when he came to pick me up, we both got a cuddle from Claire-Bear before we left and a whole load of photographs and my artwork that i'd produced over the years.
I had my last day at Multi Sports too, got a cool certifiacte and finally got to watch my film choice (even though it was a really short film, which I think caught Mr Gillam out a bit).
Alan was looking after us on Friday and we were all set to go to JJ's.
My total highlight, i've been asking to go for ages so I was super excited about this one.
But it all went a bit wrong when we realised Dad had taken our car seats to work with him.
Big disappointment, so we stayed in, watched telly and played Wii and Pokemon!  Not so bad after all.
We went to the park too!
Once Dad was back we had to get busy packing the car for hoilday, I helped him plenty.  Well, I thought it was helpful anyway.
I carried on probing Alan for Pokemon knowledge.
So once we had picked Mum up from work and she'd got changed we were on our way!  We met up with Andy and Owen before we set headed off west, it was all rather exciting.
Yeah, we couldn't wait to go and see Gary in his shop.
We stopped at Exeter services on the way down, a much more pleasureable experience since a branch of the Pasty shop has opened there.
Once we were sat down and tucking into our supper Alan and Hayley turned up, soon to be followed by Kimi and Marney as well.  Quite a get together it turned out to be.
We got back into our cars refuelled and ready for the rest of our journey.  Well, we fell asleep pretty much before we re-joined the motorway anyway.
Before we knew it, it was Saturday morning and time for stroll to see the sea and of course pay a visit to Gary's shop.
As well as get aquianted with the Flack's who were staying just down the field in A16.
This of course meant Darcey!!!  I was soooo excited.
Once we'd helped the Tesco man unload our weeks worth of supplies we hit the beach:

Plenty of digging to be done of course, picnics to eat....

And for me, swimming, loads of swimming, all around the rock pools between the rocks and what have you.  I loved it.  I also developed a taste for tombstoning as well:

We bought some new nets, first catch a particularly unruly Ellis fish:

We got buried in the sand:

We surfed, sometimes even venturing out of the rock pools and into the open sea:

There were plenty of oppurtunities for some Darcey cuddle action:

Yup, there most certainly was:

I even got to push her all the way around Constantine Bay and back on an evening walk:

I loved that and did a very good job.

I did a good job of posing for photo's:

We went to Tintagel, the gift shops were amazing, more tut than even Ellis and I could ever want.  Loads of wizard stuff, dragons and crystals and what have you.

But best of all, temporary tattoo's!  A collection of lovely girly ones for me.

And a set of kick ass dragon ones for me, to match my cool shorts.

The castle itself was down a massive hill, it was a nice walk down.  We stopped at the bottom for a brief picnic and a discussion of battle tactics and how you might defend or attack such a position.

We sat and looked out to sea:

We headed on back down from the castle with the ominous thought of a long hard slog back up the hill hanging over us:

But there was no need to worry as we decided to treat ourselves to a Land Rover trip back up.

This was probably my highlight of the week, the driver was really friendly and it was just brilliant when he put his foot down and we had a right old zoom on!

We went Karting with John and Sarah, which was really exciting.  I don't know what went faster though, the go-karts or my jaw chattering non stop with excitement before we got on.

Once again I was too little to have a go, but I wasn't that worried, I did some Ellis style skateboarding (check the video out):

I loved it almost as much as I loved talking about it:

It was great fun having John, Sarah, Andy, Owen and Mum to race around, even if I did get bumped on the last corner of the last lap and ended up stuck in the tyres pointing the wrong way.  Dad was particularly proud of one of my manouvers, after I kept the accelerator full on despite nearly running out of track on a pretty wide overtake.

There was a bit of a change of pace for a visit to Springfields pony centre.

Ice creams, we love ice creams, especially in cornwall:

 

And of course once all the parks had been played in, the slides slid down, the boats rowed and the pedal cars pedalled there was the pony riding.

Yes indeed there was, I was pretty much as excited as I had been about the Karting for this one truth be told:

Here I am onboard 'Cobweb'

And here I am on 'Candy'  The most massive of all the 'ponies' they have. I was really pleased about that, even if it was a long way up:

We had a lovely wander around the woodlands for about half an hour in the sunshine, a lovely trip round it was.

I took to completing my beauty regime under the outdoor 'surfers' shower on the way back from the beach:

We went for a walk to the lighthouse you can see from the caravan at night time, it was surprisingly nice, even if you couldn't actually get into the lighthouse itself:

Conclusive proof that I have mastered the art of flip flop wearing:

I have made a claim to having the biggest mouth in Cornwall:

Beach racing, I love running, running and indeed racing on the beach is even better:

I had plenty of takers too, the best being Laura it has to be said.

Sandcastles don't just build themselves you know....

...Dad builds them and then I take the glory!

