Pretty light on photographs and indeed content this week, must be down to the January, bleak weather, post Christmas comedown.

Thursday
I spent all night rehearsing a planet rap from a youtube video.  It's for an upcoming class assembly we're doing and I really want a part in the presentation.

Friday
Audition day for our planet section in assembly.  By the time I was up I wasn't even sure I wanted to do it....but I gave it my best shot and got given the part of Mercury.  I was so thrilled.  Friday night was very exciting, Nate was coming round for the night, Alan and Hayley were babysitting as Mum and Dad were off out for Auntie Trish's birthday party.  I also got my belated Christmas present from them, a towel....with a cartoon baby Panda on it and my actual name underneath the picture/  It's epic.  We had great fun with Nate who is even more than last time we saw him.

Saturday
We need a second car, so seeing as one isn't going to magically appear on the drive we have to go and look at some, but it's boring and involves a lot of driving.  We did have a nice car park picnic though.  We also went to a bike shop, there was some well nice stuff in it.....wasn't allowed any of it though.

Sunday
We went out for lunch with Kieran and Lydia which was great fun, well, except for the boys being well annoying of course.  We played pool and didn't rip the cloth which everyone agreed was a great success.  We even managed to engineer that Lydia and Kieran came round to ours afterwards.  Kieran was particularly pleased as he's on an Xbox ban at the moment due to a run of ill advised behaviour with Ned.  Ned has escaped an Xbox ban somehow though....Lydia and I had a great time, we managed not to get any bunchems in our hair but did manage to block the bathroom sink with Orbeez.

Monday
Rehearsals were in full swing for our class assembly which meant I was very much in demand and had to spread myself pretty thin between the planet rap, our normal class bit and also the PE thing that I'm involved in.....

Tuesday
Our class got our 100 marble reward today, we got to watch a film while the other year 5 class got a disco party.  Not entirely happy about that particular outcome.
Gymnastics is still going well on a Tuesday, it's nice to have Sasha, Abi and Lilly Newman going too.
We had a quick trip over to our old house tonight, i'm not sure what I expecting but it was a little underwhelming overall.

Wednesday

I almost passed my mixed tables with Mum this afternoon, we reckon i'll do it next time for sure.  Rugby after school when really well this week, I did really well in our passing and catching drills and I scored my first ever try.  All this added to my player of the week award...I was proper chuffed.  I also had to have a super quick hose down to get all the mud off my legs before Team Kennet where I put in another good showing with some impressive numbers in speed bounce and running good enough to even draw compliments from Mum. 

Thursday

It tried to snow today, it came down quite hard and we were faintly excited but sadly it didn't settle.

Friday

We were banned from throwing snow balls at school, despite there being hardly any snow hanging around to speak of.  Nevermind, it meant after school football was called off and I could go straight to Maddies for tea.  She has the cutest gerbils ever and I wanted to take them home.....she said I could as well.  Sadly it didn't happen.

Saturday

After a bit of discussion we settled on Adventure golf at the same place we played football golf at back in the summer holidays last year.  I wanted to play adventure golf then but football won out so I did eventually get my way. It was great fun, we didn't even end up having an argument either which was a pleasant surprise.  Ned beat me by one shot and Mum beat Dad by one shot.

The conditions were pretty challenging though, cold and a mid-round heavy rain shower didn't dampen our spirits.  We were very glad that Dad had made a flask of hot chocolate and bought a packet of choc chip muffins for afterwards.

Not much happened in the evening, just telly.....

Sunday

Ice skating today, a pretty early start for a change, much more like us.
It was a heck of a lot busier than last time we went, but we managed to find ourselves enough space to get going.  We did very well and loved being able to show of in front of Mum for the first time in a long time.

McDonalds for lunch afterwards, but as we were in the Wild West of Swindon they didn't even sell quarter pounders....what's that all about?
We indulged Dad in a trip to the camping shop afterwards, it was brilliant fun:

Although the bucket with a toilet seat was a grim prospect.
Ned managed to escape buying a proper winter coat for about the third winter running.  Not even a heavily reduced puffa jacket could tempt him to the warm side.
Next up we paid a visit to a car supermarket, this was quite good fun actually.  We enjoyed telling the salesman our list of requirements and think he soon realised we would be best left alone to browse the stock.

Monday

We were set a challenge at school to guess as close as we could to estimate one minute exactly, I got it exactly right.  When Mr Toal asked how i'd managed it I think he was hoping for some sort of repeatable science......but I told him the truth, I winged it and counted to 60, sometimes a bit fast and sometimes a bit slow.
I went to Eloise's for tea straight from school.  She had Heely's for Christmas so we got those on and rolled off to the park with Piipy, her lovely old doggie.  Pippy loved the park, climbing, balancing and generally scrabbling bout.

Tuesday 20th
We spent the day with Auntie Christine today, a visit to the Hexagon to see the panto starring Mr Tumble.  Auntie Christine was way more excited about this than we were of course.  Laura and Darcey came along too and it was really good fun.  We had Pizza Hut as well.....perfect!

Wednesday 21st
We had a day at home with Mum, we popped into town for haircuts (well Mum and I did anyway).  Ned and I then split up and went off to buy each other a Christmas present for each other.....I hope he likes the nerf gun/window crawling insect combo!
Mum and Dad were out for the evening at her work do so Nate came round to babysit us with Alan and Hayley.  We had a lovely evening and maybe stayed up a little bit late.....when Mum and Dad got back just before midnight we might have still been sat on the sofa watching the film Titanic.

Thursday 22nd
Off with Mum again today, Cinema visit to see the film Storks, which we loved.  When Dad got home we made a start on my Christmas day pudding, a meringue mountain.  We'd discussed it and planned it meticulously and it all went very much to plan with the exception of adding the icing sugar to the whipped egg whites.  Dad tried to add it in behind the hand mixer, but I kept moving it back just as he began to tip it in......directly into the flow of the cooling fan which blew sugar everywhere....we managed to do this a couple of times too!

Friday 23rd
Off with Mum again, we were all well and truly in holiday mode but Dad still had to go to work for his last day which was a bit rubbish, especially for him.  We took a trip to the trampoline park in Basingstoke, it was really good fun.

Dad had a bit of a work do as he finished at lunchtime.  I think it involved a bike ride from Hungerford and a large quantity of beer. He got home just in time for tea though so he did well on that front.  He was a bit drunk though......

Saturday 24th
Christmas eve, Dad was finished with work and the kitchen was in full swing cooking ham, sausage rolls and lovely homemade pizza for lunch.  Ned was his usual super excited self as he always is at Christmas, he really loves all the build up.  As is customary, we had a bit of a meet up at  the Craven Arms:

The weather was pretty good so it was nice to get outside for a bit.  The football pitch was certainly busy which kept the boys entertained.  It was a good turnout at the pub this year and it was really good to see everyone.

we had an evening trip round to Owen and Kirsty's, I got to have a go on his drum kit....he bought for himself...just before Christmas

It was a lot of fun, playing along to Frank Turner songs from his Ipod.

A very special occurrence here, our Easter eggs, that have resided in his cupboard under the stairs since, well, Easter were presented:

Better late than never eh?
We got home in time to put out the Santa stop sign and sprinkle the reindeer food:

Before we came back inside, set out the customary carrot for Rudolph and mince pie and accompanying drink for Santa (this year he had two offerings, Ned's apple and blackcurrant squash or the connoisseurs choice, Ribena.........)

Then it was upstairs for the bedtime stories, a real blast from the past with It's Santa followed up by me reading the Nativity book (lift up flap version, we still love it).

