Continuing with our Halloween Festivities, we carved pumpkins on Saturday. Josh and I cut them open and started cleaning them out while Eleanor took her nap.
She woke up and started to help us.
Unfortunately, after taking one scoop of pumpkins guts out, she decided that it was too messy. This is completely unlike her, Eleanor usually loves a mess. She had woke up that morning feeling sick and she had just been getting worse. So she opted to skip the carving. And instead sat and watched Disney’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow, while Josh and I carved the pumpkins.
Before we cleaned up, Josh convinced her to help him pick the seeds out of the guts for roasting.
Our finished product:
Mine is the cat on the left, I carved Eleanor’s owl in the middle, and Josh did the spooky house and tree on the right.
We had plans to visit a family friendly haunted house that evening and then we were going to leave Eleanor with a babysitter while we went to a friend’s Halloween party. But because Eleanor wasn’t feeling well, we decided to just stay at home with her and make sure she got some rest so that she would be feeling well enough to enjoy her Halloween the following day.
On Halloween morning, Eleanor seemed to be feeling better so we decided to go to the Natural History Museum to visit the Spider Pavilion.
I admit that I was very nervous about going into the Spider Pavilion. I have a terrible fear of insects (I realize that Spiders are arachnids and not insects, but I’m just going to call all creepy crawlies insects, no comments from you Professor Milk!). This is a real life phobia, I get nervous, my heart starts to race, and my palms sweat when I look at a picture of an insect. I am most afraid of insects that jump, don’t ask me why, but crickets scare the crap out of me. (I may have to write a post about why insects bother me so much. I have some very specific, albeit irrational, reasons for being afraid of them.) Spiders bother me less than some insects, but they still make me uncomfortable.
So I was very worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle being in a greenhouse with spiders loose and crawling around. Even the butterflies had made me uncomfortable last time we visited. I thought I might have a little breakdown and give Eleanor my phobia. But I am so proud of myself! I did not freak out! I was calm and composed. I admit that my heart was beating a little quicker, my palms were definitely sweaty, and I felt pretty uncomfortable. BUT I did it! And got a bunch of great photos of the creepy little (some were actually really big) creatures.
I think hiding behind my camera helped. I just told myself that my job is to get some great pictures and get out. And so I did!
After visiting the Spiders we headed inside to see the brand new Saber Tooth Cat show. It was very similar to the Dinosaur show that we saw last time we were there. It was awesome!
This actress was playing a scientist from the La Brea tar pits and told us about the megaflora and megafauna that lived in Los Angeles a long long time ago.
And then out came a puppeteer with a saber tooth kitten marionette, soon followed by a full size saber tooth cat. It was very cool. Especially when the puppeteer came out dressed as a giant sloth and had a little battle with the big cat. So amazing!
I just love the Natural History Museum! Eleanor loved the show! I know that I would have been crazy for this kind of show when I was a kid.
So we decided to get a family membership to the museum so we could visit again any time we wanted almost for free (it will be free after our 3rd visit). There is so much to explore there, I can’t wait to go back!
Come back Thursday for our Halloween photos!
