Tuesday

Final Christmas play rehearsals were not going well, three people were off school so their places needed to be filled.  Added to that everyone was stood in the wrong places at the wrong times during the show and strees leveles were rising!  And all this in front of the lower school. Still, as they say, it'll be alright on the night.It was a pleasant enough afternoon so took the pavement with my scoooter and cones and then the skateboard for a bit, I haven't lost it!  Despite not using it since we were on holiday.  I don't think Mum and Dad were too pleased with my choice of footwear though....my nice leather, lace up school shoes.

In other wheel based news, I sold my old 16" wheeled bike!  I hadn't used it in over a year and Dad had cleaned it up really nicely.  The lady that came round took one look and said she would take it there and then.  Easy sale.  She paid on her phone and Mum saw the money ping into her account on the Ipad.  How very modern.  The downside was that I couldn't get my hands on the cold, hard cash and blitz it on TY toys....

Wednesday

No team Kennet this week, as it was time to perfomr the school play, in the evnings for the Mums and Dads.  I wasn't particulalrly nervous and skipped off down the school after tea to get into my costume.  It went okay on the whole, even if someone did speak over my lines when they got their timing all wrong.  I was buzzing when Mum, Dad and Ned came to pick me up afterwards.

Thursday
Christmas lunch day at school, so it was on with the Christmas jumper, Christmas tights (that I got told off for wearing last week as they aren't strictly uniform) and on with the hats we make every year.

So that was all great, shame about the meal though, it wasn't very nice at all.....
The last performance of our Christmas play, The tale of La Befana, based on a traditional Italian folk story. Mum, Dad and Ned were coming toinght so we all walked in together.  Well, Mum and Dad walked, Ned and I heelied!
The show went much better than the first night so that was a relief.  It was cool seeing Mum, Dad and Ned there, especially as they sat at the end of the centre aisle so I got to pass by them very closely during the bits where we wandered around the audience, they loved our candlelit procession around while singing silent night in Italian!!  I got a candle to carry both nights too (not a real one sadly, one of those flickery battery ones which was still seriously cool).  There were plenty of comedy moments in the script and plenty of adaptations of welll known songs (Lady Madonna and the Proclaimers 500 miles being the real highlight).
I got to deliver my lines without any interruptions too tonight which was a relief.

The feedback was good, especially for our singing which was so clear, lous and even in tune!
We stayed on afterwards to help tidy up all the chairs, a task made much easier in Heely's. We thanked Mr Percy and Miss Newman for all their efforts on the way out, I think it had been quite a challenge for them.

Friday
My school photo finally came home, despite me losing it between being given it at the end of the day and meeting Dad in the playground.  We retraced my steps but couldn't see it anywhere.  It had already been handed into the office, after a positive ID check we took it home:

Ned had done food tech, Macaroni Cheese!  So we had said we would go and collect hime rather than him riding home with a large pyrex dish full of dinner on his back.  The problem was that Mum still had the car!  We offered to walk up and meet him, so I donned my Heely's and engaged talk mode all the way up the hill.  Somehow, we managed to miss him as we took his usual route round the back of Sainsburys rather then the other way past Budgens.  He did the opposite.  We couldn't find him and he wasn't answering his phone as usual.  He did finally ring, by which point he was already half way down the hill.  Heelying back down the hill was a lot better than up it but he still beat us home.

It was film night at school, Minions, which i've already seen, but you know, it's film night isn't it?  It was a good night, Andy came to pick me up as Mum and Dad had gone out Mums work christmas party.  We had a great night, if maybe a little late to bed......

Saturday
Christmas Tree day!  Leaving the house was an emotional experience, lots of whingeing and moaning and not doing anything that was requested of us.  By the time we had got to fifth road in the car we had escalated to arguing and fighting so Dad decided he wasn't prepared to get the tree at all.  We went back home, with much more wailing and protestation.  Ned went off to bed and I sulked on the sofa.
Things cooled down a bit, we had a civilised lunch together so tree shopping was back on, much to our relief.  We went to Yattendon and even though it was pretty busy there were loads of trees on offer once we had negotiated the wealth of decorations and trinkets on sale.  We had been a little disappointed with the size of trees on offer for the last few years as we hadn't got the cherub on top even close to the cieling.  With this in mind we were on a mission to get the biggest one Dad would agree too:

We did very well on that front, it was massive.  Even the man that worked there that helped us bag it commented on what a lovely tree it was and how we would be back tomorrow for a refund and a smaller one.  We got it home and cleared a space for it, took another look and then cleared even more space for it.  It went in the bucket easily enough and we pulled it into place.  It needed some more space, so the sofa got pulled right up to the door into the hallway, taking that out of comission for the next few weeks...oh well, a small price to pay if you ask me.  We set about decorating it and for the first time I can remember we didn't have any decorations left in the box to speak of in the end:

it was my turn to put the cherub on top, which was not the easiest operation it has to be said.  Eventually Dad hoisted me up while stood on a chair and held me aloft like superman.  I was not at all happy with this We sat back and enjoyed the warm glow of the fairty lights, very happy with our efforts.

Auntie Trish came round to babysit in the evning, yeah, Mum and Dad going out wo nights running, outrageous!!

We had a lovely evening, she loved our mega tree!

Sunday
Up after a modest lay on for the Berkshire under 11 sportshall athletics competition.  Our team of little 8 year olds against them big old 11 yrpear olds....i did okay on the while, my running is still a bit lacking in terms of outright speed but I doubled my distance for the foam javelin compared to our last competition.  Looking at Dad here you would think he was the on putting in the effort rather than just being a convenient, portable sofa:

Our little team came, ummmm, last on the day.  Hey ho, we've got another two years before it really counts.

We were all a bit tired and irritable on Sunday night, so there were early nights all round.

Monday
It was the week of our Christmas dance routine,the highlight of which. According to Mum was our human sleigh arrangement.

After tea it was a surprise visit (for us anyway) to see Hayley.  A most fortunate forgetting of Hayley's birthday present by Mum and Dad when they went out on Saturday night for her birthday lead to a Nate visit!  He was of course super cute and we got him laughing away as he laid on his mat!

Tuesday

It was badge week at gymnastics and I achieved bronze status for apparatus!  Get me, another one for my cool file I keep them in.

Wednesday

Neds last rugby match of the season was a rather spirited affair. Nhe mad a fantastic run the whole length of the pitch to score a fantastic try, only for it to be disallowed by the ref who was so far away he couldn't see that he touched the ball down over the line.  He was devastated.  There were like loads of high tackles from Trinity which is against the rules by all accounts? This riled the Park House lot up rather so the tackles inreased in ferocity, ultimatlely ending up in one of Neds team who is pretty much as tall as Dad getting high tackled and what can only be described as a fight breaking out.  I thought it was seriously exciting stuff, even if Ned wasn't involved.

Straight from the rugby club to Team Kennet again for me......I'm glad the rugby season has finished.

Thursday

Another day rehearsing the play, adding to Mr Percy's stress levels.  After school Mum and I went to Best One to get ourselves some sweets for tomorrows Panto trip.....

Friday

Panto trip with the school, Mum got an invite too as she's been a reading helper.  Fortunatley I didn't have to sit with her, she sat with the other invited grown ups.  I sat with Harrison, like it was the back row of the cinema, all cuddled up.  It was great fun, the loud thing i've ever been involved in...so much shouting and screaming and when we all had to stamp it was like an earthquake!  Mr Percy got a lot of stick from the Dame character too.

In the evening we went with the Halfords for a meal at the newish pub up by Tesco.  Sadly the lovely Hartley wasn't allowed to come with us.  We walked from their house all the way along Monks Lane which gave plenty of oppurtunity for larking about with the boys, it was great fun, we all know how much I like a walk!  The meal took a little while to arrive which was a shame as we were starving, but we filled the time with plenty of fun and I enjoyed it when it dida rrive.  I love a kids menu when you can put your own bits together, chicken nuggets, mash and salad sticks...perfect for me.
The walk home was just as much fun too, I even managed to get Dad to sit me on his shoulders for a bit which was quite an achievement as he had banned me from this earlier in the year on the grounds that I was way too big.

Saturday

A very rare event took place this morning, we washed the car!  The poor thing was filthy.  I love car washing, well, I love getting the water everywhere, getting soaked then clearing off indoors before it's finished anyway.
It may be a few years since we left, but the Infant school Christmas fete is still one of the highlights of our Christmas preparations, Ned included!

There were all the usual attractions, Miss Stricklands face painting is still brilliant and I was thrilled she still remembered me:

I still love the biscuit decorating stall, I think you can see the benefit of my exeprience now, i'm not so prone to throwing as much decoration at it as I can manage anymore and take the less is more approach:

It didn't last long though.....

Even I can't resist a decorated biscuit:

And in a drastic upturn in fortunes, I won things on the tombolas!  It was a remarkable upturn over previous years where i's spend all my money and not win a thing and have to envy Ned's bagfull sof prizes.  It must be said, he did pretty well again this year and came home with a whole lot of edible goodies.

Sunday

I got another trip to the Panto with Sasha (who's Mum had aquired some free tickets apparently) and Jess.  It was ace going out with them and we loved the panto still, even if it wasn't quite as raucous as the full school trip. 