Sunday 25th
Christmas day, finally it was here and we were well up for it.  Stockings first:

We love the stockings, such a great starter before the main event:

The biggest resents were for Mum and Dad this year, what an outrage.  Anyway, the best things come in small packages so the saying goes.....here's my lovely new laptop with a detachable screen that you can use a tablet too:

Ned was also delighted with his Lindt giant chocolate Santa:

We loved opening the rest of our fabulous gifts that were under the tree, both from 'Santa' and our lovely friends and family......we say it every year but we are truly lucky kids, thanks everyone!
It's not all fun on Christmas day of course, there's a roast dinner to endure.  I decided I didn't want Turkey at all this year and campaigned endlessly for chicken instead.....it got me nowhere though and turkey it was.  Still, there were plenty of pigs in blankets and yorkies which we didn't have to share with any guests as it was only us four, every cloud has a silver lining.
Pudding however was a very different proposition, the fruits of Dad and I's labour was lovingly assembled and adorned with seasonal decorations.  May I present Ellis Christmas mountain meringue tower:

Ned had commissioned Dad to make him a chocolate brownie with strict instructions that it was to be cooked rare...very rare.  Super gooey in the middle so basically lightly warmed cake mix with the thinnest of baked crust.
We made the trip over to see Nate in the afternoon, he was on great form too:

He seemed to love our present of a balance bike, even thought it was marginally too big for his little legs he still straddled it as best he could and made his way up and down the lounge. 

Monday 26th
Boxing Day was of course a lazy, slow start.  Dad decided it was a good time to fully check out one of his presents (which accounted for the biggest parcel under the tree), an inflatable, two seater Kayak:

It was surprisingly easy and quick to inflate, we can't wait to go for a paddle once the weather gets a bit warmer!
It was a good time to sit about and go through our presents a bit more thoroughly before we escaped for some fresh air and went to Snelsmore common for a walk.  Well, Mum and Dad walked, Ned and I took our bikes.  There had been a lot of swing building going on up there, this one made for a great photo opportunity but was a rubbish swing:

This one however was a lot better, even though it doesn't do it justice on a photograph:

It went out miles on a big, circular motion and with Mum, Dad and Ned pushing I went super high and fast too!

We got home and consumed yet more leftovers and part baked bread.  Bit of a revelation this year, we liked, no loved Dad's home made sausage rolls that we have previously dismissed.  Not sure Mum and Dad were happy about having to share them with us though.

We rounded the evening out playing games, bounce off was a firm favourite as was 'guess the celebrity on my head'

Tuesday 27th
We needed some proper food so took a trip to Pizza Hurt as we thought a buffet would be just the job......sadly it was deemed a bank holiday today so there was no buffet on offer.  After a quick discussion we settled on a McDonalds instead and decided Pizza Hut could wait.

Wednesday 28th
It was a lovely sunny day so we took a trip to the very alpine sounding Ringwood Ski centre for a ski bob session:

An hours worth of this was great fun and the moving walkway back up the hill was most welcome to save our tired legs.

Yesterdays Pizza Hut debacle was put to rights when we found one for lunch buffet today.  It was delicious and well worth deferring to another day. 

Anne and Mike came round for tea, so that meant some late presents and a lot of laughing as we tucked into the Bean Boozle jelly beans they gave us.  Dad really enjoyed the vomit and rotten egg flavoured ones that had him retching over the food recycling bin!

Thursday 29th
Another trip out to, this time to JJ's with Nate, how totally exciting is that?  He hadn't been before so we loved showing him round.....and Alan, Alan loved it. 

We all enjoyed though, even Mum and Hayley had a few goes on the bumpy slide despite her reasonably prominent baby tummy.  I had hundreds of goes on the drop slide, straight from the highest one too, it was running really fast and we were almost getting right to the end of the run out area.  We had to cut our visit a bit short though as we were accompanying Auntie Christine to her works children's Christmas party.  It was aimed at younger children than us I think but we had a good time and it was nice to spend some time with Auntie Christine.

Friday 30th
A family gathering today, belated Christmas celebration at Auntie Christine's.  The main event was Auntie Christines 100 presents game, the one with all the crazy made up rules that changed form one round to the next.  It also meant another delivery of late presents from Owen and Kirsty which were certainly worth waiting for.

