Tuesday

End of term wind down in full effect, we watched the Incredibles.

We were really grinding it out for the last few days.

We played the Hotel game when we got home.  I dispensed with Ellis and then crushed Mum for another glorious victory.

Wednesday

Well, it was finally here, last day of term.

My last day at John Rankin ever.  We had the leavers assembly to endure of course.  There was quite a good turnout of parents, both Mum and Dad were there which was cool.  There was a slide show where Mrs Watkins went through some of our achievments and personalities.  Each one was accompanied by a baby photo, supposedly supplied in secret by our parents.  It was presented in alphabetical order so I had the dubious honour of being first.....brilliant.  The picture they had sent into school was pretty good though, me, in a washing basket, looking cute.  They had good things to say about me too, about my sporting prowess, my good work in the school play, my excellent maths, my sense of humour and thanks to Mr Gilham's input, just how much I like people singing Ed Sheeran songs to me....NOT!  We got presented with a well posh pen set, one fountain pen and one ball point, emblazoned with John Rankin and a personalised box. 

It took a while to get through two classes worth, but the rest of the school behaved really nicely.  
I think a lot of us had older brothers or sisters leaving so it was quite interesting to hear about them and see their baby pictures.

I have to admit to being pretty distraught at being overlooked for all the awards given out particulalry for sport, I thought my efforts really did deserve to be recognised...hey ho, thats life I suppose.

It was soon forgotten though when we got into the real purpose of the day, shirt signing:

Sharpies are pretty heavy duty, so quite a lot of the ink seeped through to my skin, making me look like I had some sort of weird tattoo.

I even managed to sign a few which made me feel pretty cool.

It was end of term picnic, so I sat with Mum, Ellis and Amy for the last time:

Yeah, no more big brother at school for me, i'm on my own from now on!  So thats me all done with year three, bring on year four!

There was one matter left to address, the dodgeball tournament.  I got a team together with Ella, Dylan, Tom, Tyler and Jamie.  We blew the year fives away and everyone else put before us until we ended up in the final, against the teachers:

We did a job on them too, my highlight being getting Mr Percy out!  We took the win, so there we go, at least I went out on a high, good work team:

We made our way home, Robert tagged along.

As did Amy.  We did some nail polish.

We did Ipad and down the park to carry on leavers celebrations for the rest of the afternoon.

So, a bit of a split in activities, I went to Team Kennet as usual.  We were presented with a defibrillator for club use, Dad had to take the official press photograph, i'm front row:

And I went to the leavers disco....yeah, I know, another leavers event.  It was great fun and our last party together (even though there was a small splinter event meaning not everyone came for some reason):

The music was as good as the company:

We really have been a very dancey year group:

Tonights highlight tune was probably 'Summer Lovin' from Grease, rather surprisingly.  It did have extra relevance though as we'd used it in the leavers play.

The time flew by and it was soon time for one last group shot:

From two angles:

Then a reduced group shot of me with the girls (again):

And a long round of emotional goodbyes.  So thats that, the last of the leavers events. Reassurances that despite our differing paths through secondary school, we'd still see each other and the realisation that in some cases we probably won't bother.  A strange time, exciting yet a bit sad too.

I've certainly enjoyed my time at John Rankin, even though some things haven't always gone as I might have liked.  I've made some great friends, learned a lot both in and out of the classroom and had some great opportunities to do some genuinely cool things.  I give my award for best teacher to Mrs Douglas, with an honourable mention to Mr Jones for his all round epicness.

Thursday

First day of the school holidays, yay!

We badgered Dad into taking us to the BMX track.

He didn't need much persuading of course.

We took Mum to work.  They company doggie was there, I though i'd say hello....he had other ideas and had a little growl at me.  Mum assured me he was usually lovely, I didn't take it personally.

We loaded up the car and headed to Knightwood track.

Via Asda for picnic provisions.

The track was pretty busy but they were a very friendly bunch of locals so that was cool.

We had a great time, took our picnic on the grass then rode some more.

My jumping is really coming along now.

And I only had one small off to report along with a few ninja reflex crash avoidance incidents.

We were back just in time to pick Mum up from work.

Friday

Today it was raining.....really raining.

