Tuesday

We did football in PE and played Dodgeball at playtimes, I am enjoying the sport now we're back in the swing of things at school.

And I got my first reading book of the new term, which I know made Mum very happy.

Gymnastics was really good this week too, on the way there I was telling Dad that my favourite apparatus was the bars, and thats exactly what we did for most of the session.

Wednesday

I was very excited to be able to take Dad on a brief classroom tour when he came to pick me up.  I showed him my new peg and where I sit now.

I got a letter from school all about our Ufton Court trip.  The fact that we got a letter about it has ramped up the excitement level several notches so we're approaching fever pitch.

Thursday

I had my first after school dancing session of the new term, it went rather well and was a lot of fun.

Friday

Last day of the week, and it couldn't come soon enough for us.

We were both pretty whacked out after our first full week back.

I had enough left in the tank for swimming though.

And I had enough energy left to talk non stop to Edward and Eva's mum for half an hour pretty much without a breath.

Saturday

We packed up early and headed off for Brooklands museum.  

Mum had the tickets as a Christmas present so it was high time we used them.

Apparently it was the first motor racing track in the country back in 1907, cool or what?

There were loads of cool things to look at, hidden away in sheds and buildings.

I loved the motorbikes.

And I loved my eye-spy book, it had all the things around the museum in it to tick off.  Some were harder to find than others and were rewarded with more points accordingly.

I had little teddies to find among the exhibits, each one had a letter attached to it to spell out a word at the end.  They were in some funny old places, one was even hanging upside down, from an upside down formula one car on the roof!

Here I am clutching my book next to the Napier Railton, the car that still holds the lap record for the fastest lap around the track.

I don't think theres much chance of anyone ever beating it now though, seeing as most of the track has gone.

In fact there was a Marks and Spencers on a bit of it.

I easily spotted the Bentley badge on this one!

I was amazed that all of the cars and the motor bikes had what looked like a litter tray underneath them, catching drops of oil from their engines.  

The circuit was also used for bike racing and they had loads of old bikes from penny farthings through to boneshakers, choppers, BMX's, road bikes and mountain bikes.  There was nothing on show i'd have fancied taking round the pump track though.  Dad took great delight in pointing out the old bikes he used to have, a Raleigh Striker and a Raleigh Burner.  I thought they looked a bit rubbish.

This one was pretty cool though, it wad called an Ellis!

We stopped for lunch which was in the old clubhouse.  It had a pink room that the ladies used for reading apparently.  It was rather nice, although there were plenty of photo's showing the ladies in their racing overalls And getting out on the track which is where I think I would have been given the choice.

There was also a particularly hard to spot item from my book in one of the cabinets in there, a Michelin man ornament....well spotted Mum, it was worth lots of points.

As well as the wheeled sport, the place was also used as an airfield so there were plenty of aeroplane things to see too.

They used to make sections of Concord there too, so we got to have a tour of their concord.

It was really cool, we couldn't believe how fast it used to go either.  Or how hot it got when it flew, or that it grew 15cm in length due to this heat.

We lapped it all up, but really do wonder why it has to take so long for us to get to America these days?

We got to sit in the cabin while they played a video, detailing what is was like to fly in Concord.

It was pretty convincing too, I had to look out of the window several times to double check we hadn't actually taken off!

We went for a wander up to the section of track that still remains.

It was a lot steeper than it looks on this picture, as Dad can testify, having ended up on his backside twice!

In fact the only one of us who didn't end up getting a much closer look at the track surface than we wanted was mum.

Of course, being a race track, we had to have a run along it!

We then paid a visit to the London Bus museum, it was really rather good, loads of buses, all shiny and lovely.

I befriended one of the staff members to help me with my Eye Spy book and he took the chains of a normally closed bus so we could have a look around it.

It was well cool going upstairs on it!

According to my unticked pages of book, we needed to visit the aviation section next.

A massive shed full of all sorts of aeroplanes where we got to sit in the drivers seat of a harrier jet:

The man pointed out all the good switches and buttons for the rockets, guns, bombs and ejector seat.

I struggled to reach the foot pedals a bit but I reckon I could have flown it home no problem.

We also got to use the bomb drop simulator (after just about passing the maths test).

