Salisbury Cathedral and cake

General 

Elliott was really good today although he did need a little persuading to eat his broccoli at lunch time.

Activities

In the morning we played with cars and watched some Transformers before we made our first loom band. Then we headed off to Salisbury Cathedral to see Granny at the end of the morning service as there was coffee and cake and Kate and Anthony were also there to say hello to. Elliott was very well behaved and was quite interested in a model display at the back of the Cathedral showing how the Cathedral was made. 

After some cake we headed back to Downton for a Roast Lamb lunch and Elliott had some broccoli with his lamb and roast potatoes, though he wasn't keen at first but did eat some in the end. After lunch Elliott read his Mythical Maze books to Granny. He read these really well. Then we played some games in the garden including a hiding game with hot and cold for directions and we also went hunting for mini-beasts. Then it was time to go so we drove back to Wokingham and fortunately the traffic was fine leaving there was plenty of time for a jam sandwich, bath and some more "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" before bed time.

Higgins barbecue

General 

Elliott was very good today. He got upset twice at the barbeque but it was very hot and he cheered up very quickly. Once was when he slipped over in the paddling pool and once was when he wanted to take Harry Higgin's Bumblebee transformer home with him which was a present he gave Harry for his birthday so we talked about giving presents to people and what that meant. 

Activities

After Elliott arrived we finished packing and headed straight to Granny and Grandpas. Unfortunately the traffic was bad and it was very hot in the car, but Elliott was really well behaved and we played games of "I Spy" and the "yes, no" game to keep occupied. We arrived in Downton just in time for lunch which was spaghetti bolognese and he ate this very well.

After lunch we went to Victoria Park in Salisbury where we met up with Matt, Lara, Harry and Bertie Higgins. The boys played on the equipment together and had lots of fun:

Then we headed off to Dan, Jo, Martha and Noah Higgins house nearby for a barbecue. There was a big paddling pool and trampoline in the garden there so after applying liberal amounts of sun lotion Elliott got stuck in in his pants and had a lot of fun:

After the barbecue we headed back to Granny and Grandpa's house for a bath and bedtime, inlcuding some more "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Wokingham library

General 

Elliott was mainly good after school today. He did drag his heals leaving the park a little and when we got home took ages to get out of the car and go in but I think this was partly because of how hot and sticky the day was. I did tell him he wouldn't be able to watch "Officially Amazing" if he didn't go in by end of count of 3 and because he didn't he missed out on "Officially Amazing" and was upset for a short period due to this. However he quickly apologised and explained what he had done wrong.

Activities

After school we went to Wokingham library to return the first two Mythical Maze books and pick the next two. He received two stickers for reading the first two books which we added to the wall chart they give out as part of the challenge. His next books are "Mighty Machines" (factual book about machines) and "Bears In The Night". We also downloaded the Mythical Maze app for my iPhone and he had fun pointing the phone camera at the Mythical Maze creatures in the library as it makes them come to life on the phone. After the library we went to the park for a while where he played on equipment and had fun. After we got home and he had come in we had tea and a cooler bath than normal before bed time.

Truck Festival 2014

General 

Elliott was really good at Truck this year. He did have one sulky moment on Saturday morning when we were waiting for Nick Cope to set up for his set in the Kid's Tent and he wanted to go back to the car and get our football to kick around and I asked him to wait until after Nick Cope had finished. However a few songs into Nick Cope's set he stopped sulking and moved to the front to enjoy the music with other children there.

Activities

On Saturday after school we headed to Truck after having a look at his school report. I told him that lots of it was good and said that when he tried he did really well and was doing well in all his subjects. We did talk about practicing handwriting over the summer and how it's good to try hard even in subjects that don't seem that interesting and he was responsive and it led to us talking about trying not to be put off by other people already being "better" at things because everyone develops differently and is good at different things. I used the example of him being on Stage 3 in swimming now already and how some of his friends wouldn't find swimming as easy to begin with but that practice and trying is really important. However after that and then making sure we talked about all the good things in the report again we focused on Truck.

When we got there he raced to the tents and spent a while playing in the tent and bouncing on the blow up airbed. Then we headed off into the Festival and sat in front of the main stage for a while and he watched the band a little while playing with Transformers. He was definitely more interested in the bands this year than previous years:

Then we made our way to the field with activities in it and the Kids Tent and he really enjoyed playing in the sand where he caught a shark:

Then we had tea and Elliott had a Festival burger which he declared "yummy":

Then it was back to the tents for bed time. He took longer than normal to go to sleep but once he was asleep he slept well I think. On Saturday we woke up to the sound of rain and the first part of the day was a bit damp:

We grabbed some breakfast at the tents (croissants and orange juice) and fortunately it then started to brighten up. We went to the Kid's Tent where we bumped into Al from the old Salisbury band and his son Zach. Elliott and Zach made blow football pitches with materials in the tent and then we all had a game of blow football:

Then Nick cope played a set which he really enjoyed once he's stopped sulking. Later on we bumped in to Nick Cope wandering about and Elliott let me take his picture taken with him:

Then as we wandered around we watched some bands and he asked if we could go on a big Helter Skelter that was by the main stage:

He also found the circus skills area and started playing with the equipment there. He really took a shine to the diablo and two boys a bit older than him (Tom and Joe) taught him how to start using the diablo:

Then we had bacon rolls for lunch before we went back for more circus skills and time to leave:

Milestones

General 

Elliott had a stroppy moment after swimming today where he got upset that he hadn't had a shower after swimming even though at the time he'd said he didn't want a shower and was going to have a bath instead. I asked him to go to his room and after a few minutes he emerged and apologised and we worked together to explain why being upset about a decision after having made it is difficult when the decision can't be un-made. It sounds like he had a really good time on the school trip to Milestones.

Activities

Swimming was the last lesson of term today so they were playing on inflatables and having lots of fun. After swimming we went home and had some quiet time after he'd cheered up after his moment, playing with Transformers. After tea he had a fun bath time and then it was time for more "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Crazy Frog

General 

Elliott was good after school today and said he'd had a good day except that Adam wouldn't let him be in the Minecraft Club in afternoon playtime. However he said when it happened he felt sat and went and sat with Dinesha instead and they talked about what they'd done at the weekend and that this had made him feel lots better.

Activities

We went to the park for a while on the way home and he played on the equipment. Then we popped in to Sainsburys to buy items for his packed lunch tomorrow and after we got home we had burgers for tea and then watched "Officially Amazing". After "Officially Amazing" it was bath time and then we watched some Crazy Frog and that really made him giggle. Finally he finished reading the "The Great Swimming Race" and I read more "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to him.

Comic con - London film and comic convention 2014

General 

Elliott was good again today. He was a little shy when we first got to comic con but after a while he really relaxed and was totally at ease, even with quite a lot of strange looking people around.

Activities

We went to comic con at Earls Court Exhibition Centre today. We drove to Hammersmith and then got the tube to Earls Court and he enjoyed the tube journey. We both enjoyed comic con. Elliott went dressed in his Anakin Skywalker outfit and he was not out of place - there were lots and lots of people there dressed up as all sorts of super heroes, villains and film and television characters. There were loads of things there. The main space was taken up by exhibition stands selling comics, DVDs, toys, jewellery and costumes and we bought some cheap second hand toys (Lego and Transformers). There was also a space where stars were on hand for signing and we saw George A.Romero, Jamie Bamber, David Prowse, Kenny Baker and Robert Knepper. We didn't buy tickets to for any signings though, especially as Elliott didn't really know who any of these people were - he didn't even seem that impressed when I explained that David Prowse was the guy who was Darth Vader in the Star Wars films (though not his voice). Also there outside were life size Transformer vehicles which went down very well and inside two different versions of the Batmobile. Finally there were areas where actors, writers and directors gave talks and we say an interview with Michael Madsen which Elliott seemed quite interested in. We even found a stand selling hot dogs for lunch which we both enjoyed:

After we got home we had a sandwich for tea before bath and bed and some reading - he read half of "The Great Swimming Race" and I started reading him "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Laser quest

General 

Elliott was really good today. There was a bit of noisiness during the meal at Marley's party but it wasn't surprising with so many boys together and they were all really well behaved in general.