Then there was my new favourite game, Uno.  The Flacks were always playing so i'd sneak over to their van as often as I could get to get a game.  If they weren't around though, Mum would have to do:

 And then to finish off the week it was another great big sandy creation, we were particularly proud of this one:

Other highlights of our week included my new favourite flavour ice cream, toffee fudge.

Me managing to get our inflatible boat stuck on the other side of the low tide cave (I wedged the string between two rocks to stop it drifting away and it wouldn't come back out).  It was a great oppurtunity for Dad and Owen to get all Bear Grylls and saw through it with sharp stones.

The sheer volume of home made baking on offer, from the efforts we made before we left, to the lovely lemon drizzle that Mrs Shepherd left for us in the fridge of the caravan and uncle Ian's lavish chocolate birthday cake.  Not to mention the ones from Gary's shop! 

My loud shout of 'Praying Mantis' from my bed during a grown ups game of Pictionary.  I think Andy was trying to draw a wasp, but I got closer than any of the players, not to mention giving everyone a real good laugh.

And of course there was the Uno, my new favourite card game, one that on the whole I don't get stroppy about losing as i'm happy to have a go at Andys record bad score (somewhere in the region of 190 I think?).

Anyway, thanks to everyone that came along and made it such a cool time, hopefully see you all again down there next year!

Multi sports on tuesday, and we got to try proper long jump into the sandpit.  I'm claiming a jump of over 7 feel, which although it hasn't been independently verified is totally legit!  We also played football and I scored a magnificent five goals to help our team win the match 5-2.

I had a quiet afternoon with Dad, we did a bit out in the garden and slumped in front of the TV, i'm really making the most of my lazy afternons without Ned and before i'm having to stay at school all day.  I've been really loving the hot weather though, playing out in the garden with our water toys.  I've even managed to get the hang of the slide now, as you will see at the video at the bottom.

Uncle Alan had the pleasure of our company on Wednesday.  After much careful debate we opted of rthe Cotswold wildlife park.

Mum made a bit of a mistake and didn't tell hime a few vital things though:

1) We like to have lunch early, campainging usually begins at 11am with an eye on an 11:30 lunchtime.

2) No matter where we go, if there's a park or playground we'd rather go on that than see whatever else is on offer at the chosen attraction.

3) I don't like walking very far.

We did have a cool time though, even if I didn't get to see quite as many animals as i'd have liked.  At least we managed to spot my lost hat from the train ride around the park though, even if it was a long old walk to go and retrieve it.

When we got home Uncle Den was keeping Dad company, it was lovely to see him of course, I love his motorbike, he even let me press the start button and the horn!

So Thursday I came home with a certificate proclaiming me player of the day after multi sports on Thursday!  Not bad eh?  This was a general award for all the sports we covered that day, including cricket and dodgeball amongst other things.  I've still not managed to win the DVD of the day competition though.

I took Dad around Tesco for the weeks provisions.  It was so enthralling I fell asleep in the trolley again.

Friday was an Auntie Christine day, she took pity on us and reckoned we looked tired.

So it was declared a lazy DVD day, yay!

We watched Shrek the third, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 and best of all, How to train a dragon.

We loved it, really loved it.  So much so that when Dad arrived to pick us up we made him sit and watch it with us.

The weekend was upon us.  BMX racing had been moved to Saturday so I decided we'd go along and I wouldn't get all stressy this time.  Andy came along for the ride and the picnic.

Yeah, I took my bike and had a great time with the racers:

 


So here I am leading the field out into the second corner:

Still in front towards the halfway point and everything is looking good:

But I sort of decided it was all too easy, lost one place to my mate Charlie and then got pipped on the line for third.  Oops.  Not so good really.  Truth be told I had a bit of a shocker.  I did pretty much the same thing in my second moto but managed to salvage a second place.  The third race was no better either with a pretty nasty crash when I hit someone who was over taking me.  I was not happy, not happy at all crossing the line in last place once i'd got up and dusted myself down.

I was a little more positive by finals time and once again lead the race all the way until the last corner when Charlie passed me. I couldn't believe it.  Everyone said I had raced very well though so thats something I suppose.  Charlie and I had a great time though and he soon appeared after the race with some sweets to share with Ellis and I.

We headed into Portsmouth after the race as it was all finished quite early.

We rather liked this old torpedo:

But not as much as we liked the Spinnaker tower.

We went up in a super speedy lift and couldn't believe how high we were when we got to the top.

The glass floor was really cool, you could see right down to the ground and indeed the sea through it:

You could see for miles and miles, you could even see HMS Victory down below in the hostoric shipyard:

We went out for a pub lunch on Sunday to the Furze Bush.

It was all very civilized for us actually, I had a lovely fish and chips to go with my mayonnaise bowl.

I had sausages, beans and chips and made it into a variety of comedy faces.

The main event though was of course the park out the back, even if it was a bit mucky in places:

Still, it was nice and clean when I had finished playing.

Auntie Christine again today. 

Even though I tried to play the tired card we ended up going to Reading on the train.

