The Archery Barn

For the last three weeks Riley has spent two and a half hours a day, two days a week at the archery barn.  There was not enough time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to have a four week session of lesson so it was decided to offer open archery instead.  During open archery Riley has been one of only a handful of students there and the only one to go and stay the whole time during all of the sessions.  Because of the low numbers he did not have to wait his turn and could shoot as many rounds as he wanted.  His archery skills have improved a great deal during this time, and he is able to shoot four balloons with five arrows on a target 10 yards away.

At the end of open archery tonight Miss Ronda informed us that she would not be teaching the next session at the end of January.  She had taken a job in western Ohio.  Riley teared up automatically, gave Miss Ronda one last hug, and left the barn.  I couldn't blame him because I teared up also and am crying as I type this post.  I think he will miss her because she is what he knows.  He is not always sure and needs someone to guide him gently.  Miss Ronda took the time to do that so he trusts her.  I am thankful that Miss Ronda was Riley's first archery teacher because of her interest and knowledge of archery.  She has given him confidence in himself and his skills as an athlete.  We will continue to take classes at the archery barn as long as Riley is interested, and we will never forget Miss Ronda.  We are grateful that we had the opportunity to work with you for the time that we did.  We will miss you and wish you the best always!

Christmas Card Pictures, Finally!

I thought I had the pictures of the Christmas cards on my camera, but the ones I took were actually from my phone.  Tonight, I finally got around to taking the pictures to post.  Reese has done a wonderful job and has bugged me every night to do Christmas cards.  This project is right up her alley.

The first time I tried this project with Riley, Reese's had was the size on the left.  I believe that Reese may have been over a year old then.  The hand on the right is Reese's present day hand with her own decorations.

These cards are additional designs we came up with to use with the handprints.  Reese has decorated these on her own.  The penguins came out especially well.  The Christmas trees are a favorite for her to decorate.  The reindeer, we made just a few, were a bit challenging to decorate.  Reese got confused as to where his collar should be!

Penguins are Done

After some research on handprint penguins online, we finished up the penguins tonight.  Reese decided that she wanted large googly eyes, a beak, and feet for her penguins.  She painted the bellies white and then added black fins.  The fins were her own idea and they turned out very nice.

Pics tomorrow.