We had tried unsuccessfully to book for the trampoline park, so as a back up plan Dad had come up with the idea of going to Guildford swimming pool......which had a diving pool!

We were well up for that, so we dropped Mum off at work and got on the road.

We arrived just after the pool opened so had to make do with the slides and splash pools and what have you until the morning lessons were finished and the other side of the complex opened up.

This is where the diving pool was and it looked brilliant.

There was a 1 metre springboard, a 3 metre springboard and a 5 metre platform.

Which looked stupidly high.

We took on the 1 metre springboard first.

We bith managed pretty well, Dad on the other hand completely misjudged it, mashed his toes and splat landed on his back due to over rotation.

We distanced ourselves from him best we could and carried on.  After a few on the low one I was ready to move up to the 3 metre one.  A bit higher, but not that scary.

I stuck it out on the 1 metre for the time being, well, until Ned upped the ante and went for a jump off the 5 metre platform.

Yeah, it looked seriously high from up there but I decided to just go for it. I did well, at least I didn't slap down on the water like some of the others.

Yeah, there were some shocking belly flops, face plants and god only knows what other combinations people managed to pull off.

All accompanied by group groans and gasps from the assembled spectators.

I decided to take on the 3 metre, after a couple of refusals I finally did it! I was chuffed to bits with myself as I really didn't want to go home and regret not trying it.

All we had to do was get Dad in the 5 metre now......he didn't take much convincing.

It was pretty uneventful in the end though, a bit disappointing then really.

We left the pool and it was still chucking it down.  We stopped off on the way back to buy the film 'Home' on DVD.

Which we watched after we'd picked Mum up from work.

Saturday

We had an appointment to open me a bank account in the morning, so it was a ride into town.  My account is going to be so cool, I even get a debit card to use!

We had a bit of time to kill before  Ned and Mum's haircuts so did a bit of shopping.  My savings took another battering with a couple more TY cuddly toys and yet another pair of shoes (which according to Dad didn't need, yes Dad, whatever!).

Haircut time, well overdue in my case.

The hot chocolates and biscuits in there come highly recommended.

We eventually decided on the Hatchet for lunch.

Next up the library, the summer reading challenge is comng along very nicely.

I think the TV/Ipad ban is helping.

We rode home and watched the Celebrity Masterchef final on Iplayer.

We really wanted Rylan to win, but sadly he didn't.

Andy, Alan, Hayley and most importantly Nate came round in the evening.

Yeah, we couldn't wait to make a fuss over Nate.

We even got to give him his milk!

Then we played Alan's game, One night, Ultimate Werewolf.  It was great fun.

Yeah, even me, the biggest game dodger in history decided to give it a go and I loved it.  I caught on really quickly, much quicker than Dad in actual fact.

Sunday

A lazy start, more progress on the reading:

And another day of lovely rain.

Yep, so much rain that Archies birthday party that was supposed to be at Four Kingdoms was swirched to the cinema instead.  Poor old Archie.  We watched inside out and had a lovely time.

While she was thereI played a game of Agricola with Mum and Dad.  Mum and I tied for the win which was a little bit unsatisfactory.

The rain eased enough for me to get down the park, I found Hugo.  We came back home and played a bit of Assassins Creed on the Xbox.  We roundly mocked Dad who spent half an hour playing it the other day, unable to find the assassin, by finding him in about thirty seconds.  We also found some pretty grisly blood and guts and sone rather bad language....ahem.

I've been so inspired with my reading that i've stared writing my own story on the PC.  I spent most of the evening working on it and it's coming along very well.

Monday

We know the summer holidays have started for real when it's a day with Auntie Christine and Darcey.

A trip to Four Kingdoms? Yeah, that'll make up for yestarday nicely.

It was a bit damp, but the slides were dry enough once someone else had gone down them.

I have decided I really don't like Llama's after they chased us out of their field on the tractor and trailer ride.

I also claimed the laser tag record, giving the adults that were playing a good hiding into the bargain.

Tuesday

Seeing as Dad had been volunteered by Mum to provide music for the leavers party I thought i'd better  make sure he was putting some decent things in my playlist.  He was, I listened to it on and off throughout the week to make sure he hadn't sneaked any wafty tunes in.

