the grand opening of the children's garden was today

wow, it is so cool! we actually didn't get to see much of it because they didn't let anyone in until the ribbon cutting ceremony, and there was a bunch of stuff before that (mostly the girls running around the gardens, there were some speakers we didn't listen to, including susan collins). there were face-painters, and the girls got butterflies painted on their arms. they have never had their faces painted, they absolutely refuse. i think maggie's more following nina's lead on this one, but who knows, maybe she's anti-face-painting in her own right too. time will tell.

anyway, we'll have to go back to the garden soon to see all the cool stuff in the children's garden. we did notice the big-leaf area, and true to name there were some big leaves there. neat!

we all had cupcakes and lemonade inside the children's garden after the ribbon-cutting, then maggie was really tired so it was time to go. both girls napped (nina might be coming down with something), and then bernadette came over for a swim. fun day!

after dinner, we went to the tennis courts because nick and i really miss playing tennis. beth had the brilliant idea of bringing the kids bikes so they could ride around on the empty court. it worked! at first the gilchrists were there playing so the girls kept to the side between our court and the fence, but when they left they had the whole other court to run and ride on. it was so fun to play tennis again!