The adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl

The real ones: Rocket spends the majority of the year prior to October, deciding what he should be for Halloween. After much thought, he decided he should be Sharkboy. Knowing that Sharkboy was never without his counterpart, and then he had to convince Roxanne to be Lavagirl. She was persuaded pretty easily. However, I wasn't so convinced that this was a good idea, mostly because you can't BUY a Sharkboy and Lavagirl costume at the store, which meant I would have to make them myself. But, hey, that's what good moms do.... right? I even got out my sewing machine for parts of the costumes. The kids are thrilled and can reinact many scenes of the movie almost perfectly. Tonight, when we get trick or treaters at our house, the kids who have store bought costumes get the smarties. The kids with good costumes get mini candy bars... if I haven't already ate them all.

Fall Festival

As we discovered this year, Fall Festival is the highlight and anticipation of the entire school year, at Rocket's elementary school. Among the activities that we were pressured to participate in, was the poster contest. Ofcourse, after hearing that it was a competition, Rocket was enthusiastically ready to participate. He put a lot of hard work into his poster, and it payed off, as he received first place for the kindergarteners! His name was announced over the school intercom, which means he is now famous! I couldn't be more proud of my artisticly talented son! Below he humbly poses in front of his poster (he is disguised as sharkboy). Now, if only he could have won the cake walk!!!

Dr. Sketchy

While I haven't made too many REAL friends in the Denver area so far, I have made one new best friend. That friend is Dr. Sketchy's anti-art school. I don't know why it is called "anti-art" because it seems very "pro-art" to me. But, anyways, it is at Lannie's Clocktower Caberet every third Monday of the month. For seven dollars, I can spend a couple hours sketching some lovely burlesque models posing under sparkling star spotlights and accompanied by some intriguing music. I don't know what could be better than a sketch pad, plenty of skin and a glass of wine (but NO more). I'll have to come early next time to get a better seat.

Here, one of the models examines the dipictions of her. Extra impressive drawings win prizes.

Soccermom

Ok, so I live in Highlands Ranch; I drive a minivan; and yes, I'm a soccermom. This is never what I envisioned my life turning out like, and it's a good thing I didn't see it coming, because I would have dreaded it. But it's not that bad! Especially with an awesome soccer star like Rocket. His team won every game this season, thanks to him. Ofcourse, with Matt as his dad, we always knew he had some studly genes. He is quite cocky too, as you can see from the picture above. I must be a bad soccermom cause I was secretly hoping he would lose atleast one game. I thought it would be good for his character... and his oversized ego.

I put this little team picture together for the team, the Golden Stars. I had to paste people in, but I bet you can't tell who. It made the kids very happy and proud. Rocket framed it and put it in his room.

Here, Rocket is about to score a goal. But, what was more entertaining than watching the game, was watching the fabulous cheerleaders:
This one was the most impressive. Look at that height!

Pictures of Roxy

Rocket often accuses me of loving Roxanne more than I love him because I take more pictures of her than him. While I may love one child more than the other, I won't tell who it is, and it's not neccessarily the one I take the most pictures of. I just like taking pictures of Roxanne more than Rocket because she is prettier. But, I dont want him to feel unloved, because I really do love him, so sometimes I take pictures of him on my digital camera and then delete them later when he is not watching. Look how perfect they are for each other. Sometimes I think they are in love- but in a brother and sister kind of way, I guess. Can you tell how much Rocket loves to pose for the camera?

This is Roxanne's "lady" face. It is very sophisticated!

Roxy got this dolly from my mom for her birthday. She named her "Miss Heart". Miss Heart and Roxanne wear the same size clothes, so Roxanne loves to dress her up in all kinds of unmatching tacky outfits, that I would never let Roxanne wear out of the house. Miss Heart also has green eyes, just like Roxanne. Miss Heart is almost a clone of Roxanne.

I gave Roxanne these boots for her birthday. She has worn them every day since. Gosh... she is one spoiled little girl, isn't she?

Happy Birthday Four Year Old!

Yesterday we celebrated Roxanne's fourth birthday. She has come a long way since her third brithday. She can tell you her age and name now, as well as coming all the way to Colorado, which means she had lots of wonderful cousins come to her birthday party!

Among the exciting presents she received, her daddy gave her the best gift- a little kitty which she named Necklace. Her prayer before dinner was this "Dear Jesus, thank you for the kitty. Jesus, don't lose this kitty. Amen." Jesus lost her last kitty.

After eating cake, the kids (and Grandpa) played "pin the lips on the mermaid". During the week prior we had created an underwater scene to play the game on. Everybody contributed something to the scene, even Matt (but not much). When we played the game at the party, Milo put his set of lips on the fish to the left of the mermaid! I think Grandpa was the only one who didn't cheat, though.

We spent the last weekend with Matt's family camping near the beautiful collegiate peaks. We had a wonderful time and I will post pictures of our experience later, because I have to weed through all the pictures I took to find the best ones still

When I came home, I was surprised to see that Ruby had molted! At first I thought there were two tarantula's in her cage, but then I soon realized that one of the spiders was just her old "outfit" that she apparently outgrew. She is now much bigger!!

This is Ruby with her old skin in the background. Her new exoskeleton has a beautiful rosie hue- hence the name Rose Haired Tarantula.

Also, last night was supposed to be a big night for seeing meteors outside. When I went out to see, I didn't see any shooting stars, but I did see this little guy:

It was a Jewel Spider that had built an almost perfect beautiful web that glistened against the light of our dining room through the sliding door. Then an unfortunate lady bug flew into his perfectly formed web, ruining it. He attacked the lady bug and wrapped it up, and it was gone in the morning: