Tennis - Last day

Holly had her fourth and final tennis lesson today.














Here she has the "ready" position set up - standing sideways to the net with her non-swinging hand towards the net and racquet back.















A short clip of Holly swinging at the ball - she connects, but doesn't quite get the ball over the net.


This clip shows how they teach the kids to swing the racquet properly by first getting them to swing their arms with a ball in hand. . . and then they throw the ball over the net, which mimics the arm motion when they actually hit the ball with the racquet - I thought this was a great technique.



Class picture!

Tennis - Day 3

Holly is enjoying tennis - the weather has been so great! At times, she is really connecting the racquet and the ball and can even hit the ball over the net!

Tennis - Day 2

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Tennis

Every week through the summer (starting this week) we're doing something different - first up: tennis lessons!

The weather was great and the kids have a super fun instructor - Diego! Actually, his name is Jorge (pronounced "hor hay"). He's from Mexico originally, and I guess he knows from experience that the kids have hard time with his name, so he told them all to call him "Diego". He was actually referring to himself in the third person and saying "watch Diego", which was quite funny.

Gorge Race

Holly and I drove down to the Gorge for the outrigger race this weekend. Paul was really busy on the house and decided not to come down. It was a long drive by myself - traffic was heavy just south of Seattle and it took us nearly 8 hours to get here! Holly was a great traveller as usual - we listened to lots of cd's and only stopped once (for 1 hour for lunch)!

I raced with a great group from Portland - we came second in the Mixed Division and had a lot of fun!

New bathroom

Holly enjoys walking around our "new" house - today she is posing by the door inside our new master bathroom ensuite.

Cupcakes

I've been experimenting with different cupcake recipes - quite a few from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book, but some from other sources, too. When we head over to my grandparents' house for dinner on Sunday (a tradition we've continued despite their passing), everyone who comes is the (lucky?) recipient of my experimentations . . . today I tried a pink lemonade cupcake, decorated with citrus slices and straws for authenticity! Holly couldn't wait for dinner to be over so she could hand them out!

Canada Day

We went to the Burnaby Village Museum for Canada Day with my mom. I've been wanting to go for a couple of years, but just never did. We saw my friend Helen with her family there and she took this picture for us. My Mom and Holly were even wearing red today!

2 Birthdays and a Bon Voyage!

Tonight we went over to my aunt and uncles to celebrate Lai's 28th birthday. She had her favourite: birthday pie!



















Holly and Lai - super cute with a rare ponytail in her hair!














All the in-town cousins: Steve, Ho, Owen, Paolo, Elle, Paul, Alison, Lai, Holly, Me and Elle's friend Jutes.














We also celebrated Steve's birthday, which is in a few days.














Owen clapping for Daddy!



















Family portrait.















And we also had a good luck cake for Ho, who is heading to Boston for dental school very soon. What a dessert extravaganza!

English relatives

Paul's Uncle Geoffrey and Aunt Sylvia came to visit his parents for a few weeks. We took them to the airport to head home. We didn't get to spend much time with them, but are hoping to see them again soon - when we take Holly to England for a visit!