May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor!

I guess this post is dedicated to my growing-up-much-too-fast Emmy Lou!

This past weekend I got to see my own little Katniss Everdeen in action. My oldest, Emmy Lou, joined her school's archery club this year. They had something similar last year, but only met a few times. This year she was finally old enough to compete and they've had practice twice a week since the end of February.

This girl practiced her little heart out in the six weeks leading up to the State Archery Tournament. They had club practice two nights a week for two hours, after which she would head straight to karate because she didn't want to lose progress there. After our trip to Disney, she came back and spent spring break practicing at the cabin in the mini shooting range Papa set up for her. Then, the final two weeks leading up to the competition she was choosing to go to the indoor archery range for additional training whenever she could find a free hour or two. Her hard work paid off!!

Emmy Lou is the short one in the middle :)

She was so nervous the morning of the competition, but she went out there and shot the best I've ever seen her shoot! She shot three 10's (basically bullseyes) and had a total score of 190 out of 300. That may not see that high, but she shot an 86 at a practice tournament in late February and shot a 140-something just days before the competition. Overall, for the state of Wisconsin Elementary Girls Division she ranked 88 out of 172 and placed 30 out of 73 for 4th grade girls!! Their coach told them their rankings on Monday and I had one excited little critter when I picked her up after practice! I love seeing her learn that hard work pays off. She didn't get a participation ribbon, or a medal, but she did get a good reason to be very proud of herself and even challenged herself to do better next year.

With archery club winding down, we won't have much time to miss it. Next week Emmy Lou and Abbycakes start their first season of lacrosse! We're also waiting on team announcements for Emmy Lou's softball season this summer, which will start the end of May. It seems Kenziebug and Jack Jack's mom chose not to put them in ball this year, so they will be focusing on karate. Jack Jack will even get bumped up to the beginner's class and start working toward his first "big kid" belt. It will definitely be a busy summer!

Speaking of summer... I just registered for my first race of the season! EEK!! Emmy Lou and I went out for my first run of the season last night. Well, I ran and she rode her bike. 

Since I didn't die, I decided to go ahead and register for a return to the first 5K race I ever completed, Fitger's 5K. I actually ran it 8 years ago! That's kind of hard to believe. My time was 36:26 that year, so while I don't believe I'll beat that this year with so little time to get my legs back under me, I will try! Today just getting out of my office chair makes me groan. It's a good pain though!