Tuesday

I've been put into a group to do extra maths at school, because i'm good at it, not bad before anyone gets the wrong idea.  It's brilliant, theres only a few of us and we have a new specialist maths teacher.  Even though we did it instead of PE it was still brilliant, apparently we won't always miss PE so hopefully next time it's a subject I don't like and the it will be epic!

Netball was cancelled sue to the rain though, we couldn't go in the hall all it's currently being painted which was a shame.

Gymnastics was on and really good again this week.

Wednesday

Well it was no pen wednesday, which meant we were supposed to be concentrating on our verbal communication instead.

It made art pretty had too, as the pen ban covered pencils, crayons, paint the lot.  I ended up using a clever system of creases to guide my cutting during construction of some lage wings.

I loved the idea of no writing, especially in maths when we played shut the box.

Getting into and indeed out of team Kennet on Wednesday night was a very wet affair indeed, it was chucking it down.

Thursday

A pretty major part of me being so keen on being school councillor was the trip to the town hall to meet the mayor that they alwats get to do.  It was brilliant, the mayors gold chain is made from 18 carat gold and is seriously heavy.  It also lives in a truly epic safe that has number combinations as well as a voice   recognition sytem.  We also learned that the Mayor is the only one in the country that has two mace's for some reason.  I loved it, history and bling.

We had rugby after school, I got to wear my new boots for the first time, they are very bright neon yellow and totally awesome.

And then it was parents evening, I was trying not to let on of course, but I was a bit worried about how it would go.

I wasn't, however misguided that might have been. 

Mine went pretty well, although Mum thinks we didn't get much in the way of detailed feedback.  I'm on target for the standards I should be reaching but sometimes like a chat. No surprises there then.

Mine went pretty well, I still take a while to settle now and again and sometimes i'm still a distraction to others on.  But having said all that, i'm still above my targets and doing well.

I also stayed on as a volunteer to greet the parents arriving at the front door and show them to the classrooms, I loved doing that.

Friday

The biggest news of the week, in my daily report book I got a glowing comment from Mrs Wright.  This is quite monumental news as i've managed to get on the wrong side of her fairly often in the past.

This no doubt helped sway Mum and Dad, on top of the good things said at parents evening into taking us to Pizza Hut for tea. Epic.

Yeah, we love a surprise of this nature, we even got to sit at one of the round tables too, perfect.

We stuffed ourselves silly and saw our dance teacher Becky with her not so little anymore baby.

We also tried some pretty dodgy drinks from the self service drinks fountain, strawberry or lime tinged tango anyone?

When we got home there was a programme on BBC3 about people having their first babies.

They got the husbands or boyfriends to do all sorts of silly tasks to prepare them for the babies arrival.

After a bit of discussion we were allowed to stay up and watch the babies being born so we did get to see them.

Saturday

Mum went off to a meeting meaning we got to stay home with Dad.

But seeing as it was raining pretty heavily his usual default entertainment for us, a bike ride was off the agenda.

We slumped for a while, watching CBBC shows on the Iplayer, until he suggested we might make some brownies???

What a great idea, even if we did have to dash to the shops on our scooters for more self raising flour.

We made a very good job of it of course, they were delicious!

Once mum was done we went to town to pick up Mum's new glasses, we went via the park in all it's autmunal glory:

I hadn't seen Mum's new glasses, but I knew I wasn't going to like them.  I don't know why she can't just keep her old ones, I like those.

A bit later on I rounded up Hugo and Dylan and we came home to have a bit of a Nerf war.

Yeah, it was pretty cool, I was even allowed to play.

It was great fun, until a chair accidentally sort of fell down the stairs a bit.....ooops.  
No damage was done but I felt really bad about it.  We wound the game up pretty quickly and had a game of Fifa on the Xbox.

We had a quiet evening watching strictly and stuffing our Ipods full of new content ready for holiday.

And I came round to mum's new glasses, I quite liked them actually.

Sunday

Bit of a lay in and the off to Eton no less for the first round of the Sportshall Athletics league for team Kennet at the Thames Valley Athletic Centre.

It was a massive big sports hall, but sadly there was no room for me to do any roller skating or indeed gymnastics.

