Tuesday

I got a whole raft of results for my homework project this week, a survey on peoples favourite sunday roast meats.  I had to use the data to produce some bar graphs And what have you so the more replies I got the more impressive my graphs were going to be. Many thanks to everyone who sent mum a reply.

Gymnastics was really cool again.

And netball went brilliantly this week. I played goal shooter and scored during a match!

Wednesday

We've been doing loads of poetry at school and i've been loving it.  My best one was an accrostic one all about autumn.

Rugby was cancelled after school this week as there weren't enough people interested.  That was a shame.....but on the way home Miss Langdon tracked us down to ask me if i'd step in at the last minute for the school football team, to play in a match they had arranged on Thursday. After very carefull consideration I decided I was up for it.  Very up for it, I was dead excited.

In a rare lull in the rain, we had an after school trip to the park.

We did, I ended up playing king ball with some year 3's for pretty much the whole time.

I got Dad to push me in the basket swing, we still scare bystanders with our height!

Thursday

Football match day, I was really looking forward to it, not least because we got to leave school early at 2 o'clock to get to the school we were playing against in Reading.  I went in with Tom and Jack in Tom's dad's car.

I was only supposed to play for a little while being the sub but ended up playing pretty much the whole game due to the others getting injured.  I think it's fair to say that in terms of the result we really didn't do that well with our opponents score being into double figures, while our goal tally totalled just the one.  Still, they were all year sixes!!! 

We got to hang around school on the adventure playground when Dad came to pick me up, we hadn't done that for ages.

I finally tackled my reading book at home as well, something i've been a bit reluctant to do lately.  I really went for it though and read the whole book in one go.

We were both pretty well worn out by the time tea had been eaten and had to admit defeat and have an early night.

Friday

I really enjoyed my maths homework down the pool on Friday afternoon.  It was allabout measuring points on a map and working out the shortest routes between the given destinations.

While I put in another good showing at my swimming lesson.

I finished my homework so quickly that Dad and I sat and played chess on the Ipad until Ellis was done.

Alan and Hayley came round to babysit in the evening, we'd been looking forward to this all week!

We had, we marked their arrival by ambushing them with Nerf guns when they arrived.

We had a great time, the hide and seek was a particular highlight.

I hope they weren't too traumatised by the evening, we loved it!

Saturday

We went to look at a house that was for sale.

Yeah, apparently we were only going for a nose about to see what was out there apparently.

We quite liked it.

I liked it even more when I bumped into Jack and Tom in the street, turns out it was two doors up from Jack's house.

In the afternoon I skidaddled off down the park with Hugo, Ali and Ben.  We had a game of rugby and got filthy.  We had to come home when the heavens really opened though.  We hid in Hugo's garage until it stopped and then all made a break for home, arranging to reconvine back at my house once we were cleaned up and changed.

We'd just started playing Just Dance when they all turned up.

We decided to join in, great fun.

Sunday

I have a very wobbly tooth.  We joked about Mum ripping it out of my jaw, but I thought i'd attempt the comic book classic of the string around the door handle:

It didn't really work that well but it certainly provided plenty of laughs!

We had to go clothes shopping in Reading, that certainly didn't fill us with laughs.

No, but having said that it was actually pretty good in the end.

No, it wasn't too bad actually.  

We quite enjoyed trying stuff on.

We certainly enjoyed our lunch at Costa's, the salted caramel muffins are lovely.

We came home and played the logo billionaire game, I had a total shocker and didn't get any companies formed at all. Rubbish, total rubbish, I suggested we forget the rules alltogether.

Monday

Back to school, more 'wet play' at break times.

I don't mind at all, I get to do more arts and crafts.

I do mind when cross country gets cancelled after school, whats wrong with running in the rain?

Dancing was cool after school, Amy and I are continuing our partnership whenever possible.

We had another go at Logo Billionaire.

I though it was going to go the same way as yesterday but I put in a good run and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat!!!

Tuesday

Well the rain eased up for a little while at least.  

Enough for the puddles to freeze over on the way to school anyway.

We got to break through them with our wellies on the way to breakfast club, one of the advantages of going to school early I suppose.

