my superman

Superhero day at school.  And yes, yes I did allow my son to go to school in tights, boxers and a pillowcase cape.  You got a problem with that?

gotta catch 'em all

Our high school just had Winter Formal which is a girl ask guy event.  Here's the details of how Megan asked her date.

She started with clear plastic christmas ball ornaments that she separated - spray painting one side red and the other white.

Once dry she inserted one puzzle piece into each ball.  The puzzle was an enlarged photograph of a local place that Megan had cut into 12 pieces.

Megan then took the 12 balls and added black electrical tape around the middle and finishing them off with a round white sticker.  If you are a geeky boy or live with any geeky boys you might now recognize that what Megan was creating was pokeballs from Pokemon.  We apparently embrace geekiness in our home.

All Megan needed to complete her invite was a letter from the Pokemon Center and the actual invite (little square card below) that was inserted into a pokeball and placed at the location that the puzzle revealed when put together.

January 16, 2011

To:  Brock, Pewter City Gym Leader

From: Nurse Joy, Pokèmon Center, Kanto Region

Dear Brock,

We need your help!

Yesterday, at the break of pokèdawn, the malicious trio of Jesse, James, and Meowth 

(that's right), otherwise known as Team Rocket attacked a pokètrainer in the Oaktree

Forest, scattering all his pokèballs.  We need you, you squinty-eyed, hair-gelled 

pokèwonder, to save the day! 

According to our pokèsources the trainer lost 12 pokèballs, all in the vicinity of the

pokèbridge, located near the center of the pokèforest.  We need you to immediately get

dressed in the provided pokètraining ensemble and locate all of the pokèballs.  You

GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL!  

Once you have safely gathered all 12 pokeballs it is imperative that you bring them back

to the safety of your pokèhome to be opened so as to not have any pokèmon escaping

into the wilds of the forest.  The safety of these 12 pokèmon is of the upmost importance.

Their pokèsafety is in danger so please perform this mission quickly.

The pokètask may be treacherous and you may desire the company of another skilled

pokètrainer.  Feel free to locate another trainer of your choice and bring them along. 

In the event that you do bring another trainer all we ask is that you provide the

companion trainer with the necessary pokèrecording equipment that we have given

you so as to document the pokèmission for later review.

Thank you so much for helping us solve this puzzling pokèproblem.

Megan, Emily and Meg's friend Kenzie dropped off the letter and a Brock outfit (for those not in the know Brock is a pokemon trainer that wears an orange shirt and green vest) at the door of her intended date, rang the doorbell and ran.

Before ding dong ditching they had hid all 12 pokeballs

at this local park.

While waiting around to make sure no little kids would come by and start grabbing pokeballs before Austin got there I snapped this picture of Emily.  It has nothing to do with the invite - I just like it :)

His response came a few days later.  After a knock on the door Megan walked out to find this...

disclaimer: the above photo is a reenactment :)

The back of the yes sign...

And the personalized pokemon card that accompanied it

even nerdier

Apparently Derek and I are raising a family full of nerd kids.  First it was these two

and now its this one...

Nathan had Nerd Day at school yesterday and obviously was inspired by his older siblings.  I was pretty impressed that he went off to school like this.  I don't remember the girls being quite so brave in 6th grade.  I think Nate has the advantage of watching his sisters and their friends who are in High School dressing up and having fun.  What Nate doesn't realize is that when they were all in 6th grade most of them probably didn't do this type of thing - they are more secure in who they are now than when they were in Middle School.  I'm glad that he is unaware and having fun now and not waiting 'til High School.  He'll have much more fun in life this way.

Oh how I love my nerdy kids!!

homecoming

NOTE:  Pictures added 9/30

Tonight Megan is off to the Homecoming dance.  Can't wait for her to come home so we can hear all about it and see pictures.  

Here is a quick photo of Megan and her date (once she brings the camera home I'll post more) but this can at least satisfy grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. for the time being.

Take a look at their corsage and boutonniere.  They, along with the group of kids they went with decided to hand make their "flowers" instead of buying them - best idea ever!!  The creativity exhibited was fantastic (I'll post pictures once I have the camera back)

Meg and Austin made theirs using the crime scene tape from Austin's invite to the dance.  They worked on them themselves, rolling the crime scene tape up into roses.  Megan also added a little pipe cleaner parrot for some added punch. Cute, creative and they recycled!  

A few photos from the pre dance activities.

Dinner at Ruby's

 

Hanging out the Disney Store in the mall - playing around and taking pictures.

I love these next shots of the kids plopping down in the middle of the mall to play games.  

And of course, the night wouldn't be complete without all the girls heading to the bathroom at once.  I love that they documented it!

we've got spirit yes we do

Final day of Spirit Week was Spirit Day so the girls went all out with Tesoro red, white and blue.  They definitely showed some school spirit today.

Their outfits today made me way happy.  


You see when I was in high school (forever ago) I was in ASB serving as the Commissioner of School Spirit.  I was head honcho in charge of pep rallies, spirit week and all around general school spirit.  I was the obnoxious cheerleader that was always on the mike at pep rallies encouraging kids to dress up and participate in school spirity jive.


So this school spirit thing runs in my blood.  I loved seeing my girls all decked out in school colors - it made my Commissioner of School Spirit heart jump for joy.  I loved that they participated all week during Spirit Week with crazy clothes and good attitudes.  I love that they had fun!!


Next week is sure going to seem lame watching my kids walk out the door in jeans and boring tops.  

ummm, hello beautiful??

Perhaps the most stressful day of Spirit Week was Thursday's Ugly Outfit Day.  This seemed to be the day that was hardest to pull off but after a 9:30 pm jaunt to Ross the night before the girls managed to put together some ugly outfits.

Excuse the poor pictures.  The lighting at 6:15 am is not ideal especially when using the point and shoot camera or cell phone.

Now for the outfits...

I had to include this close-up shot so that our devoted blog readers (who am I kidding - we have none) wouldn't miss any of the fine details on this outfit.  The intense look of the animal, the natural foliage set off with just the right amount of sparkle thanks to the strategically place metallic studs, not to mention how fantastically the shirt pairs with the purple and black herringbone pants.  Emily, you make me proud!


Is it good or bad to admit that the pants were not from my shopping spree at Ross - we actually had them in a closet.  I'm not sure why they were initially purchased and I think we had forgotten we owned them but now that they have seen sunlight the girls may need to be rockin' them more often.  They're kinda so ugly that they're cool.

Megan went for ugly AND comfort.  No lie...if she thought she could get away with it without experiencing total ridicule she would have a closet full of these silky moo-moos and wear them everyday.  


She tried this little number on before going to bed and refused to take it off.  She climbed into bed wearing her new outfit of choice and then sang it's praises more when she got to sleep in because other than hair and make-up she was ready to go.  No precious morning minutes spent trying to put an outfit together.  Go from girl in jammies to dressed to impress simply by stepping out of bed.  I'm telling you, she may spearhead the effort to make silk moo-moos popular with teens.

One more day of Spirit Week wear and than we are back to old, boring outfits.