I signed myself up with the team, met up with my mates and then got bumped up to the A team (4 per team, under 11 boys).  Our first event was the obstacle course relay.  In a shock turn events (most of all for him I think) Dad was enlisted to be a judge and had to mark down any penalties incurred on his lane.  And guess who he got on his first race? Me!  I knew he wasn't going to cut me any slack so I had to be on the case.  I only did 4 sidejumps before I set off, realised what i'd done an returned for my regulation fifth in a flash.  Next up was the standing long jump with a new PB I think at 1.83, followed by some agility events and target throwing:

I got pretty bored it has to be said, so Mum and I went out for a wander.  Dad had google earthed the place so knew there was a river near by and bought along a bag of old bread to feed the ducks with.  We eventually found it, after scrambling down a big grass bank and almost ending up in the water along with the ducks.  Sadly for the ducks though, the fresh air gave me a bit of appetite and I ate most of the bread myself.

We finished up with the team relay running race, which was a very noisy and well supported affair.

Once the events had started winding down there was a lot more free space to indulge in some gymnastics practice, there were even wall bars and climbing ropes too.

The scores were soon added up and read out in reverse order, our team didn't get called out until we were declared to be in joint second place, we were well chuffed with ourselves!

Monday

We've been doing electric circuits in science, I love it, it's the best thing ever.

It was Halloween week for after school dance, the timewarp.

Yeah, I really got into it this week, great fun.

When we got home I did some more rollerskating and then carried on with my Egyptian project, a piece about the work of a scribe.

And I went down the park to meet up with Dylan, Ella and Rebecca.

This one seems to have gone unpublished somehow?

Tuesday

It was school photo day, and for the first time since our nursery days we had our picture taken together.
Yeah, it's probably my last Primary school photo as well, so just in time really.  I think I may have ruined it by having my eyes shut or something though.
Netball was conducted during a few rain showers, we ducked for cover duting the worst of the downpours though.

No such problems at gymnastics, being all nicely indoors.  Mum came to pick me up, which gave me the perfect oppurtunity to convice dad that I hadn't passed my Level 1 badge.  He fell for it completely and was unusually sympathetic, which just made tricking him even better!!!

I watched a programme with Dick and Dom about computer games which led me to resurrect the old DS.  It didn't work.  But after a good charge and Dad giving the contacts a clean with a toothbrush it sprung into life.  I'd forgotten just how cool it was.

Wednesday
Well theres been a ban on playing on the adventure playground, apparently due to peoples little brothers and sisters hurting themselves.  How is that fair?  Rubbish.
I was quite pleased to go straight home, i'd slipped over playing Kingball and had jone an excellent job of skimming the top layer or so from most of my knee.  It was a bit of a mess it must be said.
Yeah, it didn't look great......
I had alovely big pad thing taped to it, which did a good job of soaking up the oozy, gooey sludge.  I decided I was okay for Team Kennet though and kept the pad firmly in place.
Yeah, team Kennet was cool indooors again.
It was.
We were allowed to stay up and watch the final of the Great British bake off afterwards.
How cool, even though we couldn't believe Richard didn;t win?

Thursday
I still had a gooey knee.

Friday
We came home and got straight on with our homework, well, for a little while anyway.
Yeah, the lure of the telly is strong, epsecially on a Friday afternoon.
We did get very good comments for last weeks homework efforts though.

Saturday
We went to the Cinema on Saturday morning, despite a load of carping and moaning.
But the film we watched, Earth to Echo was brilliant, well worth going to see.
Then it was on to Waitrose where we annoyed a grumoy old man by standing and talking to Alan and Hayley who we happened to bump into.
I went out on the bike to see if anyone was about in the afternoon. They weren't.

We ended up playing a few board games with Mum while dad popped out on his bike.

I then did some art work, i'm realy into my art at the moment.

Alan and Hayley came round for tea, we were dead excited to have them round.  
I loved showing them my latest moves (no handed backwards roll off the sofa and running forward flip onto the sofa).
And I got to play Agricola again.  I played on my own this time rather than with Dad, although I didn't win, I did do very well indeed.

Sunday
Well, we had a bit of a lie in.  I bust out a few moves with my magic UFO:

And then decided we'd ride into town and have lunch at the pub.
Yeah, a great idea, met by universal approval as well for once.
I had a ham and cheese panini with salad.
I had an adults cheeseburger and chips.
And then we both had a chocolate brownie ice cream sundae.....lovely!
We had a quick play on Victoria Park and then rode home again.
We settled down to watch the Gymnastics World Championships on telly...i've got a looooooong way to go.

