Quiz Night!

You may notice that the title of this post and the pictures below do not exactly coincide. It's a long story....well actually, it's not really! We got so absorbed in our 'all-boarders' quiz night last night, that we forgot to bring the camera out for some fantastic team work photos. But what was missed by the camera can be summarised in a few short words; clever, funny, loud and fun fun FUN! Although I was concerned by some of the more creative answers we had, the teams worked well together and came up with some great answers, some earning bonus points for the extra information that I, myself didn't even know! After 10 rounds of questions, plus the picture round, the score was tallied and our winners were rewarded with a big box of chocolates to wrap up the evening.

We know photos are loved by one and all, so to make up for the lack of photos from last night, we decided to bring out the camera at breakfast this morning. As you can see below, the catering staff have many hungry children to keep well fed. Dig in, everyone!

Breakfast with the year 7 girls

Young Jaime enjoying his morning start

Smiling Sofia

Narciso is off to eat his weet-a-bix

Year 7 boys enjoying their breakfast

Is that a moose I see in our dining room?!?

Water Bubbles and Bush Crafting!

Our sunny Saturday gave us good hope for a sunny Sunday. However, as usual the English weather was having a giggle and a pleasant day turned into a shivering shocker (alliteration courtesy of Mr Northcott)! Ironically, the younger children were drier in the swimming pool than the year 7 and 8's were up in the forest. "How is this possible?" you may ask. Well, it is very possible due to the 'amazingness' (yes, I had to make up a word to explain how excellent these are) of zorb balls. I now know how hamsters feel and why they love rolling around in their little plastic balls all day long! The children slipped into the ball, where upon it was then blown up with air. They were let loose in the school pool to run, jump, flip, and go crazy! Meanwhile, the year 7 and 8's battled the cold and rain up in Forest School making shelters, preparing fish, and trying to keep warm near the fire. After a few not-so-stable shelter attempts, the children got the hang of building shelters that held and kept them dry. Mr Luke Freely demonstrated how to scale a fish in order to prepare it for a meal (although it was agreed by all that the fish was better off in the bin than in our stomachs after the treatment it had been given). So despite the weather, I can confidently say that it was an "ab-zorbing" weekend full of both dry and wet fun!

Rockstar Freddie!

Big bubbles!

Hampster Gregor

Balancing...

Run, run, run...

Relaxing in a bubble!

Bouncing off each other!

Brrr!

Camouflaging in the forest

Hiding from the rain under our little shelter

Time to cook the fish, Luke!

Keeping warm by the fire!

The girls+Rupert's shelter!

Fun undercover! 

Tatianna and her bedroom friends

Raid!

This Thursday all the boarders were called out to the front field for an all-in game of 'Raid!' They were split up into three teams; red, yellow and green. The aim of the game is to run to another team's hoop and collect your team's coloured squares without being caught. Using coloured bibs as tails, children ran from circle to circle in an attempt to win the most points for their team. Strategies and tactics were put into play as the children put their minds together to help them gain advantage over the other teams (including sneaking past the astro to get behind a team's hoop instead of in front of it). The game ended when the dark settled in and everyone headed inside to find out the final score with hot chocolates in hand. And the winners are...*drum roll please*...RED TEAM! Yet another wonderful evening in the All Hallow's boarding house. I wonder what we will be doing next week???

Run, Sophie, run!

Fabiola and Teresa

Score count (and an excited Cassia)

Jaime hiding in a box

Red team!

Green team!

Yellow team!

Upside down Rupert!

Action-shot of Gregor

RUNNNNN!!!!

Hello, Benedict!

Oscar and Mr Callow

Lucia and Teresa giving us a grin

Jaime and Tomas warming up with hot chocolate

Everyone loves their hot chocolates!

Climbing high and Driving fast!

We've decided to introduce 'split activities' to many of our weekends this term. The year 7 and 8's will have one activity, and the younger ones, another! This weekend, the older children went off for rock climbing and absailing, whilst the younger group stayed at All Hallow's for some speedy quad biking. A track was set up around the rugby pitch and the children were let loose to rev their engines and drive off (with shouts of, "Slow down!" from the instructor which went in one ear and out the other). Meanwhile, the year 7/8's were facing their fears and scaling the cliff walls before jumping down them again at Burrington Cove. As can be seen in the photos below, lives were put into the hands of their friends as they climbed the cliff, showing the trust and friendship between the children in the boarding house (in some cases, maybe foolishly so (only joking))! After enjoying our Sunday supper with each others company, we headed back into the dining room for letter writing to share all our fantastic stories with family and friends. Many of us tired and worn out after a busy weekend, it was then up to bed and lights out for a good night's rest before a new week at school!

Catching the drive-by action

Keenly waiting for the girls to finish driving

Theresa zooming by

Reving the engines

Jaime going for a spin

Seb getting some speed

Olly giving us a smile

Gregor going for a ride

Here come the girls

Going for a ride

Seb raring to go

Lovely Lucia waiting for the go signal

Ready, steady, GO!

Fabiola, ready for a climb

Angel holding tightly to his partner's safety rope

The climb!

Look out below!

Scaling the cliffs

Pretty in pink

Hi, Lara!

Climbing together :)

Don't let go!

Our little speed demons!

"Bring it on," yells young Freddie!

Get going, Gregor!

Race to the finish line!

Sharing Sunday supper