All I really had left to find then was some leftover war defences (the place was quite a target during the second world war due the planes being built there at the time).  After a bit of a detour into the wilderness we found them and after a quick photo stop on the bridge we were done:

Instead of heading home though, we headed for an overnight hotel stop.

Brilliant, we do love a hotel trip.

Especially when there's a swimming pool on tap to help soothe our poor old tired legs and feet after walking around all day.

We had a great swim, and as usual ended up with the pool to ourselves, cue a series of high energy swimming races.

We headed back to the room for bed-slump-picnic:

We then had a group cuddle up session watching Saturday night tv.

Sadly there was no Strictly, so we had to make do with the X Factor and Keith Lemon doing though the keyhole instead.

We had a lovely lay in in the morning.

Then headed down for breakfast, we do love a hotel breakfast and never seem to tire of the novelty of being able to help ourselves to whatever we like.

Especially hot chocolate on tap!

There was time for another swim before we had to leave. Excellent!

We headed for home, I spent the rest of the day pottering about the house and designing the cover for my new school learning log.

While I went to see if Hugo was in and then spent the rest of the day playing on the computer with him.

Monday

Oh dear, I woke up at 4 am with a screaming ear ache.  I'd been suffering with a bit of a cold as it was and this tipped me over the edge pretty much, there were plenty of tears and cuddle requests.

I also woke up with the most blocked up snotty nose of all time, although I didn't feel too bad otherwise.

I did, so no school for me, and a trip to the doctors instead.  One bottle of medicine and a confirmed ear infection later I was on my way home again for some serious sofa time.

I had a good day at school, I won some golden time for being so good in assembly and really threw myself into after school dancing.

I spent the morning cuddling up to Mum and the the afternoon cuddling up to Dad.  Poor me.

I even put myself to bed before tea was even dished up.

Tuesday

Our last day of the holidays.

And by special request and arrangement, Dad was on duty for the day.

I'd banned any bike related activities as well, so that put a whole new slant on his usual solo days out.

Indeed it did, I was quite open to a bit of bike related activity really but was up for anything.

We decided we should do something Mum wouldn't be interested in and with bikes out of the question , ice skating would be the perfect answer.

So we headed for Oxford Ice rink and got there just as it opened, we were well excited putting our skates on.

Especially me, as mine were well cool.

Well, the ice was seriously slippery, and seriously hard when you ended up on your bottom.

Indeed it was, I struggled a bit to begin with, so we went and got me a push along penguin.  I was soon gliding along behind him with ease.

I ventured out on my own, clinging hold of the side to begin with before I found my feet and started to get around really quite well.

I decided i'd gone as far as I could with my little penguin friend and decided holding Dads hand was a much better option.  I had mixed fortunes with this approach, as I did have spells of graceful gliding, but there was a lot of falling over, a real lot of falling over.

While all this was going on I was going about my business and doing lap after lap, building my confidence.

We managed well over an hour of skating before we decided that we should leave the ice with a full complement of fully functioning limbs.

It was great fun, mum woud have hated it.

She would have loved the next thing on the agenda though, Hinksey Park outdoor swimming pool.

I was well excited, i'm still mad keen on swimming.

It was so much nicer than the outdoor pool at Northcroft thats for sure.

Indeed it was, the changing rooms were nice and the pool looked really rather inviting.

It was even pretty warm water too, result!

We jumped, we splashed, we dived for our dive sticks.

Then we got out and a picnic by the side of the pool.

We were soon back in again though for more splashing and some stop watch time trials of various silly tasks.

Then it was a quick scooter ride around to the nearby park for a bit:

We stayed for a while, until we got bored of it, which just so happened to work out well as by the time we got back to Newbury it was time for my gymnastics.

Once we'd dropped her off we headed straight to the library, i'd finished my last two books for the summer reading challenge and I was seriously pleased with myself.

I marched in there as proud as punch and really relished going up to the lady on the counter to claim my certificate, my medal and my final game cards.

They then came pick me up once I was finished and it was off to get Mum before rounding out the day , and indeed the summer holidays with a trip to Pizza Hut.

What a way to end the holidays, perfect.

We've had such a cool break this year, we've done so much, been so many places and had so much fun.

Indeed we have, so thanks to everyone involved this year, you know who you are!