Saturday 31st
New Years eve, not much going on during the day, the weather was a bit grim so we decided to watch films, oh and ready the house for tonight's party!
Yeah we were having a new year party, it was seemingly our turn.  We got the music ready, we made some of our speciality parma ham and cheese straws, set up the TV in the conservatory for film duties and cranked up the portable radiator out there as we like to spoil our guests.
We had Abi and Faye, Kimi and Marny along with their respective adults, Andy and Nate turned up for a bit with his entourage too.  It was such a good night, we all got on so well, we played an Ipad based charades game called Heads up which was brilliant fun.  We danced, we larked about and we ate freshly made popcorn (only a little bit burnt by Dad) while we approached midnight watching Hotel Transylvania, while Ned and Kimi played Xbox.  We had midnight well and truly covered, the big countdown on TV and enough party poppers to start a civil war:

Happy new year everyone!
We set a new record for late nights too, it was at least 3:30 am before the last of the guests left and we went off to bed.

Sunday 1st
New Years day probably happened, but none of us really noticed...ahem.

Monday 2nd
McDonalds for breakfast went down very well indeed this morning, it's a rare treat.
It was a lovely bright sunny day and after a couple of day spent indoors we were chomping at the bit to get out for a bit of fresh air.  We made our way south to the Moors Valley Country Park and after a car picnic we took a walk around the play trail.  We hadn't been here for a while and some of our favourite old playgrounds have been removed.  There were some really good new ones though.


Tuesday 3rd
Dad had to go back to work today, a bit rubbish, especially for him.  We did meet up with him at the bowling alley in the afternoon though.  Bowling was great fun, if a bit hit and miss in terms of the machinery not always managing to rack up a full set of pins for each frame.  We all played really well in the first game too and racked up some pretty impressive scores.

Wednesday 4th
Back to school for us today, boooo.
Actually it wasn't too bad to see everyone and get a bit of direction back in out lives after the ever extending lay ins and chocolate binges over Christmas.
It was back to Team Kennet as well, I was well up for this as well.  I did really well at speed bounce and did well at the running too.  So well that even Mum and Dad commented on my speed and effort (they normally do not have entirely positive things to say about my running).

Thursday 5th
The second day back felt like more of a slog than the first....

Friday 6th
At least the end of the week came quickly.  We had a shopping trip to Tesco to firstly spend some of my Christmas money and secondly buy supplies for my upcoming but very much belated 9th birthday party.  Once that was done we had another batch of delicious home popped popcorn and played our favourite new Christmas game Celestia again.  We all love it, even if Dad does keep winning.....

Saturday 7th
All day excitement was building for my wobsticle party tonight.  What with one thing and another we managed to not quite manage to get around to having my birthday party back in June.  So we decided a 9.5 year old party was a good idea.  It was a good idea too, I had 19 guests (sadly Ned included ha ha) and we had a brilliant time.  The wobsticle was great fun and the lifegaurds also let us have free reign with the hosepipe that they had been squirting us with too.  Ned was actually not that annoying and neither Mum or Dad were particularly embarrassing.  They even got me a pretty brilliant cake: 

I came home to go through my mass of fantastic presents, my friends know me well and got me some genuinely great stuff:

It'll soon be birthday time again too, well, six months anyway!

Sunday 8th
I spent the morning doing artsy and craftsy things from my present haul before we went on a short shopping trip to Windsor.  We still love the small maze and the fountain in the park, which we got a view of from our table in the Spoons for a spot of lunch prior to hitting the shops in earnest.  I had some vouchers and some cash to spend, I tried on a mountain of clobber in H&M, only settling on a pair of ripped knee jeans and a hoodie.  I had to add to my TY collection too of course.  I also bought my controversial JoJo hair bow, which everyone else seemingly hated.....I don't care what anyone else thinks, I wanted one, so I got one and i'll wear it.

Monday 9th
Here's my bedtime TY collection (well part of it anyway):

Okay, got a bit behind for one reason or another, lets try and get things back up to date, before we no doubt get behind again over Christmas!


Tuesday 6th
Apparently, kids always have more fun with an empty box than whatever was in the box......certainly true when Dad's new bike wheel (booooring) got delivered:
The box was perfectly Ellis sized.  I got in it, with the Ipad:

And managed to arrange a cushion on top to keep it closed:

It was snug, comfy and peaceful.  To begin with anyway.  You know how these things go, it gets boring quickly and things need to get a bit more interesting.  Rocking the box was fun, rocking it until it toppled over was even better!
Turning the box over and getting hidden underneath it also provided a great opportunity to scurry around the house and 'install' myself in surprise locations......and once Ned got in on the act being pushed around the house, securely inside with the lid taped down was brilliant fun.  Trapping Ned inside and then feeding his dirty rugby kit (including socks) in through a small gap was next level funny.....although it did ultimately leas to the box's eventual demise.....


Thursday 8th
It was the day of the school Christmas lunch, so I donned my holly emblazoned Chistmas tights for the day (against uniform rules).  They are really cool, even of the best bit is covered by my shoes (the toes sport a rather clever Christmas pudding design).  I took a packed lunch though, last years meal left a lot to be desired in all honesty.  Paper plate + gravy + knife sawing = wet table.
In the evening we cracked on with my fancy dress costume for Team Kennet and got proper busy with the Sleigh:

Things were on schedule and looking good, even though I was a hard task master and wanted it completely finished like yesterday!


Friday 9th
School disco night, got to wear my new dress and everything:

After a few patchy efforts recently it was back on form, proper sound system and some good tunes too...brilliant!


Saturday 10th
An early morning trip to Yattendon for the Christmas tree.  We perused a decent quantity and took in the atmosphere for a bit before all agreeing on our tree for this year:

A Christmas miracle in itself that we all agreed on something!
We loaded it into the car and took it home via Waitrose where they were giving out samples of Banana and Bacon trifle.....it was delicious!
In the afternoon it was the school Christmas fete.  Mum and Ned signed themselves up to run a stall each:

.....and when I got there I ended up getting roped in too.  Eloise and I ran the lolly stall:

We had a great time and I loved it, even if it meant we didn't get to visit much of the rest of the fete ourselves.  Having said that, we did get a decent reward of leftover prizes for our efforts....
Auntie Trish came round to babysit in the evening which was obviously very exciting.  We had a lovely night, I introduced her to Dixit, we watched telly and were still up when Mum and Dad got home.  In our defence though, they were home quite early, honest.


Sunday 11th
So a bit of a lie in and then it was time to decorate the tree!

We made a cracking job of it this year and at least Ned got to hang the Cherub on top and I was spared the terror of a Dad lift to do it myself!
We also made a big push to finish my costume for Team Kennet......


Wednesday 14th
So, the day of reckoning.  Today we would see if all our effort had paid off...it was Team Kennet Christmas night.  Ned gave me a lot of coaching regarding getting g noticed and maximising my exposure....but I'm not like he is with this sort of thing and I'm a lot more timid.  I was lucky to make my entrance at just the right time though and got noticed by the senior club organisers and chief judges before I had to release my sleigh for a bit of sport.  The highlight being the sweetie dash of course!

I was well and truly overjoyed to pick up first prize, utterly thrilled after last years disappointment.  The chocolate Santa and super soft cuddly reindeer (in a TK t-shirt) were a bonus too!!!
I think we all shared the glory at home too, thanks to them all for their help.


Friday 16th
Last day of term was finally here, nothing could dampen my spirit, not even knowing Ned had finished earlier than me, or that his friend was coming round for a sleepover!  Actually they weren't too annoying and their chili eating competition was actually rather entertaining.


Saturday 17th
A quiet today, enjoying the resurgence of Wii party with Mum.  It was roller skating in the evening, the Christmas Party night.  Trouble was neither Ned nor I felt much like partying after the sleepover and the late nights so we didn't stay long......


Sunday 18th
Another quiet day at home to begin with, there was more Wii party and we watched Elf, which we all still loved.
Mum had a work party in the late afternoon, an outdoor function complete with fire pits, hot chocolate, various cakes and a brass band playing Christmas Carols for a bit of a sing along:

Monday 19th
Auntie Christine's for the day, baking and making (chocolate brownies and Christmas table decorations).  Lovely stuff!

