Archery

Sunday's trip to the Renaissance Fair had an unexpected side-effect.  See, I figured Sarah would be into the fancy clothes or the fairy wands, and Will would be into the swords and armor and stuff, and they were, to a certain extent.  But the real surprise has been their mutual fascination with learning to use their bows and arrows. 

As soon as they got out of the bathtub Sunday night, they begged Mike for archery lessons.  Being the kind of dad he is, he readily obliged and soon, 

arrows were whizzing all around the den. 

Impressed with my husband's hidden (to me) talent, I asked where he learned to shoot like that.  Unimpressed with my complete lack of coordination and inability to get an arrow to go more than an inch without throwing it, he replied simply, "I'm a boy.  That's what we DO growing up." 

Geez, Daniel Boone.  Make fun of the city girl, why don't you.

Sarah is a natural, so she and Mike are all Hunger Games about their skills.  Will and I need a little more practice, but it's hard when you're 3 years old and refuse to admit you're a lefty.

Anyway, we decided we needed some target practice.  But, since humans are off-limits and the critters in our yard refuse to cooperate, it soon became clear that we needed targets. 

Sarah got to work on hers:

By the way, I have no idea how Sarah knew what a target looked like. 

 It's crazy what that girl observes and picks up on.

And here's Will's target:  It says "BLAM!" in the middle.

Next, we hung our targets on the clothesline that's STILL up, despite the hubs' grumbling. 
This thing is so darn useful, it's going to have to stay up all summer. 
Do you hear me, Miguel? 

Sarah helped me shoot a little how-to video on archery, 

so get ready to be the next Merida or Hawkeye.

Here's Will at point-blank range: 

We bought these bows, but they're just PVC pipe, twine, and duct tape. 
 I am going to figure out how to make some more of these,

 plus the crossbows that we didn't buy at the Renaissance Fair.  

That's a lot of italics right before Memorial Day. 

Happy Thursday!