Tennis Time for Lauren!

As soon as Lauren turned 3 years old, I began looking into tennis lessons.  Our local Parks and Recreation Department has a tennis class for children ages 3-5, so I signed her up!

But this class was not Lauren's first experience with tennis.  Grandpa, Aunt B and I took her out to the courts when she was 18 months old.  She was more interested in running around the courts, but she did attempt to pick up a racket and give it a swing!

                     

Also, Grandpa, Mee-maw, Aunt B, Kevin and I recently took her out a few months ago.  Once again, she was more interested in running around, and she made a great ball girl!  She was also a great cheerleader as she watched the rest of us play.  It had been a while since I played tennis (last time was when we took her out around 18 months old).  I strapped Charlie into the Bjorn, picked up my racket and had a great time.  It truly is a sport you can pick up and play after a long break!

Eventually we wore her out.  She tried to go to sleep on the side of the tennis court and we knew it was time to go home.

                     

On July 1st, Lauren had her first tennis class.  Chad ended up taking her because I had court and they started off indoors.  They met in the racquetball court at the local parks and rec department, did agility skills and learned how to swing the racket.

After two classes, we moved outside to the tennis courts.  This was a class that involved parent participation, so I had to strap Charlie into the Bjorn (again) and help Lauren go through the drills.  She always did really good the first half of the class, but fizzled out the second half.  She would usually get hot and just wanted to sit down in the shade.

Last week, I had a little help when Grumpa, Grammy and Chad came along to watch.  Chad and Grumpa took turns going through the drills with Lauren.  I am so happy I captured these photos for two reasons.  First, I captured the moment when Lauren was hot and done with the class.  Second, I have a photo of Grumpa on the tennis court and he is NOT playing full contact tennis!!  =)

I know this post is about Lauren's tennis lessons, but I also wanted to briefly talk about the following photo.  Charlie has been a bystander through all of his big sister's classes and I really wanted to try to get a photo of him hanging out in his carseat on the side of the court.  One of my favorite baby photos, of me, is when I was hanging out on the side of a tennis court while my parents played tennis.  Actually, many of my favorite childhood memories come from playing around tennis courts while my parents played.  So I thought it would be cute to try to recreate my baby photo.  Charlie did not agree.

I guess I will just have to wait a few years, capture photos of Charlie at his first tennis lesson and compare them to Lauren!  And I cannot wait!!