Tuesday

My pottery from Tilly's party has arrived:

It was every bit as brilliant as I remember it, everyone at home seemed teally impressed with it too!

Wednesday

She Mum continued her ongoing attempt to try and embarrass me at evety oppurtunity by account by accompanying my class on our trip up to Park House to watch their musical production (Ned wasn't in it sadly).  It was very good, if a little long.....

Rugby was cancelled due to the pitch still being frozen even thpugh it had all day to thaw out.  It has been proper cold though.

In the evening was an event i've been looking forward to for months and months, Frank Turner!

Ned had dlatd homslf well and truly out of this one along with Mum so it was a night out for Dad and I.....and a few others.  Along for the ride were Auntie Trish, Auntie Christine, Owen, Kirsty and Andy.  We all went in our car with the seats up in the boot so that was great fun to begin with.  We got to the Hexagon in plenty of time for a drink and for a visit to the merchandise stand.  Au tie Trish decided I really ought to have a t-shirt as a momento from my first proper gig:

It was the smallest one they had, but it was a little bit on the long side but we decided it would make a brilliant nightie anyway!  Thanks Auntie Trish, I love it!

We found our seats right near the front of the balcony and caught the last couple of songs of the support band, Felix Hagan and the Family.  They seemed really loud.....but were certainly enjoying themselves and so were most of the crowd.  Fortunatley Auntie Trish had bought some foam earplugs from her work whch were fantastc....as was her bag of Freddo's and Haribo's.  

It wasn't long until the man himself was on, it was all really rather exciting and I sat pretty still and concentrated, takng it all in for the first few songs.  It was teally interesting watching the crowd as well as the band.  By the end of the show though I was fully into it....not as into it as my Aunties though who had both seemingly lost the plot!

Sitting up in the balcony gave us a great view of the proceedings below, the circle pits, the wall of hugs and and some rather excellent crownd surfing, it was quite an eye opener for sure.  It was a rather late night for a school night...hey ho, thats rock n roll!

Thursday

It was expected i'd struggle to function today after last nights late one. Apart from having to be woken up a few times in the morning though I was on remarkably good form!

Saturday

So a split in the camp today, the boys went off cycling and dropped Mum and I off in Reading on the way.  Clothes shopping was on the agenda and I did very well.  I got a dress and two proper nice tops (out of 13 items I tried on in one shop).  It all worked out rather well and the boys picked us up on their way home as we were finished too!

Sunday

A trip to the seaside in the freezing cold?  Yeah, sounds about right for us doesn't it?

We had a bit of a walk along the beach at Mudeford, working up an appetite for lunch before hitting the Cafe.

We wandered out onto the quay and noticed the ferry was running over the water to the spit of sand so we decided to take a trip over:

It felt so remote, although not too remote for their to be a little shop selling chocolate!

It was pretty blowy though, we enjoyed tuckng down inthe dunes for shelter for a bit:

We wandered round for a while, surveying all the beach huts and kayaks, left abandoned for the winter before heading back to the ferry, makng sure we got there before the last one left at 4pm.

Monday

Even hough we alll knew the actual result, we sat and watched the final of I'm a celebrity on catch up TV.  We've loved watching it this year eventhough it has involved involved some mamoth catch up sessions.....

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday

Ufton court then, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  The details are all a bit jumbled in tems of chronology but heres goes anyway.....

First off, I got a disapproving nod for turning up with wheelie bag....we were told not to bring them.  Still not sure why, I found dragging it around a lot easier than others seemed to humping and dumping massive holdalls around.

I was in Bouvoir room with Maddie, Betsy, Ellie and Lola.  Making our own beds was a lot of fun and not as hard as I first feared.  We stayed up chatting rather late on the first night of course.....

The highlight of the trip was the banquet I suppose, we got dressed up:

I got a lovely purple dress to wear, I looked the part but it was pretty itchy:

No one seemed to want to eat the chicken legs on the banquet table, suited me fine as I got stuck in, I finished off two easily before starting on the cabbage that no one else seemed to be interested in either.  It wasn't as good as sprouts though....