I did after school netball with just a t-shirt on top.  I didn't feel the cold even if everyone else did.

At least I didn't have top ut up with his grumpyness on the way to gymnastics anyway.

We had another Jungle Speed session in the evening.

I'm not at my most attentive when we have the music channels on in the background though.

Wednesday

We've not been getting ready all that well in the mornings lately.

No, it's been a real struggle lately.

I think today we pushed Mum over the edge pretty much.

Add to that our total lack of homework motivation in the evening and we really weren't doing very well at all.

Still, I decided to do a bit more indoor roller skating to help lift the mood...or not!

Thursday

Our adter school dance class featured a routine using hats!  It was really cool.  What wasn't quite so cool was my teacher telling Dad that I hadn't 'settled back in' to classes after the christmas break...oh dear.

I put on extinsive gymnastics display for Dad when I got home from school.  I've got quite a repetoire now and i'm still working on my splits.

Friday

I did sports leaders in my golden time in the afternoon which I loved.

And I had swimming lessons again, i'm doing much better this term I think.

Saturday

We were up and at the cinema early doors for the kids AM showing of Free Birds.

It was really good, until I realised all the sweets had been eaten and I barely had any.

This set a bit of a tone for the rest of the day, there was a lot of flouncing, shouting and sulking.

Yeah, there was, some of it was us kids as well!

We managed a trip to Waitrose for lunch things.

I cleared off to Hugo's for the afternoon, we played Minecraft on his XBox.

We all calmed down over a McDonalds for tea, laughing at the hapless fools maiming themselves on Splash.

Sunday

Well the sun was out and everyone was in a much better frame of mind.

Indeed we were. 

Dad and I had a quick haircut, the lady loved the smell of my hair that i'd just washed.

And even though I didn't get a haircut myself, I still got a lollipop.

In our 'Go Kinetic' drive at school we've been collectng stamps for a while.  We had more than enough for a free swim at Northcroft.  I was super excited about this, even if Mum and Dad took some convincing.  

Well the new changing rooms certainly met universal approval.  That was a good start.

We had a good time, without slides and wave machines we had to make our own fun, and we did!

We had the dive sticks, they were great fun down the deep end.

I also spotted one of the bricks you have to dive for during lessons on the bottom of the pool. Trouble was it was over the other side of the pool and on the other side of two adult swimming lanes.  I really wanted to get it though, and after a couple of false starts I made a break for it in a gap between the serious swimmers.  I got it, and got back without getting whistled at by the lifegaurds.

My friend Matilda was also there, I found her splasing about in the learner pool.  

So after our non standard swimming location we kept our voyage of discovery going by visiting Aldi on the way home.

We really wanted to replace our tin of christmas sweets that Auntie Christine had got us from there.  We didn't find any though, it was a bit optimistic this side of Christmas I suppose.

The sun was still out in the afternoon so we were forced out for a ruddy walk.

Yeah, a walk!

I wanted to be back home as quick as possible so I could get round to Hugo's again.

It turned out to be pretty good though, we headed down to the canal and then on to Northcroft.

Yeah, all the houses along the canal had flooded gardens, it looked pretty bad.

And the river that runs across the back of the leisure centre had so much water in it, the paths across from the bridge and even the football pitches were under water.

Wading through it all in our wellies was great fun.

It was just as bad the other side near the park too, in fact there were a few small islands on the field:

The park was pretty much dry though:

We headed back, still in the lovely sunshine.

I disappeared off to Hugo's, we didn't get much Minecraft done, but we did have an awesome bundle on their trampoline, resulting in very muddy clothes and an ice pack for Hugo.

While they were doing that I painted Mum's nails for her:

Well, I say painted, more like daubed them with blue sludge....it didn't dry very quickly....

Monday

Cross country club started again this week, I was on super quick form and lead the way on all our runs, what with Maxim having left and the year 6's being in Rhos for the week.

We did the hat dance as well, I caught Dad out a treat when they came in to watch as well. I could see him trying to locate me in my usual position at he back, so left it a bit before I shouted at him, from the front row!

After tea we both got busy with our homework with Mum helping, very productive!

Tuesday

Back to school day.