I also started a new piece of art:

The Egyptian God Anubis, i've been quite captivated with our current school project as you can see.  Dad had to go to the airport to pick up Auntie Christine and Auntie Trish who had been allowed to go away for the weekend to a wedding.
So while he was gone I made Ellis her tea.
We had a nice bath and a bedtime story.
And I stayed up quite late watching that Guy Martin documentary where he restored a crashed Spitfire.

Monday
What a wet old day, we still went out at breaktime though, made our toast club toast go all soggy!
Our class was a bit emptier than usual, loads of them went off to St Barts for the open morning, more on this later......

It was street dance week at dance club which was good fun.

Ned Even if I did manage to catch one of Ellis' friends with my foot mid way through a cartwheel.

I'm sure she'll get over it.
Going back to the subject of secondary schools, Mum finally managed to get my application through on the wafty website.  So i'm all signed up for Park House, we find out if I have a place next March.  We've all thought long and hard about it and we're all happy with our decision.  It really helped going to the open evenings last year and again this year.  All three were brilliant it has to be said but I think we all felt i'd be happer at Park House, even if the vast majority of my friends are going to St Barts.......

Tuesday

Yep, still loving netball, making the most of it before I go to secondary school.

I enjoyed gymnastics this week too, I got involved in a bit of a dispute last week with another girl which wasn't so good but this week it was all fine.

Wednesday

What with summer now done and dusted we took to the sports hall at Park House for team Kennet.  I got dropped off at Abi's house and went with her this week.

Yeah because we were going to the St. Bartholomews school open evening.  The last one of the school visits before we have to submit my application at the end of the month.  It was good, I was very impressed with it in fact.  I also saw loads of my current school friends there.......I had a lot to take in so didn't get involved in quite as many science experiments as I might have liked.  I really shone in the history department though, I went through the entire quiz on the whiteboard where you had to date historic costumes without any mistakes.  Then I moved onto photo's of significant events of the 20th century, I also got pretty much all of them right, from Hitler, through the Berlin wall, the Twin Towers, Martin Luther King and Margaret Thatcher.  Everyone was amazed, especially Dad.

Team Kennet was ace indoors and it was cool to go with Abi, although it was a bit weird without Ned there.

Thursday

My daily school reports are generally making good reading, there are a few blips of course....

And I got a red card for having a bit of a set two with another girl in my class.  Oops.

I also got three house points from Miss Knowles today for my good sporting behaviour playing dodgeball with some of the younger kids, I threw underarm giving them a chance rather than my usual Ned rocket arm style.

Rugby club numbers after school were up again this week, brilliant!

After tea we had a bit of a shopping trip.

I needed some new football boots.  They had none in my size though.

And I had to get a couple of presents for a couple of friends upcoming parties.

We also had to get some stuff for the school harvest festival....
But no baked beans, as the food bank are apparently over run with them!

Of course, Dad and I found it hilarious to keep trying to buy beans.....

Friday

We struggled in with a carrier bag full of stuff each for harvest festival.

Yeah, we got a bit carried away with the shopping.

We watched the semi final of Great British bake off after tea.  

Dad put the kiss of death on Chetna, saying she might win......she went out!

Saturday

I had the first of my parties at the bowling alley for Adrija.  It was great fun, I scored 115 and came second. I was pretty pleased with that.

While she was having a great time I had to go into town with Mum and Dad, how joyous.  It was a condtructive trip though, we helped Mum finally pick a new pair of glasses.  We also went to Weavers Walk cafe for lunch and the had a fresh doughnut from the doughnut man outside mum's work, they were lush.

We got quite a group of us school mates out on saturday afternoon for a trip down the park, even some of the girls came out too which was cool.

I stayed in and my pestering finally paid off to Mum, it was time for Bubble painting at long last:

It was every bit as fun as i'd hoped it would be, thanks Mum.

I also did some home gymnastics practice, trying to touch my feet on the back of my head:

 

I've still got a little way to go it seems.

Auntie Trish came round in the evening to babysit, awesome!! 

We enjoyed strictly and a little bit of cuddle time:

We even got to watch Through the Keyhole, the worlds funniest programme.

 

Sunday

Bit of a lay in and the we loaded up the bikes and headed for Dinton Pastures.

Via M&S to get some picnic and torment Dad by using the self service checkout.

We didn't actually ride very far, but we did climb some trees:

We had a lovely picnic by the lake.

And I got to remark about how cute every doggie that was out for a walk in the autumn sunshine.

Then of course there was the park.

It was without a doubt the most epic park we've ever been to.

Yeah, it was pretty good it has to be said:

By the time we got home the demo version of Forza Horizons 2 had finally finished downloading.  It was worth the wait, it's brilliant, the full version will certainly be on my christmas list.