Wednesday

Well, obviously with yesterday being the last day of the holidays, today was the first day back to school.

I didn't want to go at all.

I did!

It was of course business as usual and we had no idea what we'd been doing all day when asked after school.

Nope, that's the rules though.

Although I did win two marbles for good behavior.

Thursday

I also got a marble on Thursday for sustained effort and enthusiasm during our history lesson.  I even put the whole class right about the correct order of various historical era's.

At home, it's all been about Clash of Clans though, my latest Ipod game sensation. I've even got Mum and Dad to try this one out though I don't think they have quite as much enthusiasm about it as I do though.

Friday

The end of the school week, thank goodness for that.

I had swimming in the afternoon, but sadly we didn't ride this week.

And i'm struggling with the idea of Edward doing lessons again and not playing with me on the park!

There was an event on in town in the evening, called 'Ablaze'

We weren't sure what it was, but there was stuff on fire along the canal, it sounded too good to miss.

Although we nearly did, when we got to West Mills the queue was massive, right back to past the church.  It looked a loooooong wait.

But in actual fact it moved pretty quickly and we were soon onto the tow path.

It was really rather cool, there were fairy lights along the trees, and braziers all along the middle of the canal.

Add to that people playing instruments and singing dotted along the route.

There were weird spinning things.

Everything looked so different with the flickering flames reflecting on the water.

The pond in the park was transformed:

Although the swans were not impressed:

The park really was quite something:

There was stuff onfire everywhere:

There was some weird music coming from the bandstand, Mum loved it, I did too, in fact I burst into a spontaneous dance routine as I watched the flames dancing all around me.

I sat down and took it all in:

We were really glad we went, even though after our first week back to school we were seriously worn out......

Saturday

Lazy morning after last nights outing.

Yeah, it was rather called for I reckon.

We headed into town for 'new term' haircuts.

And lunch in Costa (although i'm smuggling in very high quality Greggs sausage rolls for my main course).

I had Lois' party after that, ceramics painting at he garden centre like we did with Auntie Christine.  While all the other girls picked ballerina's or mermaids to paint, I picked..........a Skull!

So we had a couple of hours to kill and ended up looking at the show house on the new race course housing development.  I'd moved in within seconds of stepping through the door, how cool to be that close to all those horses!

They came to pick me up, I was soaked as Eva and I had darted outside while it was chucking it down with rain.

We went home and watched some Saturday night telly....

Yeah, Strictly come dancing.

And the Mum upset us by refusing to let us to go and babysit Darcey with her....not impressed.  Even if she was already in bed.

Sunday

We had a walk up Beacon hill in the morning.

Yeah, it was a long way up, but we pretty much ran all the way up it.

There was of course the obligatory war based conversation from me, where would you attack or defend or spot advancing soldiers.

The view from the top really was worth the climb:

We had Auntie Trish coming round for tea.

So I helped Mum tidy up a bit.

We love having Auntie Trish round, we had a nice chat with her, performed song and dance routines for her.

And had a couple of games of cards with her after tea.

Monday

Back to school for our first full week.

But a least our after school clubs have started up again.

Yeah dancing was great fun, we danced to the Madness song Baggy Trousers and had to pretend to be really naughty...not too hard for us lot!

And I was back to cross country club, which has started earlier in the season than ever this year.  They must be taking it more seriously or something, although we certainly didn't notice.  It was as great fun as it always has been.

Tuesday:

A day with auntie Christine and Darcey.

We were re-aquainted with our painted pottery, I was super pleased with mine.

I wasn't quite so pleased with mine, the paint colour lacked the depth and impact I was hoping for.

We played out in the garden nearly all day:

 

It was gymnastics again, my old friend from Nursery and School Adrija was there for a taster session, hope she liked it and comes again.

While she was there I took my latest book that I had finished back to the library.  I collected my stickers and carefully selected 'random' game cards from the box.  I was well hyper about it.

They were done very quickly, in time to watch some gymnastics action properly as it was the last week of term viewing session.  Which was great, until everyone laughed at me for splatting face down on the horse (it was intentional by the way).

Wednesday:

We went to the school holiday club, neither of us were looking forward to this at all.

No, we like the relaxed and laid back vibe of Dragon club.