Tuesday

Well I finally got a few extra lines in the play, so thats pleased me.  Mr Percy is getting well stressy about people not knowing their lines well enough.  I have also been appointed one of the dance captains for ryhe show.  This means that having nailed the routines for tye performance, anyone who's struggling to remember their steps should copy my lead.

Wednesday

Darcey and auntie Christine came round for a visit after school which is as well cool.

They dropped us off at the rugby club on their way home to watch Ned play again.  The weather was pretty horrible, but I took a tub full of soap soloution with me and the strong gusts of wind carried my bubbles right across the pitch.  Dad met us up there on his bike straight from work, so that meant we had to walk home once Ned was finished.  It took a while, so I let Dad sit me on his massive bike and push me along.

In light of the walk home and the industrial grade clean up operation Ned needed to get him clean of mud we didn't bother with Team Kennet.

Thursday 

I love as feeling very creative, so after school I made this rather lovely sock puppet:

Friday

It was Team Kennet presentation evening, and I was in line for a medal.  Ned wasn't, so he really didn't want to go.  But being the good all round egg that he is he came along.  He was very supportive too and was genuinely pleased for me to collect my medal:

It was for being in the winning team for the Oxford Athletics league.  I pressive eh? I only went to the last round as well!

Saturday

Mum and Dad went off shopping for the day, so we had a day withthe Aunties.  We went to the cinema to see the good dinosaur.  I was a bit worried that it would be a sad film and I wouldn't like it, I loved it!  We even had proper popcorn as well. Ned cleared off with his mates so we had a ladies only lunch in the Hatchet, Laura turned up too, how cool:

We had such a lovely day, thanks ladies!

Sunday

Mum and Dad decided it was time for a family day out as apparently we haven'e done that for a while. They made us go to Marwell zoo.  We hadn't been there for a while, so I was reasonably up for it.

It was good actually, there was a lot of new things since last time we went.  The penguins were obviously super cute, the giraffes were cool and the leopards were awesome.

There was a speed trap thing to see how fast we could go compared to a cheetah:

We were no where close of course.

The zebras were really striking, their markings were amazing:

Meerkats, of course:

But they were upstaged by the mongeese(?). They were having a right old game of tag and it was hilarious to watch.

Monday

I walked into school with Darcey after she knocked for me:

Tuesday

So our PE teacher Mr Gilham is leaving (again), we don't know what will happen to after school sports clubs and more importantly, Sports Council. 

Wednesday

We had Neds first parents evening today.  The run up hadn't gone well, he had to book his own appointments with his teachers and had managed to lose his original form and his replacement copy......we were down to him writing down what he managed to remember and confidence was low.  Imagine our surpise when he managed to get them all pretty much spot on, he even managed to get a few extra appointments that he hadn't even booked by sharking about.  Even more impressive was his general demeanour around school, he seemed really comfortable and I was very impressed that he knew his way around such a big school so well.  He got really good feedback from all his teachers too, the only critiscism being that his focus can wander........

We then had a quick dash to McDonalds for something to eat before going straight back to Park House for team Kennet.  Still loving it in the competition group.

Thursday

Went down to play with Charlie after school, the oppurtunities for this are few and far between these days what with the sporting commitments and it getting dark so early.  A shame then that I accidentally got a Nerf bullet in the eye.  Then had a big old sulk because no one was quite apologetic enough for my liking and I came home early.

Friday

Dad cleared off out with the boys to see some 120 year old pop group and Ned had his first school disco at Park House leaving mum and I to have a nice girls night of snuggling, laughing and book reading.  A lovely way to spend an evening now and again.

Saturday

I woke up feeling rather creative, so after a lot of drawing and cutting and sticking I finally came up with these rather splendid pom pom glasses:

You couldn't see much out if them but who cares when you look this cool?

Marlborough was calling, lunch out and an advent calendar to choose.

Lunch was brilliant, we had proper posh hot chocolates as well, in tall glasses.

Ned was on top form as well, he had all sorts of entertaining banter, the highlight being his version of Mr and Mrs played between Mum and Dad and me and him.  

We then got on with the main task of the day, calendars.  It's always a tough choice, such an important countdown to mark.

We were home in plenty of time to go roller skating for once, sadly it wasn't on this week so it was a night in front of the telly instead.

Sunday

Sportshall round two today, we were both feeling a bit under the weather.  There was no way we could let our teams down at such short notice so we soldiered on.  We did pretty well too, especially as i ended up doing 6 events, the runn bg ones were all pretty long races too.

Monday

We did a song from High school musical at dance club.  Mum and Dad reckoned they could really tell the difference when i'm really into it and loving the music.

I got all excited to help Mum do some shredding with our new shredder after tea.  Sadly the shredderr was total rubbish, it only works for two minutes before the motor cuts out for twenty minutes too cool down.  We packed it up and are going to take it back....