Yes, it was, never mind we made the best of it.

We did, We've stared our new topic, Space.  Brilliant, I was well enthusiastic about this one.  I answered the most questions during class and have pretty much become the class space expert (i was the only one who knew qho Buzz Aldrin actually was).  As well as that, I had my new back to show off with too, everyone was well impressd with it.

We started doing a project on Charles Darwin and his discoveries.  I was well into that too.

The Skylanders I spent my Christmas money arrived, record time!  They are of course awesome.  As ever, the game is secondary to collecting the awesome figures.

It was also our first week back at gymnastics club, I was over the moon about this and was raring to go.  I'd been practising my splits all over Christmas.

I didn't have any netball this week, but didn't bother with my usual whinge about having to take her as i'd just downloaded Minecraft onto my Ipod, it's awesome.

Wednesday

On further school news, we've been doing rounding up and down.  Dad tested me on it on the way home from school, i've got it down though, it's pretty easy really.

I spent my Christmas money on a Furby Boom.  It came today, 

I was really excited.  She's a crazy one thats for sure.  I named her Khee-Bay and she was great fun, jibbering on, singing and what have you.  I synced it up to my Ipod from which you can feed her, shower her and play games with her.  What I didn't like though is when her voice went all deep and she started being really mean and moody.  None of us knew why and even being nice to her didn't bring the old Khee-Bay back.  I was so upset, I cried.

So we switched her off and played Cluedo instead.  Mum won, Dad was hopeless again of course.

We managed to cheer the grumpy Furby up again afterwards.

And I gave Dad a lesson on playing Minecraft, which was rather futile bearing in mind his age.

Thursday

I hadn't seen Dad at all this week in the mornings before he'd gone to work.  I made a special effort to get up and give him a cuddle today.

We were full bore on Space again at school, i'm loving it.

After school dance club was also a load of fun this week.

We played Jungle Speed after tea, we're alll loving that.

Friday

Last day of the school week.....

And a return to swimming lessons.

Again, no grumbling from me for Ellis' activities, I did my maths homework and then played Minecraft.

Andy and Owen came round in the evening to play a few games.

We had a game of Jungle Speed and Dobble before I went off to bed.

Then we played Ticket to Ride, which Andy won!

Saturday

A lovely sunny day at long last.

Indeed it was, we made the most of it and headed for a sledgeing session in Ringwood:

We hadn't been since last Christmas and we were right up for it.

It was great fun, zooming down the hill.

The uplift queue was a bit lengthy at times though:

I decided to walk up and get more goes back down.  I even pulled Ellis up on hers a couple of times.

He did, what a nice brother he is sometimes.

Once we finished we went into the clubhouse for a hot chocolate.

It was a lovely one too, topped with loads and loads of squirty cream.

We then pressed on for Southbourne beach for a delicious car picnic.

A plain baugette for me.

A full size salad bowl for me!

Then it was out of the car to enjoy the sunshine:

Skimmers, wave dodging, all the usual activities.

We walked for miles and miles, the dunes were great.

Jumping off them was even better:

It was, I couldn't quite match Ned but gave it a good go:

Then I decided to get lost in the dunes and cause a mild panic amongst mum, dad and Ned. I don't know why, I knew where I was all along!

Sunday

Well, back to another grey damp sky.

We did homework in the morning.

Mine was easy this time, design a front cover for my project book.

And I had to research another famous scientist, I chose Vonn Brown, the rocket chap.

I made a collage of a rocket as a start:

Now all I have to do is some words to go with it.....

I finally got to see Hugo, he came round, we played Age of Empires, drank lemonade and then went off to his house.

I wached loads of the music channel and then played with the Furby with Mum.  We fed him all sorts and he did a massive poo!

I was told to be back at 6 for tea, Mum had to come and get me, caught me redhanded watching a film at Hugo's at half past six.  I was not popular.....

Monday

Not much to report really.  Tried another game of Age of Empires, got stuffed this time.

Dancing after school was very enjoyable though! As was the walk home afterwards, it totally chucked it down so of course I removed my coat and dawdled home ensuring I was totally soaked through.

Tuesday - New Years Eve

The last day of the year, party time, how exciting.

Mum was at work so we went to meet her for lunch.

We managed to not go to Costa's and had a McDonalds instead.

We sat up stairs in big comfy chairs.

Dad spent he afternoon cooking and making nasty smells in the kitchen (cod and red pepper sauce, smelt a bit vinegary).

We played games and watched some telly.

And finally had a full scale Nerf gun war over the house.  Brilliant.

Once mum was home I finally got to pack my overnight bag, I was going to have a sleepover with Abi and Faye after the party, Marny was going to stay too.  

We all thought Nick and Carol were very brave, or more acurrately, mad.

We had a great evening, playing games, eating cake pops.

Watching a DVD.

The girls all turned in pretty early, which was good for me, I got to play Jungle Speed and Dobble with the grown ups.  Although we did pause briefly to acknowledge midnight and wish each other a happy new year.  It was a proper late night, we didn't get home until about 2:30am.

Wednesday - New Years Day

Us girls had a great night, loads of fun.  It was a little bit of an early rise for me at 8am, but apparently for Marny thats quite a lie in.

Did someone say lie in? How does 11:45 sound???  My record, very pleased with that.

I had to get up so we could go and get Ellis......

Well Mum was at work, so not a lot happened in the afternoon.

Thursday

Poor old Dad had to go back to work as well as Mum today, the early morning must have been a shock to his system.

It meant we got to spend the day with Auntie christine though.

Indeed it did, we did Making.

We did baking.

It was lovely.

Friday

Another day with Auntie christine.

We went to see Turbo at the cinema.

We really enjoyed it, i'm sure it was a better choice than Walking With Dinosaurs.

Lunch was at Pizza hut, I know, what an awesome day eh?

I helped mum take the decorations off th tree in the evening, I was very carfeul with the big glass baubles and didn't break any, a feat Dad usually manages with ease.

Saturday

Well the christmas tree was ejected through the window and all the rest of the clobber got taken down and put away for another year.

It's been a great Christmas, thanks to everyone thats bought us stuff, looked after us, played with us, fed us, watered us and made us laugh.

Yeah, we've had a brilliant time thats for sure.

In the afternoon I had Kimi round to play Skylanders, an event we'd initially planned for New Years day but my monster lie in put paid to that.

In what turned out to be a great arrangement, I got to go around to Marny's house and play with her while.  

We had a great time, played a few proper story mode game chapters and had a few death matches.

Then it was Saturday night telly time, Splash, the diving programme was back on which was good for a laugh.

Sunday

We had a trip out for the first time in ages to Oxford.

To visit the Ashmolean museum so I could see the war bit we weren't allowed in during our school visit.

The journey was pretty cool, we went to the park and ride and then got on the double decker bus into town.

Upstairs of course, where we could get a good view of all the flooding on the way in, there were what looked like lakes, but they had goal posts sticking up out of them.

And the park where we played in the summer holidays after we'd been to the Hinksey outdoor pool, looked wetter than the pool itself had.

We arrived in the town centre after I got a bit stressy over whether we had missed the right bus stop or not and made our way to the museum.  I was pretty pleased to be able to show everyone one around as I knew where I was going pretty much.

It was pretty good in there, if you like nudie statues, we loved the bums and winkles!

But I didn't manage to find any real war bits which was a little bit disappointing really.  There were some paintings by an artist called Malcolm Morley that we really liked though.

We had some lunch and then went back to see the rest of the museum but we still didn't find what Ned had come for.

No, but we did find the super boring rooms full of plates and china I had to endure on my school trip though......

Monday

Well, it was the last day of the holidays.

Yep, what a shame.  Well, I say that, but quite honestly I think i'd quite like to go back now.  I've been asking for sums and spellings as well as voluntarily reading for a while now.

Even i'm sort of looking forward to it in a way, i'll get to show off with my new bag anyway.

I packed it with all the stuff from my old, battered book bag in readiness. 

I decided what I really wanted to do was spend my last day pf the holidays cleaning!  We did the kettle, the toaster, the sink the work tops, the tiles, the windows the microwave, in fact anything I could buff, wipe, scrub or polish!

Then I polished my school shoes so well you could see your reflection in them.

While this was going on, I dedicated myself to a game called Duck Life on the PC, it was brilliant.

I continued my domestic duties in the afternoon by repairing my Hello Kitty cushion with a little bit of sewing.

I played a couple of levels of Skylanders with dad when he got home from work.

We rounded the day off playing Just Dance on the Wii.

Then an early night in readiness for school tomorrow.

Tuesday

Christmas eve, finally here!

Last day of the calendars too, a nativity scene and a star so at least they've delivered in the end.

Mum was at home with us again as Dad had to go to work for half a day at least.

We had a nice bath.

We played Jolly Octopus (I won).

And then Dad came home, he'd won a prize at the work raffle again and had picked a big tub of celebrations rather than any booze or anything.  He made the right choice!

We had to test a few, straight away.

Sue came round in the afternoon, we hadn't seen her for ages so it was really nice to see her, she really makes us all laugh.

We had our traditional christmas eve drinks with the gang in the afternoon at the Craven Arms.

We did, but with all the wild weather thats been about lately the pub had no electric.  This meant candle light only, how very cosy and christmassy.

Didn't make any difference out in the playground though, was nice and bright out there. We had a great time with Kimi, Marny, Aby and Faye.

We stayed all afternoon and had a good old laugh with Alan and Hayley too.

Once the power came back on at the pub (to a loud cheer) we decided to head off into town.  

We had a booking at Pizza Express, but as we were a little bit early we ventured into Marks and Spencer....it was pretty much deserted.

Yeah it was, and all the Christmas stuff was reduced....bargain Christmas Colin the Caterpillars, what a result.

We carried on accross town to get our pizzas.

The moustache sticker sheets were great fun.

We munched our way through dough balls, salad, pizzas and our puddings with ease.

It was lovely, we really enjoyed ourselves.

We saw my old friend from nursery Ted on the way out and had a nice catch up chat.

We made our way home to carry out our final preparations for the big day.

So, the reindeer food had to be scattered outside.

The Santa sign had to be installed:

Santa and Rudolph's supplies had to be laid out:

For the record we went with two mince pies, a glass of milk and of course a carrot.

Then it was a quick check on the NORAD santa tracker website (which doesn't seem to be as good as it was after they changed it's format).

Then it was time to get ready for bed and get snuggled up on Mum and Dads bed for the pop up nativity story and It's Santa before turning in for the night.

Despite weeks of worry, I went to sleep okay in the end.

I had no trouble of course, I take it all in my stride.

Wednesday-Christmas Day

Wahey, it's finally here....christmas had arrived.  Apparently 5am is a little too early though, so back to bed I was sent, via downstairs of course, just to check what was under the tree.

I tried again at 7:15, this time joined by slug-a-bed Ellis, there was to be no going back to bed this time.

Indeed there wasn't, we installed ourselves on mum and dads bed with our bulging stockings and set about seeing what was inside!

They were brilliant, packed full of good stuff in small packages.

The perfect starter before the downstairs main course still to come.

The pile of presents was very impressive this year.

I set about reading the tags and dishing them out.  It's a big responsibility, especially as Mum and Dad don't get as many as us kids, it's hard to spread there's out.

I don't get bogged down with such considerations, i'd open all of mine (and anyone elses) in a flash if left to my own devices.

I was so thrilled with my personalised, fully custom Adidas bag:

I can't wait to take it to school.

I have at long last got myself a lovely dressing gown, that actually fits me:

And far more exciting than that, my flipping puppy:

Hex Bugs V2, they can climb as well!

Super snuggly Pillow Pet:

And my top present, proper four wheeled roller skates just like I wanted:

I can't wait until it's dried up enough outside to really have a go on them but in the meantime i'll have to make do with scooting across the kitchen instead.

These were of course only a fraction of what we got, there was so much lovely stuff.

Indeed there was.

I took my responsibility as present distributor in chief very seriously and had to dig really deep behind the tree to get the last of them out:

We'd worked up a bit of appetite so it was a good job Dad just so happened to have sorted us out with a proper cooked breakfast.

We had a while to sit and digest what we'd got and have a play with our new stuff.