Monday

Well I had to dance class after school without Ellis.

Yeah, I was off to my second party, this time for Maddie at Pizza Hut.  We got to top our own pizzas, so I obviously went in heavy with the cheese and then topped that with salami, my new favourite thing after the Newbury Show free samples.

I struggled through dance just fine without Ellis, and then went home to find my new football boots had been delivered.  I was very pleased with them but didn't wear them around the house out of respect for the carpet.

Tuesday

I extracted another wobbly tooth in class, i might have a little bit of blood on my work as a consequence...oops.

We had netball after school of course, still loving it! My favourite sport ever.

I had gymnastics, all went pretty well, atill can't quite nail my cartwheels though.......

Wednesday

We had a friendly netball match against St Finians after school.  We played really well and had them well beat, 8 - 4.

Even more sport in the evening with Team Kennet.

Our last outdoor session of the summer, we've been so lucky with the weather this year and were treated to yet another glorious summer evening sunset over the common.

400 metres still seems a very long way around that track though.

My throwing is still improving and i'm getting a lot more consistant.

Thursday

It was the Park House open evening, as we'd already been the previous year Mum and Dad were keen to get there, watch the presentation and visit any areas we missed last time, which was at odds with my plan of doing as many experiments in the science labs and getting as many free samples as I could in the cooking department.  It turned out we did a bit of both so we were all happy.  It wasn't all good news though, the PE department confirmed that there wasn't really any boys netball.  I did however put in another storming rowing performance on their machine, even though I slid off the seat twice.
I stayed at home with Auntie Christine, we had a lovely evening and did lots of art stuff and drawing.

Friday
Well I got another badge to add to my collection at school, as i've been voted in as Vice House Captain.  Not too much of a surprise as there were only two of us that put ourselves forward.
I spent all day being excited at the prospect of our weekend camping trip, i'd been making a case for going for ages and it finally seemed like a good weekend to go.
So after school we packed up, called for Andy and headed west to Croyde.
It was well and truly dark by the time we got there, so even though it was a bit more difficult to pitch the tent it was brilliant as I pointed out that when you wake up it's a bit of a surprise where you are.
We helped for a bit but then got in the car and made camps using a blanket draped over the seats.
Which included an 'accidental' blast of the car horn at about 11pm.

Saturday

We slept in pretty late then slowly came round to bacon rolls outside in our camp chairs, how lovely.
With the sound of the waves crashing in as a backdrop, it was like being on holiday.
We had to take Andy's car for a spin to recharge the battery after he flattend it using the headlights to help during setting up camp.
It was a nice drive round, we got to check out the waves at the other beaches Puttsborough and Saunton Sands.
Next up it was the swimming pool, my highlight of the weekend.
Yeah, it was great fun in there as always, especially when Dad noticed the woggle had a hole right through the middle that would fill up with water.......
.....and if you blew into it hard enough it sent a jet right up into the air!
We loved zooming round the lazy river, firing our water cannon.

Then it was back for lunch and a quick trip to the arcade for us kids.
We were only interested in the 2p drop machines, but as we got there the man was replenishing the goodies on the machine so it wasn't running.
He didn't like to see us disappointed so gave us a couple of keyrings and stickers without even having to play the game:

Then in the afternoon we hit the beach.
The surf was brilliant and we went mad for it.
We did indeed, i've really got into it since Cornwall, although I do feel the cold a bit more than the others and got out for a waterside cuddle with Dad for a bit.
I had to be dragged out........
Instead of our usual barbecue for tea we thought we'd go to Croyde village and have a pub meal for tea.
This involved a pretty long (for me) walk through the campsite, behind the dunes and up through the farmers fields.
There was a well smart park on the way though.
And the cows in the farmers field were the cutest i'd ever seen.

Even though the pub was seriously busy we got a table pretty much straight away in the conservatory out the back and had a well deserved slump.
The food arrived pretty quickly and we refuelled ourselves with a massive jacket potato, more grated chees than i've ever seen before in one place and a salad.
While I had an adults portion cheeseburger and chips.  Lovely.
The puddings were equally well recieved, chocolate brownie and ice cream.
We then had the walk back, but this time in the dark.
We were experts at torch handling of course, ensuring the path before us was illuminated at all times....ahem.

Sunday

After another lie in and bacon roll session some bright spark decided we should walk up the really big hill that overlooks the campsite and bay.
It was very steep and there was a lot of sheep poo.
But the view from the top was worth it in the end.