Tuesday

We had a game of Dixit before gymnastics, Ned free zone too, I loved it.

It was our final practice session for the gymnastics competition this week, so we're as ready as we're going to be.

I did a lot of practice of the sample script we had for the christmas play in preparation for auditions.  I got it down really well too.

Once I was home from gymnastics and we'd had tea we played the board Game Ticket To Ride.  I've never really been one for board games but I loved this one this time.  Other than Dixit it's the only game i've ever really played through to the end.  This telly and Ipad game is actually turning out to be pretty good........

Wednesday

Took my super cute white fluffy (battery operated) dog on mine and Mums walk to the little shop tonight.  It seemed a great idea in principle, but the dog does move rather slowly and is prone to walking round and round in circles.  Progress was slow.

Next up Parents evening, wasn't worried about it this year.  I don't think they got a great deal of feedback anyway......

Then it was a rush job for Team Kennet, no Ned this week, he was playing rugby again.

I had a great time in the competition group again.

Thursday

I went up a reading level at school, yay.  I'm so pleased, the choice of lime labelled books was very limited indeed.  I now how the choice of the red and black label ones instead.

It wasn't all good news though, we had the christmas play auditions and it didn't go as i had planned.  I wasn't allowed to read the part i'd been practicing at home for so long which wasn't ideal.  I didn't know the other role they wanted me to do nearly so well.  I got given a crappy part with only one line to say.....not happy about that at all.

It didn't get much better at home,we had a cake making session for the following days Children In Need cake sale....plenty of arguments with Znec getting involved.....he didn't even have a bake sale at his school!

Friday

Children in need day...that means I get to wear my onesie for school!  Mr Percy even wore his pyjamas all day too.

Mum got to go to her first ever bake sale after school.  She was utterly shocked at the amount of noise and commotion.  Quite honestly neither Mum nor I had to appetite to get involved in the scrum for cakes so just got a couple of bits from the far less busy sweetie stall.  Ned used to be in his element at these sorts of things......

When I got home I dug the Weables out and had a play with them, I was fascinated at them not falling over and was interested in how they worked.  After a quick chat with dad about it. We made our own using a Kinder egg, a blob of blue tack and a couple of pound coins:

He was epic, and just like the real Weables he didn't fall down!

I then helped cleaning and tidying with mum.  I really got into it too, I cleaned the toilet and arranged the coasters extremely accuratley using a ruler.  Apparently I did such a good job that Mum evn paid me...not that I was expecting any money.

Nate came round to see us, he's even more with it now, apparently he's started waving too.  The first person he waved at was Simon Cowell on the telly.  I even got to help feed him his jar of food.  He bought Alan and Hayley along too, and Andy turned up so we played the werewolf game!  I looooove the Werewolf game.

Saturday

Mum had her shareholder meeting to go to for her old work.  Faced with the awful weather and the prospect of dealing with us alone the telly and Ipad ban was lifted a day early.  Thank goodness for that, we spent the morning getting seriously square eyes!

Once mum was home we played another game of Ticket To Ride which I was very pleased about as i'd been desperate to have another go.

Then in the evening we went bowling with Auntie Christine, Laura, Auntie Trish, Uncle Slim and Auntie Tracey.  It was great fun and I did really well and even got a strike!  Add to that Auntie Trish's sweetie stash and we were having a great time.

We went back to Auntie Christines afterwards for a chinese takeaway and some games....lovely.

Sunday

We took Ned for his first driving lesson in the morning, up at the Newbury Showground.  He had it for his birthday so it had taken a while to get it organised.  I was seriously jealous of him and can't wait until i'm 11 and I can have a go too.

He got sat in the car and after a few adjstemts and a few words from the instructor he was off:

He looked really comfortable and very relaxed too he even gave us a wave as he went past:

There was one really long straight and he went along it seriously fast.  It was actually quite shocking to think Ned was driving a real car at that sort of speed.  At the end of the session he even reverse parked, impressive stuff.  The instructor, Mark said he'd done very well and certainky wasn't afraid of using the throttle.  He reckoned they got up to nearly 50mph (in second gear) and the main thing Ned should concentrate onwas his road positioning, he was a bit too keen to drive on the right.  We put this down to our recent trip to Tenerife.

We met up with Kimi and Marny for lunch in the pub afterwards. We hadn't seen them for ages and ages.  It was good to catch up, we had a lovely feed:

Then we managed to get them to come round to ours afterwards for a bit of a play....excellent.