Wednesday

Sex education week finally kicked off after a few false starts.  It wasn't quite what been expecting though as it was actually an interview with a couple of seven year olds and a picture of some naked babies.  

It was also opening night of the school play, I wasn't actually that nervous all things considered.  I went off on my own, on my scooter.

Leaving me to go to Team Kennet with Mum and Dad.  I really rather enjoyed it without Ned actually.

They were home in time to come and collect me.  It had gone really well, I hadn't fluffed any of my lines and there were a good few parents telling Mum and Dad just how good i'd been.

Thursday

Sex education was a bit better today, a bit more age specific anyway.  Despite Mum acclimatising me to a number of 'rude' words in the morning I still got into trouble for giggling.  It wasn't my fault, I was only crying because my hair got in my eye, not because i'd totally lost it in a fit of giggles.

We had another netball session after school, we played the year 5's, gave them a proper beating as well.  It really was our last session with all of our coaches and it was an emotional send off with plenty of cuddles from them as we left.

So, Ned's play, night two.  Mum and Dad were going to watch so Andy came round to sit with me.  We got loads of books out.....

I escorted Mum and Dad to school, they took their seats and I got changed into my costume ready to go again.  To be honest we've done it so many times now that if it hadn't been for the fact that Mum and Dad were coming to watch I wouldn't have been at all bothered about doing it.

Again we performed faultlessly and enjoyed ourselves thouroghly.  I think Mum and Dad were rather surprised by just what a major part I had, speaking on my own, even singing a line on my own with plenty of confidence.  The song choices seemed to go down well too, the highlights being Summer nights which I did with my gang of boys opposing the girls.  There was also the Lion Sleeps tonight, Seven Nation Army for the fight scene and Taylor Swifts 'You're not sorry'

Here I am during the finale, in the goldy outfit:

So there you go, I got to play one of the lead roles in our leavers play.  I was so pleased, so relieved and so happy to have finally been given the chance and by all accounts I did myself justice.

After it was finished and I was changed I had to fight my way through legions of parents telling Mum and Dad how good i'd been.

Friday

Well and truly on the end of term wind down now...

End of school wind down for me!

Part three of the sex education today, the super harrowing baby being born video! Last years year sixes told us that somebody fainted last year.....must have been pretty wussy as it wasn't that bad at all.  Poor Mrs Laurie had to take the boys for a question and answer session afterwards.

After tea we took a walk to Wash common park with a basketball and a vortex we shot some hoops, having to move back further with each successful attempt. I pretty much kept pace with Mum and Dad.

I was happy just to get one in!  I drifted off and worked on my vortex throwing some more, i'm really trying to up my game with it.  There's been a definite improvement....

Saturday

Nothing on the agenda in the morning so a bit of a lie in.

We did manage to get as far as Waitrose for some supplies though, just in time as well, there was only two bits of cheesecake left on the bakery counter.

Once lunch was sorted we packed up a picnic and headed to the races.

We hadn't been for ages.

Today was a special meeting, once the racing was over it was party in the paddock with DJ Fresh.

We have long been fans of his work so were pretty chuffed when Mum won tickets in the Anewbury Weekly News.

Especially as they were tickets for the posh enclosure.

Including parking in the middle of the track!  As we had arrived mid afternoon we had to wait until the horses had gone past before we were allowed accross the track.

We got parked up and had to cross the track again to get to the grandstands, across the grass this time!

There were four races left, only Dad managed to win anything so that was a bit rubbish.

Once the racing was done and dusted we retired back to the car for a rather civilised picnic:

The poshest picnic we've probably ever had, tables, chairs, glass bottles of coke and J2O, Kettle chips and Waitrose bread rolls....

The music started up, Danny Howard who's on Radio 1 apparently.  Sounded pretty good so once we were finished we made our way over:

There were a lot of people.

And most of them were a bit drunk.

Next up DJ Fresh, there was a lot of cheering and a few largely empty flimsy plastic pint glasses thrown into the air.

Weird.

Anyway, being a bit shorter than everyone else there we couldn't see a whole lot, so we took it in turns to sit on Dad's shoulders.
But it was a good job we bumped into Alan and Hayley and I got to sit on Alan's shoulders for a bit!