It was serioulsy hot though, I only had a jumper on, so decided to take it off for the decent:

That little speck in the distance is me, I decided to run down, like only a 10 year old can without sustaining serious injury.
Mum made up a picnic and we headed for the beach again.
We had a game of boules.
We did some sand art.
And as the waves were as good as yesterday we did some more surfing!
And it was brilliant again, there should be a video at the end too.
The shower block back up in the camping field now has radio, we loved having a sing song listening to the top 40 while we washed the salt and sand from our hair.

All that was left to do was pack up and go home.
The camping field was pretty much empty by the time we left.
And thats it for this year I suppose, still, three camping trips isn't too bad is it?

Monday

I had a brilliant day at school, Becky pulled dad aside after dance and said that during the day in class i'd really been putting in the effort (2 house points awarded) and after school had the best dance session i've ever had.  I was very, very happy with myself.
In addition to that i've finally nailed a consistant cartwheel (yeah, I know i've been going to gymnastics for years), proper good day!

But you still had to spend most of the evening doing homework like I did......pah.

newbury show 2014 from Part Time on Vimeo.

Tuesday

I had a much better day at school, things are on the up.

After school I had another lengthy session on the adventure playground.

We had netball, there's a match next week so it was serios(ish) practicing.

Then it was off the gymnastics.

And as if that wasn't enough it was our meet the teacher night to set out what we'd be learning over the year and a presentation on our trip to Rhos-Y-Gwalia.  The most exciting and epic thing ever, a whole week away in North Wales.  It apparently isn't all fun and games though, we have a chores rota and have to actually make our own packed lunches!

I played on the adventure playground again, I love the adventure playground in case you hadn't noticed......

In a fairly standard turn of events for us, it was the deadline day for covering our project books and we hadn't done it.  There was a frenzied flurry of activity to get it done, Dad excelled himself with the sticky backed plastic covering.  He normally wrinkles it up and gets air bubbles and all sorts in it, but this time it was perfect!

Wednesday

So once again I decided to put myself for school council representative elections.  I put together a spur of the moment presentation which seemed to do the trick.  A lot of people I asked afterwards seemed to have voted for me so fingers crossed for Monday when the winners are announced.

I got a glowing report in my book for my maths efforts in class as well.  Apparently I did twice as much as I had to and got it all right!

And we had our first Viola lessons in class.  It was so exciting, even opening their plush cases was a lovely experience.  They were lined with soft lovely velvet and fitted the instruments so perfectly.  I also enjoyed getting to play them a bit too, i'm sure we made aome beautiful sounds.

We watched the start of the football match against Parsonds Down, 

I wasn't in the team so thought i'd hang around in a supporter capacity with Robert. Once we'd gone 3 - 0 down though it all seemed a bit of a lost cause and we went home.

Thursday

We played football at school, I scored a wonder goal, as verified by Dylan to Dad after school.

We had a few more takers for rugby this week which was a good thing.

Friday

We had a school trip to Chiltern Open Air Museum.  It was briiliant, there were loads of different houses there from the iron age (they had no chimneys to let the smoke out from their fires), right through to the Victorian one, which had an authentic victorian toilet.  In addition to that we made butter and bread (I got commended on my excellent mixing technique, honed at home slaving over brownie mixture).

We had our friday spelling test and I got a rather i pressive six out of six!

In the evening we went to Abi and Faye's.

We had an awesome game of hide and seek.

Watched a dvd.

And I got to play board games with the grown up's!

Saturday

Well after last nights late one, nothing much happened ithe morning.

Well, until Ali and Hugo came round to call for me, I was still in my pyjama's.  I got changed pretty quickly and we headed off put to see if Dylan was about too.  There was also another massive event, Minecraft was finally available for the Xbox one!  I was very excited indeed, it's been a long wait for this one.  I left Dad to download it for me......

I got Mum and Dad to myself, we went to the shop for some sweets and then to the park for a bit.

Once it was only Ali and left we came home to check on Minecraft progress, it was ready to play!!  We got stuck in on two player mode, ate bacon sandwiches and cheesey balls...perfect!

Auntie Trish came round in the evening, we were taking her to Pewsey carnival!

She hadn't been before, we hoped it was going to be a good year as we'd also rounded up Andy and Owen and Kirsty.

Turns out we had nothing to worry about, it was great:

This was one of the early push along floats, the ones on the backs of lorries were brilliant.