We had a bit of a quiet time once they left, watched some telly and then revved up for the gymnastics competition.  I signed in and met up with Sasha, Lola and Eloise and made our way in to the gym.  There was a lot of people watching and I could have got quite nervous if i'd thought about it...but im getting quite good at putting this sort of thing out of mind these days.  I was in a group with Lola so that was good, we have a great time when we're together.  We competed on the floor, the bars, the vault and the beam.  The good news was that I didn't fall off anything or land on my bottom at any point suring proceedings so i'll take that as a good result.  I didn't get a top three in any of the individual events but we all got a medal for effort:

Monday

Rehearsals for the play have started in earnest and we've been getting stuck into the songs, which i'm really enjoying.

After school dancing was another one in the dark, this time a disco themed number complete with disco lights and everything.

We got home to find the house overrun with Ned and his mates having a Nerf gun war....obviously I had to get stuck in too! 

Tuesday

We're giving Sasha a lift home after gymnastics at the moment, it's reat funin the car listening to Radio 3 on the way back.

Wednesday

We had a visit from the Sealed Not at school to tie in with our current civil war topic.  It was really good, we got to handle spears and a load of other weapons.

Ned was playing rugby for the school up at Newbury Rugby club so we went up to watch for a bit.  It was a horrible afternoon, sideways rain and windy.  Their performance was every bit as unpleasant when they played their first game too.  They did pick it up a bit for their second game though but mum and I had to leave before the end of the game to get me to Team Kennet in time.

Ned gave it a miss in favour of a much needed shower and a hot meal.

Thursday

Bonfire night, and the school had it on the day of the 5th rather than the weekend.  The weather was pretty wet so the field was a bit on the boggy side.  Mr Jones had once again done the business with a lovely roaring bonfire:

In a surprise addidtion to proceedings there was also a fire act, involving a couple of blokes (a pupils dad) doing some fire juggling, some fire skipping and some fire breathing which was all very entertaining.  I wasn't quite so keenon the bit of the act that involved setting fire to a very cute and cuddly teddy bear.

The fireworks themselves were up the usual high standard and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

Friday

We went Abi and Fayes for the evening.  The highlight was of course Holly the Hamster.  Seriously cute but a bit too skittish and fast for me to be totally comfortable cuddling her.  I loved watching her run around the house in her ball.

Saturday

We went to watch Ned play rugby in Reading inthe morning, it was chucking it down and seriously windy.  So much so it turned both of our umbrellas inside out.  They played a lot better than last time, Ned seemed up for it and we were thrilled when he scored his first try.  Sadly they did lose narrowly.  Here's me and Panda trying to use dad as a shield from the wet weather:

And here's the mucky little urchin himself.  He was really muddy but the rain was sufficient to wash most of it off again:

I had an invite to go round Sashas and play for the afternoon and stay for tea.  It was brilliant once we'd barricaded ourselves in her room away from her brothers and their friends.

Sunday

Up reasonably early to go and watch Minions at the cinema.  I really loved it, Ned liked it too but both Mum and Dad thought it was a bit pants apparently.

Next on the agenda was a shopping trip to sort Mum out with some jumpers to keep her warm at work over the winter.  Now our love of shopping is well known, but we were really going to try and keep this one on track.  It started off well enough with a very pleasant lunch in the M & S cafe but things went downhill very rapidly once the actual shopping started.  I don't really want to go into too much detail about what happened but we were marched back to the car and had a very quiet drive home indeed.  Oh dear, I hope Mum doesn't freeze.......

Monday

Glow stick dance week!  Mum hadn't seen one of these before and thought it was brilliant.  She was really quite taken by it all actually.  

As part of the fallout from the shopping trip debacle we were banned from telly and Ipads dor a week......A WEEK!!!!!!  So while Ned has been burying himself in homework to break the tedium I have been resorting to something a bit more creative and made this lego man collage from my Lego magazine that plopped through the door (well, I used Mums actually as she gets one posted to her too for some reason):

Tuesday

School swimming with my rubbish blue hat....
Then after school it was gymnastics, lift sharing with Sasha.  We're starting to practice our routines for the upcoming competition.

Wednesday
Team Kennet was very late starting due to a football tournament running late. At least we had tour guide Ned on hand to show us the abridged highlights of Park House as we waited.  I'm enjoying working with my friends in our competition group.

Thursday
So it was finally the last day of term and a very momentous occasion in our household.  I bought home the mythical, fabled Golden Time Certificate!  We all actually believed that no such thing actually existed as Ned never got one during all his years at John Rankin.  So here it is:

You better take it all in as it will probably be the only one I ever get.

Friday
I'd got Mum to arrange a Morning with Amy for my first day off.  Brilliant, we had a great morning.

Mum came to pick me up after lunch and once Dad had finished work it was time for holiday to Tenerife.

We packed the car, went to pick Andy up and headed for Gatwick.  We were down numbers for this years trip as Kimi and Marny weren't coming which was a real shame.
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, despite Andy flapping when the traffic got a bit slow on the M25 for a stretch.