I was loving it, raving like a mad man on Dad's shoulders while he did his best Dad dancing, I even popped up on the big screen a couple of times.  I was also getting loads of high fives off people as they went past.
I was too traumatised by Mum dancing to fully appreciate the event, i've never seen her like that before!
Then a bit of a scuffle broke out, we'd warned us this might happen due to people drinking all day.  
I didn't like it at all.
I didn't much either, we moved away pretty swiftly and carried on dancing.  As Dad said, it was like watching a couple of Walrus' having a belly barge on a wildlife documentary really. 

We got back into it, the tunes kept on coming.
Finishing with Dibby Dibby Sound, my favourite.  It was epic.
Yeah, it was pretty good it has to be said.
Our first proper music event done then, we had loads of Mums coming up to us afterwards saying how cool it was that we were enjoying it so much and another round of high fives with random strangers as we left.
And we were home in time for some telly before bed.

Sunday

Today was our leavers party on the school field.  We went early to help set up as did Ali and Joel.
I went along too, it was great fun setting up the gazeebo's and hanging up the bunting.
We also got to be test pilots for the slide once it was blown up.
Even Dad sneaked a go:

We plugged my Ipad in and got the tunes going.

Filled the big buckets with ammunition for the water pistols.

And got the super long water slide going:

Which needed some washing up liquid from home to really get it going:

The slide was certainly popular:

And so was I, with the girls anyway:

They managed to herd us all up for a group photo as well, which was quite an achievment:

There was even a cake organised:

There was even writing on it apparently?:

It was a great afternoon, but pretty tiring, by the time we'd help put everything away I was ready for a massage:

I still had plenty left in the tank and went to the park with Dylan, Tyler, Tilly and Louise.

Monday

Awards assembly today, a surprise for me until I saw Mum sat there.  I won my award for my excellent writing over the year and the effort i'd put in.  I was well pleased.

We also had our last afterschool dance session of the year, we signed off with a particularly polished routine this week.  Becky had a little cry at then end as she said that the current year sixes were the first year group she'd had and has watched them go all the way through the school.

I missed it as we had yet another 'last' netball match to play against Winchcombe.  I was made captain and we won 7-0, what a great way to bow out!  We even had a team shuffle about to make it more interesting and I ended up playing goal attack of all things.
The football team had a match as well, even they won for once!

Tuesday
Regional Quad Kids finals today, or rather the Berkshire schools summer games as it's actually kown.  And with Mum still off work, she came along too.  We hitched a ride with Mr Gilham which was very entertaining.  It was a lot like having a toddler on the trip, pretty much as soon as we left he needed the toilet! We only had to go as far as Wellington College in Crowthorne which was immensley posh.  Quick team photo, with the girls:

And the boys I suppose, for good measure:

The events got under way pretty promptly, first up for me was the standing long jump, I managed a 1.93m which I think must have been a PB.  I followed this up with another PB with 11.39 seconds in the 75m sprint, a whole second quicker than I managed at Park House, with the added satisfaction of winning my heat:

The vortex throw next, it was a bit rainy but fortunatley we were allowed a run up.  I managed a 41.5m throw.  I was a bit disappointed after monday nights effort down the park but it was still probably my best ever competitive throw.  All I had left was the 600 metres, which I was not looking forward to.  I recorded a 2:19, which was another good chunk quicker than my Park House effort.  I think I ended up on 247 points overal which I was very pleased with.  The results haven't been particulalry forthcoming, but Falkland won of course, not that I mind, we'd been supporting each other all day and they are a great bunch of lads:

I think we came eigth overall?  I'd love to see some individual scores though.....
After the competition we were free to try some other sports in the expo area, it wasn't as good as the winter (rugby) day out as there seemed to be more kids and less sports to try, resulting in a lot of queueing.  I did get to try some judo which I loved:

Then some some bicycle polo, which I crashed on.  Hardly surprising seeing as it was being played on a cobbled courtyard with deep gutters running across the place.

I got to have a bit of a change in the morning, Dad had a lay in and took me to school.  I was very good and made sure I was all ready on time for him. It certainyl made a change.
As he'd statred late, he stayed at work late meaning Auntie Christine came to pick me up from school.  So another exciting break from normality.  We went round the her place and played some games for a bit until Dad came to take me on to Gymnastics.  It's all go isn't it?
In my usual way of leaving everything until the last possible minute, I was up until 10pm frantically drawing my 'Park Life' postcard ahead of tomorrows visiting day:

which was a shame as I was pretty tired:

Wednesday
Whole school shuffle day today, so that meant I was shuffled off to Park House.  All 9 of us met up at Tilly's house for bacon sandwiches before we headed off together:

I took my bike, i've been desperate to ride to school for ages and am particulalrly looking forward to the ride back home down the hill.
I spent the day in my new year 4 class with Mr Percy!  I'm happy with that for next year as i've now come to realise that he isn't always shouting at people, he just has a loud voice.
We all met up in the hall, there were a sprinkling of familiar faces from Team Kennet, various sprts events and even an ex-JRJ pupil.  Tyler and I were the last to be called out to join our tutor group, I was starting to feel a little forogotten.  Our new teacher is called Miss Herden, she's Australian which i thought was pretty cool.  We're called Omega, and also Elm in the house system, so our colour will be blue.  Everyone was really friendly and enthusiastic which was good.
We did a bit of ICT stuff and put some personal profile stuff ahead of us starting for real in Spetember.  We were discharged at 3pm, I was home very shortly afterwards.....

Dad had also brokered a deal to sell my old race BMX and the chap who wanted to buy it for his son.  So after Dad's hard work cleaning it and sorting out everything I got to keep the money as it was my christmas present.  Good money too as it was such a lush bike:

Andy came round for tea and took us to Team Kennet, so that was well cool.

Mum and Dad went off to a parents evening at Park House.   They had to listen to what sounded very much like an assembly (with some slides showing some of the days activites, there I was front row, beaming smile on my face on the first one shown) before going off to meet my teacher.  She knew who I was straight away, which Mum assures me is a good thing.  She told them I was really keen and confident.  They also got me my school tie in my house colour, pretty much the last of my uniform purchases.

Thursday
A big day today, Mum started her new job.

But she could still drop us off at school and be home in time to pick us up, awesome!

I went off down the park after school.

I got Mum to take me to the fabric shop to spend some of my money. I bought some lovely orange stuff (2 metres for the price of 1 as it had a mark on it) and some rather more expensive purple leopard skin patterned stuff:

I adorned myself with it in various ways, dresses, wraps, roman style toga's, headresses, even shoe  adornments.  I loved it, best £10 I've ever spent I reckon?

I decided to give biking with dad a miss this week, citing a bad finger.  Truth was i'd had a rubbish day with our play rehearsals and just kept getting one piece wrong over and over again.  Mum managed to calm me down, and Dad helped as well when he got in......

Friday
We had a Mufti Day in aid of the school fete at the weekend, lovely.

Yeah, we looked proper effortlessly cool of course.

I had a much better day with the play and I think i've got it down now.  In fact Mrs Laurie made a point of telling Mum and Dad Just how well i'm doing with it and what a proper thespian I am!

I also got my SATS results back, and true to form, i'm good at maths and not quite so good at the written stuff.....same old same old.

Can I get a word in edgeways here Ned?

Nope, I had a bit of a re-boot of the netball career after school, with the traditional match against last years team (who are now year 7's at secondary school).  They gave us a good old beating, I didn't enjoy it very much....
Finished now? Good.  We went to the outdoor pool once he was finished.  Mum and Dad seemed to love it but it was a bit cold for us in all honestly.

They are much better insulated than us though Ellis.
Saturday
A trip Into town, by bike of course.

Yep, signed up for the summer reading challenge and got ourselves some books.

Then I spent the Game vouchers I had for my birthday....I like to make a considered purchase with these sortof things.  So, the deal they had on for Xbox live gold, £5 for the online store and a free game seemed a great deal.

We made some cup cakes when we got back, and for once actually managed to do it without arguing about anything.

They were for the school fete in the evening so we were up against it time wise.

They tried a new format for the fete this year, an evening do, with a live band playing.

I'd decided I didn't want to help on a stall as I was in a grump when they asked for volunteers I think.  Anyway, there was the penny rolling game set up with no one to man it. So Mum and I thought we'd get it going.  I did really well with it, even though I did upset a few punters with my efforts at getting maximum returns for the school, which after all was the whole point of the evening!
I diverted my efforts into giving my new teacher for next year,  Mr Percy a good old soaking:

I also got to give Mr North a soaking as well.