And there were plenty of them too, with loud music and plenty of targets to throw coins at!

The little candles over the river afterwards were so amazing, we were blown away:

Sunday

So after another late night after the carnival, we were in lay in mode again.

When we did get ourselves up though, we were pretty keen to get going.

Yeah, Newbury show day!

We do like Newbury Show, even though there is a lot of walking.

We loved making a thorough inspection of the tank on display:

Being an agricultural show, we also enjoyed a tractor or two:

We loved getting in the parade ring to fuss the packs of hounds.

Especially the youngest ones.

They were seriously cute, I made a particular friend who stood up on his hind legs, leaning against me for a fuss for ages.

The sports zone was a big hit again of course.

We got involved in all sorts, tennis, athletics, bike riding.....

And skiing!

We had a quick lesson, and after a shaky start we got on very well.

Yeah, it was seriously weird having these great big planks on your feet to begin with!

We made smoothies on a bike:

 

And did a spot of rugby.

They even had a rugby ball bucking bronco which was huge fun.

And it turns out we both seemingly have a talent for rowing of all things.

Yeah, there was a digital rowing machine you could have a go at.  It measured how far you could get in 2 minutes.  I managed 450 metres.

And I racked up just over 300 metres.

There was a score board they were putting peoples names on, I was well ahead for my age group and actually second over all to a 13 year old.

The food tent was of course a big attraction.

Dad and I sampled some black cheese (yes, it really was black).

There was also a stand giving samples of chorizo and various types of salami.  We loved that and stuffed ourselves.

The fudge stall was every bit as good as last year.  In fact it was better, being late on sunday afternoon the man was dishing out loads of samples as he didn't want to take any home with him.  

I told him I didn't like fudge.  He was mortified.

I didn't, I bought a big slab of chocolate flavoured stuff, it was delish!

And I found myself a marshmallow kebab, covered in chocolate from a chocolate fountain:

  

I did however try a bit of the fudge, and it turned out to actuially be lovely.  I went back to the fudge man and told him i'd changed my mind, I think he was pleased about that.

We watched the cattle parade around the showring, there were some lovely cows and bulls.

Some very clean looking sheep.

And a pig that was driven around in a trailer, lazy thing!

Then it was the freestyle motocross display.

This was very cool indeed, they set up their ramps and we were in the perfect viewing spot.

They did loads of tricks and talked on radio mikes all the way through, very impressive.

I was certainly impressed, I do love a motorbike.......

The show was winding up so we made our way back to the car, which we found easily in the sprawling carpark, despite not taking any real notice of where it was when we left it!

Monday

Bit of a struggle to get up for school it has to be said.

But we did okay.

And it was well worth it, I got to go up in assembly to accept the role of School Councillor!  Yes, i've finally managed it after all these years.  I got a certificate and a badge to wear (a smart yellow shield shape).  Even better was that because we sit at the back in assembly it was a very long walk to the stage to pick it up, which I certainly made the most of.

After school dance was cool, we got to form small groups of our own choosing. So Lilly, Harry and I managed to get in a group with Ben, Joe and Ned, all our big brothers!

Yeah, it was surprisingly good fun actually.

I spent all night beaming with happiness with my school councillor election victory.

newbury show 2014 from Part Time on Vimeo.

Tuesday

We've certainly been making the most of the late summer by hanging around on the adventure playground most nights after school.

I was back to netball club, which I was very enthusiastic about.

I'd kept my sandwich crusts back as an after school snack, which confused Dad as he thought I said crisps!

Once that was all done it was time for gymnastics, the later time is pretty cool.

Mum came home with my new coat, so Auntie Christine can stop worrying about me getting wet or cold in my old, holey one.

Wednesday

We had a first aid course at school today, to tell the truth I wasn't much looking forward to it, i'm still a bit squeamish about blood and guts and injuries.  It was okay in the end though, and turned out to be the least of my worries.  My teacher came out to see Dad when school chucked out for the day.  She told him that since we'd been back from summer holidays I hadn't really settled very well.  Being a bit disruptive, a bit chopsy and quite angry a lot of the time.  So, that wasn't great, especially as Dad gave the silent treatment for some time before moving on to tell how disappointed he was with me.

Still, at least we could go and run off our frustrations at Team Kennet.  Mum went in to school to a meet the teacher. Evening so it was just Dad with us.

It was yet another glorious evening up at the track, we've been so luxky this year so far....

I think Mum must have got on okay with my teacher, I certainly didn't hear anything to cause me concern but I think it was more of an oversight on what we would be learning.