We had time for a bite to eat, especially as the flight ended up being delayed anyway.

By the time we did board and get on our way it was pretty late,Ned decided to take a snooze with his head in his rucksack, resting on the tray table:

So with the flight being 4 hours, it was way past midnight by the time we landed.  Add to that collecting the bags, finding the hire car (a massive 9 seater van actually) and driving to the villa it was seriously late when we arrived.  Still, it had to be done....Mum was the first one on the pool  at 3:30 AM.
 
Saturday 
So after such a late night and pool based nonsense we weren't up particulalry early.
I loved my room, I even had my own desk to write at:

Then of course we had the lovely pool:

We made a trip out to the supermarket for some supplies and eventually had breakfast out on the balcony overlooking the sea....lovely.
We then took a trip out to the village centre, Callao Salvaje, and the beach.  The beach had black sand which looked a little weird to be honest?  Still, we didn't mind and went for a swim.  The waves were crashing in and it was pretty lively to say the least.
We didn't do much in the evening apart from some table tennis and pool back at the villa.  The standard of pool playing was pretty poor to begin with but certainly improved over the course of the week. 

Sunday
We got the snorkelling gear out and headed for a place just up the coast called El Puertito.  Apparenlty if you get there early enough you spot turtles......we didn't get there early enough.  We did however see loads and loads of fish going about their business.  Getting in and out of the water was a little tricky with the waves coming in and out over the rock slabs we were on.  We headed back to Callao Salvaje to take a leisurley meal at the beachside restaurant we had seen yesterday. We spent the afternoon and evening larking about in the pool back at the villa.  Sadly, Turdy the inflatable Turtle succumbed to three years worth of holidays and one of his legs somehow detached itself.  He went flat instantly......but the severed leg did make for a rather splendid looking hat!

Monday
One of the only things on our agenda this week was a visit to Mount Teide.  The volcanic mountain at the middle of the island.  The journey there took a little while but it was a pretty interesting route, past all the banana plantations lower down before the switchback roads as we gained a lot of height.  We knew we must be pretty high up when the shadowy areas behind rock formations were covered in frost.  
 At a very high 3,718 to it's peak, we were relieved to find that there was a cable car, even if Dad wasn't.
We got there nice and early and were on about the second trip up......and up it certainly was up!  The cabin swung pretty wildly as it rolled over the pylons which certainly added to the excitment levels.
When we arrived at the top and got out, it has to be said, it was pretty cold: 

So thats why there were plenty of enthusiastic european types in full on puffa coat mode.
It was so cold that there was actually snow lurking in shaded areas...great, snowball fight time!  We went for a walk around, yeah I suppose the view was pretty good really but I felt the whole thing was a little underwhelming to be honest with you.
The tut shop back down at the bottom was very cool though......
After another afternoon spent round the pool, trying to get through our ice cream supply in the freezer we took a trip down to Costa Adeje.  This was a very different prospect to our more civilised villa set up.  It was pretty full on, neon signs, lots of people, restaurants and all the rest of it.  

We had a lovely sunset swim though: 

Tuesday
We dropped by the village again to pick up a replacement Turdy, we'd spotted a shop That was selling exactly the same one.  We were pretty excited about that and couldn't wait to try him out in the pool.

We took a trip up the coast to El Gigantes, 'the giants' named after the big old cliffs. Nwe parked down by the marina, actually on the sea wall which seemed rather a tight manouvering space in our big old bus.

We peered over the harbour wall down inpto the water and noticed loads of very hopeful looking fish.  As luck would have it we had a massive sackload of some of the poorest tasting crisp type snacks we'd ever had.  The fish seemed to love them though, especially if we crushed them up first.  It also was enough to tempt a massive stingray that Ned noticed first, skimming along the bottom of the crystal clear water.  We took a wander through the town to the small beach at the foot of the cliffs.  The sand was black again:

It made my feet look filthy!

I loved laying on the beach reading my book after i'd had a nice swim.

Mum took a selfie with us while Dad and Andy were floundering about with their snorkels on:

It was a really cool place, we rounded the afternoon off with a nice ice cream.

We had an early Halloween sweet hunt as we realised we'd be staying in the hotel by the real halloween night.  It was really good, but we certainly my missed the added excitement of having Kimi and Marny around:

Wednesday

Dads birthday today, we gave him his token 'something to unwrap on holiday' presents and his cards.

We had a quiet morning around the villa before heading off for the main event...our boat trip.

