Anyone for tennis?

What do you do when you have two children; one who wants to play tennis with you - properly, on a court, and everything - and one who is simply too young to see this as anywhere near being a tempting activity?

Here's how we worked it out:

Daisy (my youngest) said she would only come along to the park if she could bring a pair of scissors, some string and a piece of paper - to make a mask - while Bud and I played tennis. Naturally, I agreed to her brilliantly specific request, and for the first five minutes she was happily occupied with some on-court making. I do love her style. But when a rogue tennis ball landed in her lap, she surprised us both by picking it up, hopping onto her scooter and delivering it to me in a kind of drive-by fashion, gliding effortlessly like an ice skater on the smooth tennis court surface. 'I'll be your ball girl!" she announced.

And so she was. For the rest of the match she swooped in graceful curves to scoop up the errant tennis balls and then passed them on to whoever was 'serving'. She stored our spare balls in her little scooter bag - perfect. And to top it all - and this was totally by chance - she was wearing her little blazer today, making her look like a proper Wimbledon official.

I don't know if Daisy will be interested in actually playing tennis with us one day, or whether Bud will ever be able to get the ball over the net more than once in a blue moon. But this was a truly happy hour spent on the sunny court this evening; playing by our own bespoke and somewhat curious rules. And as you can see from these snaps - they had a marvellous match.