Yeah, we had to go and get George the monkey a new voice from the Build A Bear shop.

Yeah, we loved it in there though so it was well worth going.  What made it even more worthwhile was the fact that I was finally allowed on one of those inflatible balls that you walk around inside on a big pool of water.  I've always wanted to go on these but Mum and Dad always say no.  It was every bit as brilliant as i'd hoped too and I loved it, even if it was pretty tiring and it was quite hard to get up if you fell over.

I had a go on the big slide instead as I wasn't old enough for the balls just yet.

We ended up having a right old get together in the end, Laura, Darcey, Uncle Ian, Auntie Trish and Mum and Dad in the end.  Shame we had to go home really......

Nah, my school uniform had arrived and I couldn't wait to try it on.  I looked proper grown up in it and was so excited.  You'll have to wait until September for pictures i'm afraid....

I had my last ever Stretch and Grow session at nursery on Tuesday, i'm really going to miss that. Dad came to get me from nursery on the bike, I made him stop at the city playground on the way home of course.  It was lovely to go there in the dry and I dazzled him with my climbing skills.
I had a whole day of multi sports with my favourite, Mr Gillam at school.  It was brilliant, we did loads of cool sports, with a lunchtime break DVD to watch.  I couldn't decide whether or not i'd want to stay all day to begin with but I loved it and stayed on until the bitter end at 4 in the afternoon.
Wednesday we had a day out with Alan pencilled in our activities diary. 
I don't why he was so worried about it, we're pretty easy going company after all.
We went to a Maize Maze near Basingstoke.
Yeah, we didn't last long in our first trip into the maze though as I decided I was hungry and wanted to make a start on the frankly massive picnic Mum had packed us.
Aside from the Maze (which we did complete incidentally, i've got our stamped booklet to prove it) there were loads of other cool things to do, like this bouncy castle:

Even if Ned and I did have an accidental clash of heads resulting in me getting a rather nasty bruise on my cheek.  There was a digable sandpit:

Pedal Go karts:

A mountain of hay bales to climb:

An old vintage tractor to climb over:

We came home worn out, but not as worn out as Alan, who had also managed to turn himself pink with sunburn, even though it was cloudy all day?  Ha ha.

Sports day again on Thursday, it was really good again but we weren't allowed ot watch my Narnia DVD at lunchtime, it was a PG and we're only allowed U's.

It was take your pet to nursery day as well, good job I didn't know that before we got there otherwise Poppy may have been in for a day trip.  As it was we had to make do with Daisy the tortoise.  We loved her and I even picked her up nicely for a cuddle.

Friday and we rounded the week off with a day with Auntie Christine again. 

After we'd helped uncle Ian mix up the bird food for their feeders in the garden we went to Eddi Katz which was cool.

Auntie Christine dazzled us with her football skills on the indoor pitch too.

I had a nice lazy afternoon.

And I had a session playing games on the laptop.

We picked Mum up from work and headed our for a picninc.  The weather was a bit gloomy and it even rained a little bit.

We carried on regardless, played on the park and had a game of boules on the field before heading home.

We had a lay in on saturday morning to catch up after our action packed week.

And then we headed off to Yanna and Fen's for another Barbecue, this time for Kin's birthday.

I got busy on the skateboard:

I shot some hoops:

Did some scootering:

Drank fizzy pop and ate lovely biscuits:

Before we all had a game of rounders:



I'm not exactly sure how strictly we stuck to the rules but we had a great time playing anyway!

We went to Grandads for Sunday lunch, they had bought us a really cool boules set.  The jack was an egg and instead of balls you had to throw chickens at it! 

It was really funny even though I wasn't very good at it.

They were a little bit unpredictable, which added to the fun I think.

We ate loads and loads for lunch before heading to the park in the afternoon for a bit more boule and a go on the playground, cool.

There was a Ned/Ellis split today.

I went to Auntie Christines, for colouring fun amongst other things.

And I went on a trip to the Living Rainforest on a trip with nursery.  It was really good and we were so excited.  We went on a proper coach and everything. We saw some lovely animals like Toucans, fish and frogs as well as some cool plants and what have you.  We had a picinic (I have decided  I like marmite sandwiches too now) and a play on the park before heading back to nursery.  Ned and Dad were waiting for us at the gate and I was really excited to tell them what i'd been up to and show them my toucan postcard, sparkly pencil and lovely pink sparkly rubber.

This afternoon, seeing as it was so hot, the paddlng pool came out, about time too eh?

It was pretty cold but we were soon in, having a splash and daring each other to go under water.

And then the water pistols came out of course.  Brilliant.

We had to interrrupt our water play to pick Mum up from work, but she'd bought home with her a really cool slide that you connect to a hospipe and zoom along.  It took a bit of getting used to but I was soon enough shooting along the whole length.

Hmmm, i'm struggling with it a bit, but i'm sure i'll get there soon enough....