Thursday

After school rugby club started today, shame it was only Dylan and I who realised.  Mr Gilham said he was happy to do it with just us two, it turned out to be great fun.

I hung about on the playground again, still loving it.

Friday

I've managed to become one of the toast helpers in the mornings, serving the whole junior school their tasty mid morning snack.  I am super chuffed about that, especially because now I get free toast!

Another position of responsibility for me and Hugo is unlocking the doors into school in the morning, straight from breakfast club.

In the evening we had a family viewing of wednesdays episode of the great British bake off.

We're still watching Mary Berry, even after the disappointment at mum's work.

Saturday

Bit of a lay in and then a trip out to Porchester Castle.

It looked pretty cool from the outside, even though the moat didn't look like it would keep many attackers at bay, it was just a dry slightly muddy ditch.

We went through an arch in the wall and found a lovely big grass field.

Yeah, big enough for a proper cricket pitch, and a chuch.

All inside the castle walls!

We sat and ate a lovely picnic, watching wedding guests arrive at the church.

Then we headed into the castle proper, there was lads to explore.

The old garderobe tower provided much entertainment.

We loved the steep and twisting spiral stair case to the roof:

The view was brilliant, over the sea to navy base, the dockyard cranes and the Spinnaker tower.

As well as a birds eye view of the wedding guests leaving the church for the photographs.

We posed for a few potential calendar photo's:

And had a game of tag with a friend we made.

We carried on exploring outside the castle walls:

It went straight out to the sea, how cool.

It was a pretty warm afternoonand the sea looked too inviting to ignore:

We finished off with an ice cream.

And on the way back to the car we noticed the moat was now full of deep water! I think if I were ever going to attempt to attack this castle i'd do so at low tide......

We got home in time for the final of tumble, and to make things even better Bobby Lockwood won, he was my favourite by a mile!

Even if he had hurt his knee and was rubbish in the final.

Sunday

We did some homework in the morning.

And then Anne came round for lunch.

We hadn't seen her for a while so it was nice to catch up.

We had a lovely dinner, dad had done well, especially with the yorkshire puddings.

And Mum had made a bakewell tart for pudding, again, she excelled herself, it was lush.

We went for a walk up at Greenham Common in the afternoon.  Apparently there had been some pictures on the internet showing the Millenium Falcon and a couple of X-Wings parked up by the missile silo's as they are currently filming the new Star Wars films up there.

You couldn't really see anything though, a load of blue screens had been hung up on the fences blocking the view in.

It was a nice walk though, we loved doing skimmers over some of the ponds.

Monday

I had good things to report from school, i'd had a much better day and was really feeling that things are back on track now.

I found out that I am in Craven house at school, the same as Ned!

Poor Ellis, Craven are rubbish, we never win the house competitions.

After school dance club was cool, we got to work in the same group (with all the other year 6 boys).

Yeah, we did a chinese themed hand dance thing, was pretty cool too.

We both did homework after tea without too much complaining, a remarkable occurence!

Tuesday

The last day of the holidays was finally upon us.

As is now traditional, Dad had the day off with us.

We hatched a plan to hit the Freespace BMX track and skatepark.

This shot was taken prior to me getting a bit over confident and pulling a wall of death style move right near the top.  It ended pretty badly when I stalled and found myself heading down at a pretty quick rate, headed right for a puddle.  I got pretty wet and the handlebars rammed me in the stomach.  Ouch.

I kept it low on the scooter and managed to stay upright.

The BMX track was in a pretty poor state sadly.

It used to be brilliant, gently downhill from top to bottom with nice big berms.

But now it was pretty overgrown and the surface had been worn away leaving quite a rocky track.

It was a lot more suited to my mountain bike.

I wasn't so keen on Ned's old BMX, it's pretty twitchy and hard to ride at the best of times:

We decided Knightwood, just up the road would be a much better bet:

And the sun came out:

I decide to give photography a go:

As well as riding a few more laps:

I gave Dad a good thrashing of course:

I did a few laps of the pump track without a helmet or gloves, to feel the breeze:

Dad wasn't happy with me for that one, but it's only what he used to do when he was my age!

I was soon kitted back up again for the big track though, it's a lot faster on there:

We rode ourselves pretty much to a standstill:

And spotted the biggest thistle we had ever seen:

Our tummies were telling us it was time for lunch, so while Dad was packing the bikes away we played on the park for a bit before heading for the Asda cafe.