Once my stall was closed for business I got my facepainted by a couple of older, female, ex pupils I always was rather fond of.  This is what they did to me:

I kept it far more subtle and tasteful:

We ended up getting soaked during a water fight that broke out once Louise had shut up shop with her fishing game.....we were soaked!

It was a good night, although it did seem a bit low on numbers?

SundayDad had spotted a deal on the Legoland website where annual pass holders could take a friend for £5.  
Sounded like a great deal to us, so we were allowed to invite a friend each.
I chose Luca.
And I picked Dylan.
Neither of them had been before so that ensured a certain amount of excitement on the way up.
Once in Dylan and I cleared off on our own, we ran like hell to the horse ride and walked straight on.  Then we legged it to Atlantis and walked straight on.  We were loving it!  We than went on the dragon roller coaster, the horses again and the driving school.
We went straight on the sky ride thingy, again, unusually quiet:

A look around miniland and then on to the playground:

Then the helicopters:

The Fairytale Brook:

And then the driving school, which Luca decided he didn't fancy.
We met up for lunch at the show.
Yeah, the pirate one, not the wafty Friends one:

Straight after lunch we had a group trip to the pirate boat, the only ride we needed any grown ups on.

Luca was a bit nervous as he hadn't been on one before.  We assured him it would be okay.

By the end of it he was loving it and pestering us for another go! 

Luca loved the lego bunnies and cats:

I'm glad I took him with us, he was such fun and loved it:

We went on the the train, the chairoplanes and then back to Atlantis:

We were queueing for the boats when Ned and Dylan showed up.

Yeah, we thought we'd hang out with the others for a bit.  

The boats are always great fun.

Except for poor old Dylan who didn't fully appreciate my driving style (endless doughnuts in the lagoon then crashing our way into the landing jetty):

It had started to rain by this point so we decided on a another quick go on the pirate boat to keep Luca happy.

Then onto the Viking Rapids.

Where there was no queue at all, leading to us having three goes in a row.

We got soaked, totally soaked especially when the big bucket tipped up directly on us!

Dad reckons he's had drier showers.

We squelched and squerched our way back towards the car, stopping off for another two goes on the Boat Racers ride.

As if we weren't wet enough already!

What an epic day out.

Monday
Into the home straight at school now before the summer holidays.
So not much happening really.
Play rehearsals went very well again though, if we don't know it by now we probably never will!
I went off down the park with the gang again after school before coming home and playing our new board game 'Smallworld'
I choreographed a dance routine in the front room and then issued tickets I had made to Mum, Dad and Ned to come and watch.......

Tuesday

So for international week, as we were doing Spain we made a visit to La Tasca for some food tasting.  The chorizo was obviously lush....you can keep the rest of it though.

Yeah, the year 4's got pizza, talk about rubbing it in, we got nothing!

It was the school book fair after school, the one time a year we are interested in books!

Gymnastics was a pretty warm affair this week, there were a lot of bright pink cheeks leaving thr gym when we finished.

Wednesday

The day no one was waiting for, the year three Viola and viola concert assembly.  Still, we had to grin and bear it and endure the torture. The real stinker was a version of uptown funk on violins, in comparison that our viola stuff sounded almost passable.

Being the hottest day of the year we decided against Team Kennet, packed ourselves a picnic and went to the outdoor pool instead. 

It seemed a little smarter in general than last time we went there.

We got there just in time too, it was one in one out after we had got in as they had reached the maximum capacity.

Andy managed to get in eventually and meet up with us.

Ben and Lilly were there too, I went diving in the deep end with Ben.

I had a great time larking about with Lilly.

Friday

Got into a bit more trouble at school today, defending and helping out Amy.  It didn't go down too well with the teachers though, although they did sympathise, to a degree with my motives.  Another red card for the collection.

It wasn't all bad though, it was Amy's birthday tea party after school.  It was brilliant fun, even her sisters were on good form. We even had a water fight to make the most of the continuing hot spell.