After the food it was time for dancing, Daniel was the lucky chap that got to dance with me.

In terms of the activities, I think my favourite was the wattling (willow stick weaving), closely followed by the archery.  My fagranced posy bag was also a real triumph and smelt genuinely pleasant, like a fresh pine forest.

We got picked up on Wednesday, just after lunch.  Fun as it had been I was very pleased to see Mum and Dad arrive to collect me, I had a bit of a headache and was starting to miss home just a little bit.  Mum sat in the back with me on the way home at my request....

Thursday

Ned's Rugby was cancelled thank god, it meant we could stay in, in the warm and binge watch all the episodes of I'm a celebrity I had missed while I was away.

Mum went out for a curry with the quiz team to spend some of their winnings so it was left for me to help Dad put the food order away.  He does need help with it......

Friday

Back to our full on regime after a day laying low to get over Ufton, after school football, on to gymnastics (complete with seriously bad traffic due to the races being on) and then pick up Sasha for a sleepover!  Seriously exciting, we did each others hair, we played, we did some fashion design drawings and we worked on our play we are still hoping to put on some time in the future (script and costumes mostly).  We retired to my room to watch Kung Fu Panda 3 and finally fell quiet, i'm informed at 12:20.......

Saturday

Unsurprisingly Sasha and I had a bit of a lie in.  We took a late breakfast and spent the entire morning doing make up and nail painting:

We dropped Sasha off at home and the headed into town for a late lunch at the Spons (cheese and ham panin) and a bit of shopping.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening waiting for Alan and Nate to not turn up.

Sunday

So this one had been on the backburner for a while, a day trip to London.  By the time we'd got out of bed and got ourselves together and made our way East we decided to kick things off with a picnic in Regents Park:

So yeah, picnic not just for the summer.  It was a little bit cold but pretty nice all the same.

We were over this side of town to visit Madame Tussauds, a strange idea of a place if you ask me, a load of dummies of famous people?  First up Bieber:

Their were a whole load of film stars I hadn't heard of or didn't recognise as well.

I knew who this chap was though:

Ned seemed to abandon his strong republican views pretty quickly for this one:

And 1D gained a couple of extra members:

And we got to hang out with this guy:

The visit was completed by a Marvel Superhero film in the 4D cinema, which everyone else seemed to love but I wasn't so sure....

The initial plan was to go on the London Eye though, so we made our way across London, taking in the sights and the sounds as we went, before ending up on the Southbank.  There was a Christmas market on, but more importantly there was the highest chair-o-planes we had ever seen (just visible in the background):

I was desperate to have a go, so we went to investigate.  Dad was secretly hoping it would be prohibitively expensive I think so he wouldn't have to go on it without losing face.  Mum and I were dead keen though and with Ned wavering 50/50 (probably because he's so stingy) it was a done deal we were going on.  I was so excited and couldn't wait to get 55 metres up for a swing round.  We made our ascent high above the market, we could see out right over the London roof tops as we whizzed round and round.  I sat with Mum and she loved it as much as me, not sure about the boys though?  It was cold up there though, and pretty windy.  We were buzzing when we got back down to earth.

So next up the London Eye, we'd timed it to perfection as the sun had just gone down and the skyline was lit up.  There was also no queue to speak of and we pretty much walked straight on.

The view of the ride we had just been on was pretty cool:

As was the houses of parliament:

It was pretty slow compared to the chair-o-planes, but we did get to take in the view and spot the famous landmarks.

Once we were off Mum decided that she wanted to see some Christmas lights so we haphazardly made our way to Regents Street, via McDonalds and a quick size testing mission for the bikes:

Quite honestly I was flagging quite badly and could have done without it.  Having said that it was probably worth the effort.  There was a huge projector onto the side of building with a video of Santa climbing up the side and hanging on to the window ledges and some amazing angels hanging over the street:

So Mum was happy with that and we could finally go home....

Monday

Back to school, and Mum got asked to accompany us on yet another school trip as a parent helper.......it's starting to grate a little bit, she's cramping my style!