But it turned out to be really quite agreeable actually.  We got to do some art stuff,make cowboy hats and sherrif badges....

And we got to do some sporty stuff too, but the main focus of my day was Dad coming to get us, and take Hugo and I to Games Workshop.  Hugo's already hooked and he's done a good job of getting me involved.  I made a figure, painted him up and played a quick game against Hugo (which I won) inside half an hour.  Now we're considering pooling our resorces to fund a starter set.....

I quite enjoyed seeing what it was all about too actually.

There was even one of old teaching assistants called Mr Nash in there playing a game too, so that was cool.  He was awesome at playing dodge-ball with us, I told him he was missed at school, that went down well in front of his mates.

I finally went back to Team Kennet this week, it's been weeks.  My enthusiasm was running at the same high levels and to make it even better we had a team 'sort of quad kids' tournament.

While he was doing this, I was doing timed sprints u and down the side of the track and once i'd puffed myself out I did some of my maths problems book.

The competition went really well, I performed well and felt good and our team won!

Each team member won a nice little Team Kennet pin badge, I was proper chuffed.

Thursday:

Mum was off again today.

So after a typically sluggish morning we finally got moving and headed off to town for the annual ritual of buying new school shoes!

Yes we did have to go through it again.

I'm an 11.5 F.

And i'm a 2G.

I didn't get a little toy inside mine, not happy about that, but a trip to the Entertainer soon remedied that, thanks Mum.

We went home for lunch and then packed up some stuff for tea and our swimming costumes before swinging by Dads work to pick him up and we headed for Southbourne.

Yay, a seaside trip!

What made it even more brilliant was the Red Arrows starting a display over Bournemouth pretty much the moment we spread out our blanket on the beach to sit down.  It was an awesome display and I loved it.

They flew really low over us and I loved the coloured smoke coming out the back of the planes as they flew by.

After we'd watched that it was time for a bit of digging and general beach stuff.

Before hitting the water for a swim, it was such a lovely afternoon it would have been rude not to.

No wetsuits either, but the water was actually surprisingly pleasant once we were in.

We enjoyed the waves and I swam a long way out alone.

We'd worked up an appetite so headed back to the blanket for a well needed picnic.

And then went for a walk along the prom once we were dressed until the sun went down.

What a lovely afternoon.

Friday:

We had to go to school club again today.

But we had a great day!

Highlights were archery on the field and sweets.

Yeah, sweets, as prizes, we loved that.

Dad came to get us quite late as the traffic was so bad across town, in light of this we decided the best way for us to get to the swimming pool in time for my lesson was to ride our bikes.

It was a lovely afternoon for it and it really took no time at all, it wasn't far to the canal and then it was a short ride along the tow path until we got to the bridge over to Northcroft.

In fact, we were so early we had time to play on the park before we had to go in.

Swimming went well again.

And then we rode our bikes around the wafty BMX track at the top of the hill for a while, well, until I had a pretty nasty off and grazed my hands and elbows.  I shrugged it off though and we bombed down the hill to play on the park until Mum left work and met us.

And we made our way home along the tow path again.

 Apart from the injuries, quite a success.

Saturday:

A trip out, Bekonscot model village.

We hadn't been here for a while.

Apparently last time I came here I had just learned to walk and spent most of the time chewing the lovely low railings.  I was much more interested in what I could spot this time around, as well as chasing the trains around too.

It was pretty good actually, the more you looked, the more you could find.  My favourite things though had to the real life frog that had wandered into the model zoo and the real life duck roosting on the model rowing boat jetty.

I loved all the beautiful flowers, the gardens were really lovely.  And the massive fish in the ponds were well cool too!

My new sparkly cuddly toy liked it too:

We had a lovely picnic and a play on the park before having a wander around town.

The highlight of this being a trip to Temptations gift shop to laugh at the rude birthday cards.  Bums, boobs and farts....hilarious.

Sunday:

I had a party to go to in the afternoon, it was my bestest friend Lilly and Talia having a joint bash.  It was brilliant, music, games and a chocolate fountain no less!