While she was there I persuaded Mum and Dad to take me to the outdoor pool again.  A load of my mates were going so it was nice to meet up with them for some fun and help them share their picnics.

Saturday

The most exciting thing for some time, Alastairs painballing trip.  I was so looking forward to this one.  It was every bit as good as i'd hoped it would be too.

We took a bike ride to victoria park, it was a much less frantic affair without Ned constantly gunning it along then stopping for us to catch up, then gunning it again and weaving all over the path.  We really rather enjoyed it!

Paintballing was so cool, we got kitted up with helmets and visors and gloves and loaded our guns with paintballs.  We played loads of different games, involving raiding castles and trying to get the 'president' onto an actual bus.  The other teams there were good fun too.  What a top day.

When he got home he was a sweaty, painty mess and yet he still couldn't understand why he had to have a shower!

Meh, I wasn't that mucky?

We went to a barbecue at Chris and Kates in the evening, they had done a great job and had got the whole gang out.

Yeah, pretty much everyone was there, obviously Finlay and Millie, then there was Abi and Faye, Kimi and Marny, Max, Leo and Hartley, Fen and Yanna (who we hadn't seen for ages) and even Nate.

We had a great time.

I had a long stretch in goal and made some great saves.

But the real highlight was Max giving us a 'super boost' on the trampoline.

Sunday

Between Dad and I we'd cooked up a scheme to got a Downhill Bike race on Sunday, take part and then meet up with Mum and Ellis (driven there by Andy) at Hollycombe Steam Fair which just so happened to be right next door.  Great plan we thought.  We got to the race venue nice and early and walked the track, it looked okay so we thought we'd sign on and get stuck in. We headed up to the top of a frankly exhausting push up path and got ready for practice to start.  It went pretty badly from the first corner where I took the wrong line and fell off.  It was a steep section of track that was also surprisingly wet and slimy, I didn't get myself composed properly so pretty soon found myself off again, and then again.  Once we got onto the less slippery section I was flying though, between the really tight trees all the way to the bottom.  We pushed back up and had another go.  I got the first corner right but things soon went wrong again and I had another couple of offs.  I decided this really wasn't for me.  I went back to the car, ate some pretzels and played on the Ipad until Mum, Ellis and Andy turned up.  I was pretty gutted about it all it has to be said.

It was great to see Dad though, I gave him a big cuddle and wished him luck before his first race run.

I took Mum and Ellis and Andy up the track to the best point to watche from (where we'd seen plenty of crashes during practice).

The woods were really lovely to wander through.

We watched the first race runs and had to wait ages for Dad to come down as it ran pretty much in age category order.

Yeah, being as he was in Veterans class, a fact I loved shouting at him as encouragement as he went past.

He looked surprisingly competent and at least he didn't fall off, we made plenty of noise for him.

We wandered down and met him at the bottom, he'd managed to not kill himself and was pretty happy with how it went.

So we left him to it and headed off to the steam fair.

He still had one run to take so arranged to meet us after he'd finished.

Hollycombe then, as cool as ever even if the Haunted House has been removed for renovation.

Although it's possible that we might be getting a little bit big for some of the rides:

But not the big wheel!

Good job Dad was elsewhere, it was swaying really well in the wind, he'd have hated it!

But he soon showed up to join us as the race finished quite early.

He's had a bit of an off on his second run but didn't seem to be any the worse for wear.

Until he got off the Razzle Dazzle, always a pleasure that one! 

We're always amazed at how old the stuff is there, it's so cool that it's still kept running.

Yeah, even the music is authentic and comes from boxes and boxes of folded paper, punched with holes that get fed through the organ.  How cool!

Monday

Interesting day for us at school today. all the St Barts kids had their induction day, leaving only us 9 behind.  We had a pretty cool day doing some work on our Rhos project and a load of football!

And I got to paint a section of yet another ornamental horse our school seems to have aquired.

It was also a landmark day, the end of our non finger sucking for a month trial!

Yep, we did it.  That was an easy £20, even if I did have to go to bed with my arms down by my side to help.  So thats me finished with that, my finger nails look better already, recovering from years of sucking.

I might still have the occasional suck I reckon?  Although everyone else thinks this is a bad idea.  My manky old blanket has also been put away too,haven't snuggled that for a month either!