Arnold is a moltin...

It's been quite a week at the Skinner house! Amanda's tarantula "Arnold" has just been through his first molting session. It's when the tarantula sheds its skin as it's growing. First he spun this really cool web....

Then, he flipped on his back with all legs pointed straight in the air. When we bought him from the pet store, they told us this was going to happen so we knew he wasn't dead...at first...but after a week, the body started to separate and it actually looked like the tarantula had decapitated itself. I wasn't sure if it was dead but told Amanda to leave him alone. A few days later, the skin came off totally intact. So when we thought he was decapitated, he was actually just separating from the old skin. In the picture below the shedded skin in down below the web. It looks just like another tarantula!
Here's Arnold happy in his new skin. Amanda tried to remove the web and extra skin but dear Arnold won't let her. He quickly moves and sits on it. I don't think that's part of the molting process....maybe he knows she's going to take it to school and show all of her friends?

Cactus Classic

Play of the weekend...she was mighty dirty when she got up from this one!

Red Mountain Invitational 2009

Spent the weekend at the Red Mountain Invitiational with Amanda's club team. There were some great teams there. She jumped, doved and kicked her way to be named MVP! Here are a few pictures..