Dad had found a place that were prepared to let us onto the open ocean in our very own motor boat.  We found the couple running the outfit on the pontoon in the marina.  They kitted us out with life jackets and an emergency phone (that an Italian family had apparently cleaned of credit the other week ringing their family back home).  Dad got a quick lesson on how the controls worked (which I don't think he really listened to) and we were towed out to the open water.  First on the agenda was to head to sea, about a mile to the offshore fish farm, the boat people told us that this was a great place to spot dolphins if we were lucky.  Our boat wasn't that big or fast but it certainly felt it as we jumped the waves on our way out to sea.  Best of all though us kids got to drive it, we couldn't believe how cool it was.  We made it to the fish farm in no time and saw a few other bigger boats circling about...we thought that must be a good sign so moved in closer for a better look.  Our boat was much more nimble than the bigger ones so we got ourselves into the best positions andwatched  the sea.......we didn't have to wait long.  There were loads of dolphins, popping up andthen  diving down again.  We couldn't believe it, there were so many and most of the bigger boats had moved on and missed them.  Once we'd had our fill of dolphins we carried on North up the coast and found a quieter cove to park the boat up and get in for a bit of a swim.  The water was so clear and so deep it was lovely even though getting back into the boat was a bit problematic.  We headed further out to sea and headed south again, passing by the fish farms and going further south again.  We saw some lovely catamarans and then some jet skis that were really going for it.  Our two hours were nearly up so we headed back to the marina.  It was so amazing, especially driving the boat.  We told the people all about our trip and they were so pleased about the dolphin spotting.

We wandered back through the marina area and found a top quality shopping establishment.....they sold lovely Spanish Style flamenco dresses....only 8 euros! I've always wanted one of them.  I also got a matching hair grip for another 4 euros on top.  I declined the shoes and also made sure that i bought the dress a size up to ensure maximum value.  The shopkeeper thought this was all very shrewd.  Ned also bought a pair of very high quality 'Oakey' sunglasses to replace the pair that fell to pieces earlier in the week.

We made Dad stop the bus on the way back at the supermarket to get him a birthday cake from the rather lovely looking bakery we'd seen on ourshopping trip earlier in the week.  Ome massive chocolate and oreo gooey gateaux piped with 'Happy Birthday Daddy' (which we had to write down for the piping lady) and we smuggled it back into the bus. 

We went back to the villa and hit the pool.....Ned was performing various leaps and stunts on Turdy mk2......until he managed to pop it!  Oops.

For our evening meal we ordered an Indian takeaway for delivery, well it was Dads birthday so we gave him the night off from cooking duties.we weren't really looking forward to it, but it turned out to be really lovely!

The cake was the main event of course:

It was a lovely cake too!

Thursday
We took a leisurely trip north to Alcala, where there are a number of rock pools, a bit like the Treyarnon Bay one.  The tide was coming inand was already too high for one of them, this one looked way too shallow to be of any real use other than a bit of paddling:

However the water was making it's way in as the tide got higher:

I stayed in for so long that the water eventually got up to my shoulders and had a lvely swim.  Andy was loving it too.

We had our lunch in a really nice looking cafe overlooking the beach.  It took a while to fet our food but it was a nice place to sit for a while.  Once lunch was done it wasback onto the beach, the pools were all swamped by the incoming tide and Ned was getting stuck in to some pretty wild looking bodysurfing.  I swam a long way out, past the breaking waves and bobbed about for a while before heading back to my towel and my book on the beach.

We went out for a meal in the evning in the village. We found a little play park,some friendly cats and Dad pulled a ridiculous wheelspin in the bus for reasons best known to himself.  As was the norm in Tenerife, Panda was a real hit with the waiters whenever we went out.  This time he got himself his own chair, place setting and very nearly my drink!

Friday
Our last day in the villa but not the last day of our holiday!

We packed up, played our last few games of pool and then locked up and left.  We were headed for Siam Park, the waterpark.  After a lap around the perimeter looking for a parking place Dad took the law into his own hands and sneaked into the carpark through the exit.  Not only did this save us three whole Euros it meant we got to reverse the loaded up bus right up against a well shaded wall thus protecting our Ipads and halloween goodies from thieves and harsh sun.  He was very pleased wiith himself.  We made our way round to the entrance gate where quite a queue had developed half an hour before the park even opened.  It was the first time we'd been among any real crowds all week, being used to our nice villa in a very pleasant area.

Once the gates opened we were relieved to find out that our pre booked discount tickets were actually legit and we were in, sorted ourselves out a fast pass each (at Dads insistance) and got our stuff stowed away in a locker before getting all German like and reserving sunbeds by the beach pool.  The first slide we came accross was the Naga Racer....it was a brilliant 6 lane head first one.  Next up was the Jungle Snakes, a more traditional tube ride slide which I wasn't so fussed on (don't like the dark ones).  Then it was a lap of the lzay river which was really long.  The others went on some really big scary ones without me for a bit before we hit the wave pool.  It was amazing, its nothing like other wave pools we've been in that produce gradually bigger waves.  This one just fired a massive wave straight at you, it was amazing and really powerfull.  Once we'd been battered senseless and knocked over a number of times we decided have some lunch and regroup to form our plan for the rest of the day. 

