Tennis Lessons

The girls tried their hand at tennis this past week. They took some tennis lessons from the local pro at the Mint Valley Racquet Club. Jillian was in the Mighty Mites and Bridget was in the Tiny Tots, but since the numbers were low, they just ended up in the same class. The lessons were a combination of instruction and drills on their forehand and backhand strokes, and lots of fun little games (and a candy treat at the end).

It was a rough start for Jillian, since she struggled to do it right, and she was receiving a lot of feedback on what to correct. After the second day, she didn't want to continue, but then on the next couple days, she improved a lot and was able to hit the ball consistently well. So, she was much more positive about tennis after lessons ended, even asking when we'd go to some courts and play.

Bridget made some big improvements, as well. At first, she wasn't even close to contacting the ball, but by the end she was making some nice strokes that sent the ball over. She worked at doing it right, because her form looked really good.

Workers

 Jillian, Bridget, and Tor wanted to earn some money to get some things they had picked out at the store.  Since we have a big pile of wood to stack they came ready to work.,  Rielee had come to play and she wanted to work too.  Ty was there and got in on the action.  Bridget always seemed to find a big piece of wood.

 They worked for an hour, only taking a break halfway.  Papa and I got to do the stacking inside which was the coolest spots.

 Tor could even find pieces to carry.  He worked on and off, finding other distractions.

After all the hard work they had a splash party in the pool to cool off.  Soon they asked for red cups to try to drench each other. Bo also enjoyed the party.

Swimsuit Day

 After playing in the pool for awhile, Tor, Bridget, Ava, Jillian, and Harper headed for the Playfort.  Not sure what the sticks were for but they had a fun time playing together, at the Playfort and downstairs with the dress-up clothes.

They're never too old to play with the bigger lego for a change of pace.

Tor's New Bike

We found this nice little bike with training wheels at a garage sale on Saturday. Since Tor only had a trike at home, and only rides a bike with training wheels when he's at the beach or at Grannie and Papa's, we went ahead and picked it up for $15. He rode out front with the girls when we got home, usually at top speed. Soon, we'll try taking off the training wheels (we attempted that at the beach, but it's not quite time, yet).

Hot, Hot Day!

While Tor was sleeping and the pool filling up, Tierney made a bullseye for a dart game (equipped with suction cups) with Jillian and Bridget.  They kept score and it was pretty close at the end but Jillian came out ahead.

 Tierney had never played Go Fish, so the girls wanted to beat her at it but Tierney caught on quickly and won by one fish.  She was concentrating hard to get the win.

The pool wasn't full yet but they were eager to get in and it was about 95 degrees.  At first they just played and then they put the chairs in the pool to sit in.  Then they added the table and decided to have a tea party.  To top it off they had Finding Dory fruit snacks.  The pool felt pretty good on this hot day.

Beach Days

 They all teamed up to play a game of "Life".  It was a long game but at the end Tor and Ty came out victorious with something like 9 million dollars.  Really?

 While the boys were shoveling sand Bridget spent her time making sand castles and making it into a village.  She would get frustrated when one of the dogs would run through her masterpiece but she would patiently build it back.

The guys shoveled a lot of sand to make the largest moat so far.  It also make a small tide pool for the little ones and Mocha to run around in.

 The finished awesome moat, with a walkway to get to the top.  Tor hardly ever used the walkway, preferring to climb the sides to the yelling from the boys that he was wrecking the moat.

 It took a long time for the tide to come in to the moat so when Tor got cold and tired, he went to the dry sand to get warmer.  He just laid there for a long time and them Mommy came to cover him with a beach towel and he fell asleep.

 After having hot dogs and Smores at the fire pit, Ty lit off some leftover fireworks they found at the cabin.  The lighter was too slow so he would reach in and light them on the coals but them jump back as it was so hot.  Tor even got to wave a sparkler around.  It was late before anyone wanted to leave the fire pit and go inside to watch the movies they picked out.

 The next day instead of a moat, Brock and Ty made a Star Wars scene. 

 They discovered lots of sand worms crawling about so started to collect them  Even Bridget and Tor were picking them up to take to Jillian.

 After ice cream they all obliged to sit for the porch picture.  Good ice cream!

And of course, the final stop was at Funland for games and prizes.  Some tired kiddos heading home.

Games and More Games

 Bridget is ready to ride the skateboard that Ty is putting together.  She likes the bigger skateboard over a smaller one I got earlier. 

 I'm not sure what is cracking up Jillian so much when she was practicing badminton with Tierney and Brock while waiting for Ty to get done.  She loves to play the game and they are pretty patient with her.

 The game has started and their rule is that the dogs are part of the game and you have to go around them.  Mocha was happy to watch the game right in the middle of the court.  Ty and Tierney were on the same team as Jillian but I'm not sure who won.

Next they moved on to Croquet and Bridget got to join them.  The big kids don't show any mercy so Ty won going away. 
Next they went up to Aunt's to play with Ava and Harper.  Busy, fun day!