We had another do to go to while she was there, Harriette's naming day.  What a great time we had, splashing in the mega paddling pool, bouncing on the trampoline, swingball and best of all fighting with her brother Josh, who was lapping it up:

It wasn't all rough and tumble though, i had time for a quiet cuddle with Milly:

I even managed to skim right across the pool on an inflatable bodyboard (after running across the garden before launching myself) thanks to some expert coaching from Josh and Harriette's uncle Matthew.

Auntie Chistine came to get me as they were still at the party.  That was cool, I got o go back to her house on my own and have a bath with Darcey.

While I got to make my way through an extended chocolate brownie binge, I even raised a piece as my offering for a toast!

Monday:

Our last day of the holidays with Auntie Christine.

We can't believe it, the holidays are almost over.

But in the meantime there was plenty of fun to be had.

Today's project was tie dyeing.  It was great fun, even if the end results had to be waited for.

Add a trip to the pub for lunch, a visit to the park on the way home...

...and an afternoon in the garden playing with Darcey and it all added up to a good day.

So, many thanks to Aunie Christine and her supporting cast (uncle Ian, Darcey and Laura) for all the cool stuff we did over the holidays, I know Mum and Dad appreciate it nearly as much as we both do.

Tuesday:

A day off with Mum.  

She took a leaf out of Dads book and got everything ready for a day out first thing in the morning, picnic made and stuff packed early doors.

Sadly she didn't factor in just how long we can take to get ready of a morning, which is really surprising seeing as she deals with it day in, day out.

She went and did other usefull stuff around the house while we slugged about until we were finally ready.

We went to the Discovery Centre in Thatcham, it as pretty busy and we had to park and ride!

We had a walk around the lake, i got a very wet shoe.....

We had a can of extremely expensive can of lemonade.

And we played on the park for ages.

Until Dad turned up fresh from work on his bike.  

I was really excited when he got there, he thinks I was pleased to see him, but we had to wait for him to get there before we could have ice creams!

After a bit indecision I decided I did want to go to gymnastics after all.  So it was a swift dash home to get  changed.  The big side door was open so Mum could watch a bit of what we do.

When she wasn't sat in the car playing Catan with me and Dad on the Ipad.

I made a bit of a mistake when I dropped a tissue in the bath later on though....it broke up quite badly and was pretty unpleasant.

Wednesday:

Another day with auntie Christine.

Shes so resourceful, always has a plan B.

And today's plan B was a trip to the pottery painting place at the Thatcham garden centre.

It was great fun and we really enjoyed it.

We have to go back in a week to pick up our masterpieces as they have to be glazed and fired or something.

So you'll have to wait and see our handiwork.

On top of that we also had a king size dollop of pre-Cornwall excitement, it's getting close now!

When we got home we decided to help Dad clean the car.

We did an excellent job apparently, he better be paying us.

As everyone had a late lunch there was no great urgency for tea so we went down the park instead once we'd picked Mum up from work.

Thursday:

Mum was off today, yeah again!

But we didn't have much of a lie in as we had tickets for a 10 am showing at the cinema.

We went to see Epic, and it was.

We loved it.

It was Costa's for lunch, bacon roll and a giant bourbon biscuit.

We came home and waited for Dad to get in from work, watching another film, Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked.

I'm still working on my circus skills routine using the swing in the garden.  I've moved up to the very highest bar to hang upside down before flipping over holding the swing ropes to be the right way up again.

There was plenty of packing activity in preparation for holiday, but Dad and I did manage for a couple of laps of the Croft mountainbike trail in Swindon.  We pinched mums iphone and recorded our two laps on Strava, stats overload! I loved it, heres our second lap:

https://www.strava.com/activities/73175160

Friday:

It was our last day at Dragon club for the summer, it was also their sports day.

I sat out most of the ports and spent most of the day doing art things instead.

I didn't of course, I got well stuck in.   Sadly Dad didn't come to get us as late as i'd hoped so that wasn't ideal.  He came and got us and the made us help him pack the car for Cornwall.

Yeah, well I didn't get to go to the first week of my new term of swimming lessons either.

Not that either of us was that bothered really though, I mean it was for a good cause after all.

We dropped by on Andy first and once he was following we headed westwards.

Our in car dining has reached another level for this trip though....Pizza express pizza and garlic bread,wrapped in foil to keep it warm.....delicious!

We stopped off at Exeter for the grownups to have some sub standard fayre and enjoyed running up and down the grass hill out the back as usual.