Activities

We had a lazy start to the morning with some playing with Transformers and watching Transformers on the iPad. Then after breakfast and getting dressed we wrapped up Marley's presents and wrote his card. Then we did his homework together which was finding as many different combinations as possible to make 2 shillings with old coins. This was quite advanced again (shilling is 12 pence and there are various coins) but we found some different combinations and focused on the adding up part of the task which he did really well. There are more combinations to find so we'll re-visit sometime in the next few days. After homework we went outside and did some cycling and football before a small, quick lunch.

After lunch we went to Marley's laser quest party at Wokingham Megabowl which was really good fun. The usual boys were there (Charlie, Harry, Ishan, Chavez, Cody, etc) but Adam couldn't make this one. I joined in for the 2 games of laser quest which were really good fun. Elliott and I were on opposing teams for the first game and the same team for the second game so that worked out nicely. After the games of laser quest it was a late second lunch of chicken nuggets:

After the party we went to Wokingham library where we signed up for the summer Mythical Maze reading challenge. This is a scheme where children take out 2 books at a time to read over the summer and get a sticker when they return the books and after reading 6 books get a medal. It's all along a mythical theme and there was also a little quiz to spot pictures of mythical creatures in the library, write down where they were and win a bookmark which we did (there were 10 pictures to find). The first 2 books he's borrowed are Stage 2 books - "DC Super Friends Crime Wave" and "The Great Swimming Race". He also got a sticker for signing up for the scheme which went down well. After the library we popped into Andrea's Mum and Dad's house on the way home where Harry and Jack Jenkins were visiting with their Mum and Dad. We played out in the garden with balls and doing gymnastics - Elliott was doing really good cartwheels and handstands. Then it was back home for a snack, bath and after his bath he read "DC Super Friends Crime Wave" really well - it's a good level for him, but also a bit longer than normal so we left his new bookmark halfway through it for tomorrow. Finally it was Transformers on the iPad before bed time.

Starscream

General 

Elliott was very good after school today and seemed to have enjoyed his day at school. They'd played his game at afternoon break.

Activities

We went shopping to Asda after school for some food and for Marley's card and presents for his party tomorrow. Elliott chose a toy motorcycle, some Marvel top trumps and a Cars card for Marley and he bought a small Starscream transformer for himself. After shopping we had tea at Asda and he had a cheese sandwich, some cocktail sausages and some mini cookies. When we got home we put the shopping away then watched "Officially Amazing" before bath time. After bath we read a part of a Star Wars book about Obi-Wan Kinobe's Jedi journey together.

Stage 2 swimming passed

General 

Elliott was really good today after school and also said he'd had a good day at school. In his reading record in his book bag there was a fan made of feelings written on different spokes and laminated and it says that they use one like this at school for Elliott to show how he's feeling - options are happy, sad, cross, worried, confused, tired and surprised. He showed me the happy one this evening. I might try using it at the weekend. I don't know if you already have one to use at home but if not and you want it on your weekends I can put it in his book bag.

Activities

Swimming after school was really good this week as Granny and Andrea came to watch. They picked a particularly good week to come and watch as he was assessed as finishing his last task to complete Stage 2 today, so next term he'll be doing Stage 3 after only one term of Stage 2. His swimming was really good and at one point he did a really good front crawl. After swimming we all went back to the flat where he showed Granny some of his toys and we all watched an episode of "Officially Amazing". We also told him about the holiday and showed him a video of Butterfly Park from the Eurocamp website which he liked the look of. After tea Granny went home and I read him more of "The Faraway Tree" before bed time. We didn't get any time to do homework tonight, but I noticed it's a quiz about Queen Victoria's reign with tick boxs so I might try and do some tomorrow morning during breakfast if he's in the right mood for homework.

Obi-Wan Kinobe

General 

Elliott was really good today after school and had a shower after swimming during which he put his head under the water more than I've ever seen before. He did take longer than normal to go to sleep but he didn't wake up this morning until 7.00am.

Activities

After school it was swimming which he enjoyed before we went home and played with toys for a while. After sandwiches for tea he finished the last part of his homework writing that he hadn't liked the bit in "How to be a Jedi" where General Grievous fought Obi-Wan Kinobe. Then we watched another episode of "Officially Amazing" I read him more of "The Faraway Tree" before bed time.