Before it was time to go around to Auntie Christines.

Brilliant, more people to see, the best part of christmas for me.

Owen and Kirsty were there, Laura and Darcey were there, uncle Ian's Dad was there and so was Auntie Trish.

Brilliant.  I got to parade around with my cool bag.

We had more excellent presents to unwrap.

And then it was Christmas dinner time.  Sprouts! I love them but i'm not allowed them at home...ever!

And I sat next to Auntie Trish, the fruition of an arrangement we'd made way back in October or something.

Dinner was of course delicious.

But the crackers were pretty shoddy it has to be said.....

Once it was all done it was time for games to be played.

Laura's balloon popping game was just brilliant, even if the more nervous among us didn't want to play.

Then there was my Logo Billionaire game:

Which bought us up to five o'clock.....meaning five o'clock present time!

A Flack festive tradition that has expanded to include us fortunately.

We were on an early curfew this year, so we took Trish and headed for home.

We got to go through all of our other stuff with her and then sat down for a liitle bit of tea.

It had been a long old day thats for sure, we didn't really object to going to bed....

Thursday- Boxing Day

Auntie Trish had stayed over, brilliant!

When we got up she was already on the sofa.

We had breakfast, we played more games, we had more fun!

We swapped her for Anne, Alan and Hayley at lunchrime.

We all sat down for a big curry for lunch (not Turkey leftovers).

And then I resumed my Santa duties by dishing out yet more presents from under the tree, which had seemingly replenished themselves.

One of them was a game for Mum called Dobble, it was seriously good fun for all of us.

We watched Gangsta Granny in the evening, from the David Walliams book.

It was the only thing we'd actually bothered to sit down and watch together and we really enjoyed it.

We rounded the day out helping mum do some of her puzzle ball.

Friday

Well it was almost like Christmas was over, Mum had to go back to work sadly.

It was wet and windy, so when Dad suggested we give her a lift rather than make her walk we agreed instantly and got dressed in a flash.

We had a lazy morning and watched the 4 o'clock club Christams special.

We made our way into town to meet Mum for lunch.

Which I managed to hijack into a Skylanders figure reconnaissance mission.

We ended up in Costas for a cheese and ham toastie.....still loving those!

We saw Edward and Eva in there too, a good chance for us to exchange present stories.

Town was pretty busy it has to be said, we got away as soon as we could.

The relative calm of the park on fifth road was pretty good n comparison.

Yeah, we took my new rugby ball and had a good time doing some passing.

We also did some timed laps on the bikes.

My wheel writer was brilliant, well, i'm told it was anyway as I can't see it while i'm riding.  I got it up into the high 20's before Dad couldn't read it anymore.

We had another Dobble session in the evening, we're still loving it!

Saturday

Newbury Races today.

Indeed, and despite repeated warnings from mum and dad it was surprisingly warm and sunny.

It was Katies 40th birthday so there was a good turnout, of grown ups anyway.....all the kids seemed to have been left at home except us.

From a gambling point of view it was rubbish for me, no winners.

I did a lot better, had a couple of winners, but managed to lose a tenner somewhere.  Oh dear.

Sunday

Yet another lazy morning, we're getting really good at these.

In the afternoon we were forced out of the house.

We went for avwalk around Snelsmore with Kimi and Marny.

It was pretty icy in places:

There was also masses of mud and some pretty serious puddles to splash about in.

My Inkoo had been through the wash after it's initial christmas days adornments and was dry when I got home.  Time for another design I think:

Monday

Yet another wet and windy morning.

We made the best of it by watching Epic with Dad (mum was back at work).

It did clear up a bit in the afternoon though. Enough for us to venture out to the discovery centre with a bag full of bread for the ducks.

I felt a bit crowded by them really, there were hundreds, I don't know where they all came from in such a short space of time.

We enjoyed the playground, even if it was a bit on the slippery side and we fell over a few times each.

We called in at pets at home on the way back, the rabbits, guinea pigs anpd gerbils were so cute.

I loved the Degu's, they were going mad in their exercise wheel.

We then tried to find an open car wash, this proved an impossibility so the car has remained filthy....