Yeah, we even convinced Dad to accompany us, even though it proved to not be the quickest way back to the car for leg two of the journey.

It was soon over and we arrived at the caravan park.  Auntie Christine, uncle Ian, Laura and Darcey were already there, Auntie Trish, Owen soon followed on and then within about ten minutes Ben, Rach, Kimi and Marney arrived too.  

Yeah, all the usual suspects again this year.

We sat outside for a bit, enjoying the starry sky, seeing the odd shooting star before heading to bed for the night. 

Saturday:

As is traditional we awaited the arrival of the Tesco delivery van.....

It didn't come until quite late, so we had plenty of time to mill around the caravan, ride our bikes and pay everyone visits.

Once the shopping had arrived and been put away it was time for the beach!

Today's main activities were king ball.  All the way from John Rankin school playground to the North Cornish coast, the hit game of the summer.

And rock climbing, much to Auntie Christine's terror (spot the Ellis):

Sunday:

Another day on the beach.....lovely.

More king ball:

And a trip to the low tide swimming pool, where i jumped from the high rock for the first time.  I got proper brave after a couple of goes and didn't even need Dad to help me get back afterwards.  My spirit of adventure was running high and I also paddled my bodyboard up the narrow gap between the rock pools unaided too.

In the evening we had a group barbecue which was cool:

Especially Auntie Trish's children's story time:

There was also cake, lots and lots of lovely home made cake.

Monday:

We had a break from the beach and headed into Wadebridge for our annul cycling trip up the Camel trail to Padstow.

We also had Andy, Laura, Owen and for the first time ever Darcey long for the ride.  She got to go on a seat on the back of Owens bike:

I had a tag along behind Dad again, I reckon that's the last year i'll get away with that:

It was lovely to all ride together, every year we say we must get Mum a bike......

We all made it to Padstow safe and sound and hunted out some lunch before settling on the slipway to eat it.

Padstow was super busy though, not really my scene it has to be said, we did have a nice ice cream though.

Then saddled up for the return leg....Strava stats here!

https://www.strava.com/activities/74109557

We had a well earned lazy afternoon in the company of cartoon network.

Dad was thrilled about this, apparently it's the best reason yet for us to not have Sky television at home.

We appeased him by sitting outside for tea though, masses and masses of spaghetti!

Tuesday:

We'd been away a whole day, Andy was getting twitchy, better get back on the beach!

Well it would be rude not to after all:

We had a group outing to the youth hostel for tea too look forward to.

Indeed we did, in honour of Uncle Ian's upcoming significant birthday.

It was a lovely evening, watching the waves roll in as the sun set and eating pizza and garlic bread.

Wednesday:

It was Uncle Ian's actual birthday today, we can't believe he's really 60.

Although if that's hat the giant badge we bought him said on it, who are we to argue?

He wore it, so it must have been true!

After we wished him many happy returns we headed off for another one of the highlights of the week go-karting.

I'd been getting drilled for weeks regarding my age for this one....you have to be 7 you see.  Well, by the time we got to finally go, I think I actually thought I was 7.  I didn't even get asked, they just wanted to see I was tall enough.  Ned was full of beans, I was a bit more reserved, a little bit worried if truth be told.  

Dad managed to convince me (and Mum) that i'd be alright even if I couldn't remember absoloutely everything the man said during the safety briefing.

I gave her a few pointers too, told her to watch and learn!

We needn't have worried though, I was fine and loved it.

I did too of course, and I have to admit she made a pretty good debut.  The real highlight though had to be Owen passing me and Dad and then spinning!  Well, I suppose the track was a bit damp in places.

We hung around for lunch, enjoyed what Mum described as the best toilets in Cornwall and played a bit on the battery cars (we found some money to keep feeding them).

After that the fun had to come to an end and we went to the big surf shop.

I was pretty well up for it though, like a real bloke I reckon one big splurge on clothes a year means I don't have to visit the shops again or another 12 months.

In the evening we had a very special visitor indeed.

Yes we did, John and Sarah came over with their new dog Connie.

She's only a pup and quite honestly she frightened me witless.

She was only excited, I thought she was lovely.

We took her for a walk down to the beach, it was only the second time she'd ever been down there.