So, waterpark assault phase two.......

Another go on the Naga Racer to kick things off followed by another lap of the lazy river, but this time we took the additional loop of the rapids section.  This involved a tight weaving bit of lazy river that lead to an upwards conveyor belt.  It was soo cool, you stayed sat in your ring all the way to the top.  Then it was another section of meandering lazy river for a bit before the rapids! A downhill section in shallow water.  There were banked corners, drops and even a couple of jumps and it was epic.  It finished off going under a great big tunnel beneath the aquarium tank with massive sharks in it.  Next we went to the Lost City, a water playground with a massive monkey head water bucket that tipped up and soaked everyone.  Then there were a few more goes on some big scarey ones for the braver members of the group before we found the Sawasdee area, mini versions of the big scary rides....I loved it and got a lot braver.  So we went for the Mekong Rapids which was a four at a time flume....it was a littke scary but I loved it, so fast!  With my new found braveness they convinced me to go onSingha with them...it was fast, noisy and pretty wild with it firing you up uphill sections of track like a rollercoaster.  Dad and Andy then went on the biggest slide, the tower of power we were interested to hear all about but the feneral consensus seemed to that it wasn't as good as it looked.  The rest of the day turned into a blur of rides, we started using our fast passes to fly past loads of bored and jealous looking people.  It was brilliant, we went on so much and most of the time the attendants didn't bother to tick our wristbands off at all.  As usual with us lot at these sort of things we got there when it opened and we left when they kicked us out.  In fact just after that as we managed to make one more sneaky lap of the lazy river.  

With no villa to go back to we made our way to the hotel we'd booked for two nights.  Mum wanted to be near the airport so it was easy for our homeward bound journey....it was certainly near, in fact Dad had got a good visual of it when we flew over to land last week. 
We found it relatively easily and checked in, which took a while.  It looked pretty posh and swanky so we were happy with that.  Our room was certainly very spacious and pleasant, with a nice big balcony overloking the pool and a good vantage point for viewing the passing aircraft making their final approach.  We headed down to the dining room for our buffet supper.....it wasn't bad on the whole, at least there as help yourself ice cream and self serve squirty cream.

We were soon asleep after a pretty full on day, the planes didn't bother us.

Saturday
Well it was a cloudy day today, but not bad considering it had been lovely and sunny all week.  The breakfast buffet was a lot more palatable than the evening version so that was a bonus.  We settled back down the room, flicking through the numerous spanish channels until we came accross one in english...we were set for the day.  Sadly the grown ups had other ideas so were forced out for a walk.  It was rubbish, we only found a wafty little stoney beach and a rubbish marina.  I dont know whywe couldn't watch tv instead.  We went to the pool inthe afternoonbut the water seemed pretty cold.  We played a few games on the outdoor pool table instead.  Dad gave us a couple of euros which we managed to eek out for ages due to a combination of the wafty table and shoving our hands down the pockets to prevent the potted balls from disappearing.

We took a trip out to another nearby beach in the bus in the late afternoon.  That was rubbish too, windy as anything and actually pretty cold.  Back to the hotel then, when we parked up Dad decided not to bother with the hand brake for some reason?  It was hilarious watchinghim chase thebusdown the road, stopping it just before it made contact with the bottle bank.

It was the real Halloween day too, so I wore my cat mask and Dad wore Neds vampire cape down to dinner.  Dinner was much better than last night, there were a number of halloween themed embellishments on offer like severed fingers, spiders and eyeballs on the puuding items.  The scary lunatic member of hotel staff was pretty terrifying though.

Sunday
Time to Fly home, so it was up earlyish, breakfast at the hotel (including making ourselves a packed lunch to smuggle out with us) pack up the van and get to the airport.  Which obviously didn't take very long considering our proximity.

So a shame then that we had an almost two hour delay before we tookoffbecause of thick fog at Heathrow.  We did get to make a visit tothe cockpit though to ask some questions and kll some time.

The view of Mount Teide was pretty impressive out of the plane window as we left:

We knew we were back home as we entered the murky grey clouds.  They went really low though, we only just saw the runway before we touched down.

Monday
We had an inset day, so spent the day chilling out and doing the washing with Mum.  We did take a trip into town for some new school shoes.  They are nice little lace ups,proper cool.

So, here's a video from Dads New video camera he got for his birthday:
 
tenerife 15 from Part Time on Vimeo.