Staycation

Today was such a full day that we agreed to call it a "staycation," where it seemed like a vacation, only we didn't go very far off.  To begin with, you can see Madison here at Tennis Camp.  We had Summer Xtreme last week, and this week, it was time for tennis camp.  This is pretty much the same routine as with tennis classes each Wednesday, the only difference being that she's playing with real tennis balls now, and on a real tennis court.  She was all dressed up for the part, and she did rather well too!

This is my favorite moment.  All the boys and girls in the class had a game - who could return the most serves?  One boy hit the ball back thirteen times, and that was the score to beat for quite some time.  That is, until Madison stepped up.  She wasn't even using her stronger side, her backhand.  She was hitting with her forehand, and Daddy was thinking this wouldn't last long.  But off she went, returning serve after serve.  Would she beat the other boy's thirteen?  Eleven... twelve... thirteen!  But it didn't stop there:  fourteen... fifteen... sixteen... seventeen... she kept returning serve after serve after serve!  Twenty-four... twenty-five... twenty-six... and it kept getting higher and higher.  At around thirty, she started laughing and complaining that her arm was hurting - but she kept returning a few more serves just because.  She got to thirty-two successful returns over the net, more than double anyone else's.  And Daddy was beaming - Madison did very well this morning at camp.

After camp, it was time to get some grub.  Madison, Mommy and Daddy went over to Cracker Barrel, a place we haven't been to in some time, actually.  Well, Daddy and Madison haven't been in a while, at least.  Madison became obsessed with winning the peg game.  She sat there trying it over and over again.  Daddy memorized a solution a long time ago, fed up with being called an eg-no-ra-moose.  Mommy bought a version of the game, and Daddy devoted valuable time to defeating this arrogant little peg game.  How DARE it call me an eg-no-ra-moose!  And it won't get away with calling Madison one either - this morning, I began intensive training with her, instructing her on the ways of defeating this peg game!

After Cracker Barrel, we continued our "staycation" with another fun trip:  to the movies!  We went to see "Maleficent" at the theater nearby, walking in with our Cracker Barrel candy and a bag of popcorn. The movie was interesting because we didn't know what to expect.  Honestly, we were thinking it was going to be the "Sleeping Beauty" story, which of course doesn't end so well for Maleficent.  She's the perfect villain, an icy evil presence that glides in and out of scenes, a balance such grace, elegance and power.  This movie maintained a good bit of that, except for the "evil presence" part - in this version, Maleficent is really the hero of the story in a way, and poor King Stephen is the power-hungry monster, driven insane by his own wicked deeds.  On it's own, it was a good movie:  the three of us liked it.  Madison said she preferred "Sleeping Beauty" though.  And the truth is, I think we all prefer the Maleficent in that original animated motion picture.  There's just something about Maleficent there - and in this movie, she wasn't quite Maleficent, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, we did enjoy the movie, so don't take that the wrong way.  We left there and headed home for a short bit, where we plugged in Disney Infinity for a bit.  The reason?  We got the last Disney Infinity power disc today, and had to give a Calico helicopter today.  So we played around there for a while until it was dinner time:  Mommy made us some Mexican food.  It wasn't Taco Tuesday, but it was good enough!

After Mexican food, Daddy wanted Madison to play piano for a bit.  The reward for a good amount of practice?  A trip to the pool.  It was indeed a full day.  Daddy and Mommy are intent on getting Madison to learn how to swim, so this was class #1 in our neighborhood pool.  This is the first time we've been in this pool this year, and it was well worth the wait.  The water was warm, and it was nice and quiet down there.  Madison and Daddy had a good time, and Madison was using her kicks very well - as well as her arm strokes.

But all good things must come to an end, as this day was starting to wrap up.  We went back home, and it was bath night - out of one pool and into another.  After the bath, it was time for bed.  Got to get to sleep early tonight, and be ready for tennis again tomorrow.  It'll be another good day tomorrow, but for all of us, we're still catching up on rest a little from last week.  So with that said, we put our little sleeping beauty to rest for the night.