She seemed to love it, just as well I reckon being a Cornish dog!

Thursday:

Crealy, haven't been for a few years......

So we were well overdue a visit.

It was great fun taking Darcey round:

And going on the slides with Kimi and Marney:

Highlight of the day had to be the horse rides though:

We seriously love horsey rides:

We're quite partial to the mechanical versions too:

And we also love to brush real ponies too!

And 100% natural slush puppies:

We bid a sad farewell to Auntie Christine, Uncle Ian, Laura and Darcey who headed off home.

Before we headed off to the pub with Auntie Trish, Ben, Rach, Kimi, Marney and Andy for a bite to eat.

There was a cool playground overlooking the Camel Estuary we'd ridden down the other day.

Friday:

Dad and Andy sneaked off for a morning surf before we were even up.  I wasn't totally happy with this arrangement.  It acted as a bit of a wake up call though and from then on I was totally a man of the ocean.  We had another day down the beach and I couldn't get enough. Bodyboarding, body surfing, diving through massive waves, I was all over it.

We spent another whole day down there and really loved it, even if I didn't have the fun of terrifying Auntie Christine with my rock climbing exploits.

We then bid a fond farewell to Kimi and Marney as they left at the end of the day too.

There wasn't many of us left now.

Saturday:

It was a wet one today, no two ways about it.

So wet that Owen and Auntie Trish decided they'd head off home too.

We played some board games, we watched some telly and then we headed off into St Merryn for a trip to the bakery and a bit of wetsuit shopping.

On the way back we stopped off at Harlyn for a soggy day surf session.

Us ladies decided to stay in the car, mum read her book, I watched some Horrible Histories on the Ipad.

While I took Andy and Dad in the sea.  It was epic, the rain didn't bother me at all, the sea's wet anyway.  An added bonus is that there was hardly anyone else in!

Sunday:

The sun was back, and as it was low tide we headed to......The beach!

We did, armed with fishing nets and buckets.

We had the biggest harvest I think we've ever amassed too!

We certainly drew plenty of admiring glances from the other kids thats for sure.

I was straight back in the surf again.  There were really good waves all week which is of course brilliant, even if it did mean we couldn't get through the gap to the secret cave at all.

Sadly it was our last day too, so we had to pack our stuff up ready to move out.

Although we did give ourselves a break for a walk down to the youth hostel for a cream tea.

Then it was finishing off the packing and cleaning and tidying before we headed to the Harlyn Inn for a hearty meal before heading off home.......that's that done for another year then.

As always, many thanks to everyone involved for making it all such great fun!

Here's to next year.

Monday:

Mum was at home all week, so no getting up early for us, unlucky Dad going to work.

We played games, watched a DVD, went to the park and just spent the day mellowing out.

Tuesday:

I got up early and compiled a full stats table to see just which of the horses in my Top Trumps set was the best, it was quite an extensive document.  I think Mum was particularly impressed.
Mum took us bowling, we loved it!

Then I got my friend Lilly round to play for a bit before I went to gymnastics.  I hadn't been for a week so it was good to get back.

I took Mum and Dad food shopping while she was there, as the Tesco order that arrived on Monday left a lot to be desired.

Wednesday:

I asked Alastair if he'd like to come round and ended up going out with him for the day to Basildon Park.  We had a great time but I kindly declined the offer to stay for tea as i'd got wind they were having macaroni cheese.

I had a very lazy day which suited me just fine actually.  Sole control of the wibber and as much snoozing as I fancied.  We did venture out as far as the park though.

Thursday:

We had a lazy morning and got our picnic ready to take to Legoland in the afternoon when Dad got home from work.

It was pretty busy it has to be said, but we made the best of it of course.

We spent a while in one of the building rooms making models.

I did a cool racing car that looked a lot like a Cornwall go-kart.

And I made a rather lovely house.

After that we spent ages wandering around the model village.

Before having our picnic watching the show.

And then getting a ride on the Pirate Ship, the cars, and the Viking River Splash.
Finishing off the day by winning a cuddly dinosaur for me.
And a cuddly purple hippo for me!

Friday:

We had a library trip on Friday, i'm going great guns on rhe summer reading challenge and I really want to get my medal!

We hung around in town at Victoria Park until Dad made his way down there after work. Passing the time chasing some self styled pirates on the paddle boats.

I managed to make everyone think i'd disappeared by hanging out on the deck of the skateboard ramp.....mild panic ensued!

Next up was swimming, i'd missed the first two weeks but had no trouble catching up with what was going on.  I am of course in the big pool now.

And after that it was a quick change and back out again to Liam's birthday party, laser quest at Eddie Katz.

Now normally, i'd have been well envious of this but I had also been invited at the last minute, what a result.

We had a great time, best of all though they handed out ice packs for minor bumps....I loved that!

Saturday:
Another lazy day to start off the bank holiday weekend, not that we noticed that it was a bank holiday as we've been off school for so long now.
As luck would have it Hugo came round in the afternoon to see if I was about, thank goodness.  We had a great time together, flitting between the park and each others houses.
In the evening we went to Mottisfont Country House to watch a theatre production of Babe (you know, the one about a pig).
But this was quite different, we'd taken an extensive picnic and our camping chairs as the show was being held outside.
We made our way through the grounds and being as we were the second family in we got the pick of the spots to pitch our makeshift viewing area for the evening, right at the front.

We ate our picnic and then went off exploring the grounds a little bit, the fish in the river were massive!
We then took our seats and sat, as we usually do, totally agog all the way through the first half of the show.  Totally spellbound without a word uttered between us.
As soon as the interval started the floodgates opened and the jibber jabber began.
And we also got to devour our interval treat, a big steaming flask of home made hot chocolate and a double helping of brownies Dad had made that morning.
It was delicious, but it was a bit of a shame that it wasn't a colder evening so we could really appreciate it.
Yeah, although we certainly won't complain about the weather as it stayed dry despite looking pretty grey overhead at times.
We settled down for the second half and returned to our silent, focussed state, taking it all in.
By the time the show came to an end it was pretty well dark as we made our way back to the car.
What a brilliant night out.

Sunday:
As we'd had a bit of a late night on Saturday (makes a change doesn't it?) we didn't do much on Sunday.
Until after lunch when we had another attempt at the Standlake Mosaic Trail walk.
We tried this earlier on in the year but had to abandon as it was just too wet, even for wellies!
It was nice and dry this time though so off we went.

It was a pretty pleasant walk actually, and we managed to eventually spot all the mosaics we were supposed to spot along the way.

We found our way to a riverside pub and enjoyed a lovely cold drink by the Thames.

As did several thousand wasps.
Before heading back again.
Making a bit of pit stop for an alfresco wee:

And enjoying nature:

And this war relic, which I thought was amazing:

Mum appeased, she loves a walk.....

Monday:
Well, we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with out bank holiday Monday.
Yeah, as action packed as the last few weeks have been we're struggling a bit now for inspiration.
So spent the morning shuttling between the park and Hugo's house again.
Before we went to Kintbury in the afternoon for a trip on a horse drawn narrow boat.
Yeah, a horse drawn one!  We were intrigued.
The horse was called Freddy, I declared him the loveliest horse in the world:

He was certainly one of the biggest horses in the world I reckon, but he loved being fussed as he stood on the bank waiting to get to work.
He was certainly a strong horse, he pulled us all along really easily.

And we cruised along in silence, no engines.....how lovely.
We got to our turning point and Freddy was released for a wander into the adjoining field, it was his most favourite grass apparently:

Once the horse was away, the boat was going to go down in the lock, Ellis and I made sure were on board for this one, we'd seen plenty of boats going up and down in locks before but never been on one:

Going down:

The boat was turned round with the help of Freddy once he'd finished his lush grassy snack:

And he plodded us back to Kintbury.
We struck up conversation with an American couple on the boat, they were from California.  I grilled them for ages, they loved it. I asked about California, Hollywood, told them we'd been to Florida, and Italy and France and Spain.
Scotland and Wales as well, I told them all about the Panda's.
If we thought we'd been loads of places, they'd been to even more!  It was really interesting to hear about China, the Bahamas and other far flung places around the world.
They were over for a wedding and were off to Highclere Castle on Tuesday, they were massive fans of a programme called Downton Abbey or something.  
We told them to steer well clear of light switches and plugs (eh Andy!).