Pepperoni pizza and chips for me.

Massive ham and cheese panini with a side salad for me, perfect!

Followed by a bit of choloate fudge cake that was so big I couldn't manage it all.

And a lovely slighty more fancy than normal chocolate eclair for me:

So once lunch was done and dusted we had to decide what to do for the rest of the day.
Time was getting on so our options were a bit limited but we settled on going back to the park in Marlborough.
Yeah, the one with the really high monkey bars that defeated us a couple of years back.
We nailed it this time round though, after a few false starts and complaints of slippery hands.
The rest of the park is good fun over there too, it was a nice way to while away a late summer afternoon before we made a stop at the garage on the way home for an ice cream.
I still had gymnastics to go to, but as i've gone up to the year three timings I didn't have to go until 5:15.  So that was good, even though we did go straight there from our day trip.  I was pleased to see a few of my friends had also moved up as well as Abi who already goes to the later class.
When we got home the realisation hit that we were back to school tomorrow and hadn't learnt any of our 20 spellings over the holidays.
Speak for yourself, Ii'd learned at least half of mine.
But my policy of leaving it to the last minute really didn't sit well with me now, there were tears....

Wednesday

Back to school day then.

Yep, me into year six, my last year at John Rankin.

And me up to year three, my first year in Juniors, complete with proper shirt and tie combo:

We got eased back in pretty nicely, my new teacher Mrs Buxey seems really nice, she was very impressed with my history knowledge.

And I have Miss Stubbs.  Our main topic of the day was the ancient Egyptians which was brilliant as I already knew a bit about that from Ned!

But what was most cool was being able to see each other at playtimes and that.  We really enjoyed it.  I even gave her a little cuddle when the bell rang and we had to go back to class.

So after a tiring first day back it would have been nice to have a quiet evening and maybe an early night.

No chance, it was Team Kennet.  We're on to the last few weeks of outside training now but the weather has been lovely.  All Sunny evenings with beautiful sunsets over the common, very pleasant indeed.

Thursday/Friday

Not sure what really happened at the end of last week, it's all a bit of a blur of back to school and sleepy evenings really.

We have been really enjoying Robson Green's Extreme Fishing programme of an evening though.

Saturday

Mary Berry was siging books in Mum's shop!

How very exciting.

We took a bike ride into town to see if we could get one.

We bumped into Slim and Trace and Den and Gail having a natter near the market place, so an impromptu family gathering of sorts.  

Yeah, was nice to see them all.

Then we saw the queue outside Mum's shop, it was massive, we decided not to bother waiting.

So went into the shop to see if we could catch a glimpse, this is as close as we could get:

It was lunchtime, we were hungry and I thought i'd chance my arm by suggesting Pizza Express for lunch.....and recieved universal agreement!

Yeah, nice one Ned.

Lovely lovely garlic dough balls and an enquiry about the possibility of having a make your own pizza birthday party for me there next year.

We made our way home and somehow managed to get the grown ups to sort us out an afternoon with Marny and Kimi.

Yeah, I went round theirs to play Skylanders and Minecraft.

And Marny came to us for some arts and crafts stuff:

A bit of mucking about in the pop up tent in the garden and a trip to the park.
We ended up all round theres for tea and a game of hide and seek.
And cat bothering, they have three cats.  This became quite apparent by my red puffy eyes and struggle to breathe...oh dear.

Sunday
We awoke pretty late, the picnic was already in the bag, Legoland day! 
Once we'd had our breakfast we set off, but we didn't get there until midday really.
Luckily though, the place was deserted!
Yeah, there were no real queues for anything so we filled our boots and went on stuff over and over again.
As well as a few things we hadn't been on for years.
But what I really wanted to do was play in the water park.
It was a nice sunny and warm day so why not?

It was great fun, sliding, splashing and all that, but snuggling?  That was even better!

We got dried off and changed, despite being terrorised by the spiders in the changing rooms and carried on around the park until closing time.
And I also got to have a photo with none other than Emmet:

There wasn't even any traffic to contend with coming home, how lovely.

Monday
Well the start of our first full week back.
Which meant clubs are starting up again.
Yeah, so now we both go to the same same Dance class session after school.
Which makes it much harder for Dad to watch us both at the same time, in opposite corners of the hall.
We went for a walk after tea, just down the park.
I managed to climb up the park sign for the first time ever.
And we really enjoyed seeing large groups of birds flying over in well smart V shaped patterns.


backtoschool14 from Part Time on Vimeo.