November Audiobook: Jane Eyre

 In November, it was back to a Victorian gothic novel. This time the romance novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. 

I chose this novel because I was interested in a romance novel, having read few if any at all in my lifetime. In fact, I cannot recall ever reading one. Another reason I read this book was because I read that the writing was first rate. Rather than taking a writing class, I think the next best thing is to read as much as possible. The idea being, listening/reading books like this will help me with my writing skills, not just by improving my writing with the words I use but story structure as well. 

In the meantime, I got engrossed in the story. The audio version was close to 20 hours long and was a companion during the rush hour commute. Some days I would find myself walking to the car and wondering, "What did little Jane get herself into now?" 

While the writing was, what I consider, very formal, the story still held my attention and wrapped up nicely as it progressed throughout the book; so I would consider the storytelling to be very good. The last chapters in particular drew out the most emotion in me and passed the fastest. 

Halloween 2020

Like everything else in 2020, Halloween was different this year. Two weeks before, Ethan tried on his costume and even wanted to go trick or treating that night. Instead we just practiced at home and he knew what to do without us even showing him. Unfortunately trick or treating was not an option this year. Most of the activities were cancelled or scaled back. We did what we could and still had fun.

Halloween card for a Happy Halloween.

Ethan liked the Halloween store so much we went twice. He also liked the spooky animatronic decorations until they came alive and scared him. The ones at Party City were less scary and he had fun watching me set those off and run away. 

Just looking silly.

We tried on some hats. He liked the bowler hats.

Hold still! 😀

Our next stop was Spookyville. This year it had to be a drive through. Yes, last year we went during a deluge and this year, it had to be a drive through. 

The drive through had a narration that we listened to while driving. 

We saw the decorations and the actors. There were even stops to get candy like a drive through.

The cemetery with those tongue-in-cheek jokes on the grave stones.  

Each section had a different theme. 

This section was Dia de los Muertos.

Scarecrows on the farm.

A whole village of scarecrows!

Spooky witches. 

Candyland. Spooky or fun? It depends on your experience. I'm sure Candyland could be a spooky haunted house if done the right way. 

Candy clowns. 

Houses for the three little pigs.

This little pig built his house to hurricane code with storm windows. 

It was a nice time. Though short, it was a welcome attraction on a holiday with few to see. 

The Zoo too had changed up their Halloween tradition. There was still the Halloween DJ but all activities were daytime only and there were no candy stations. 

At least the decorations were hung up.

Albino gator? We never saw that before. 

The turtles were more active than usual. 

Watch out Mrs. Ghost!

Watch out Mr. Pumpkin!

He really likes to hit those things!

Hungry turtles. 

Posing with turtle statues. Hmmm. Could turtles be my spirit animal? 😂

Look! A baby tiger!

There's mama tiger.

Despite the situation this year, we made the most of it and were still able to get some Halloween fun.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

To get in the Halloween and fall spirit, a trip to pick some decorative pumpkins was in order. Due to the current events, many reliable pumpkin patches were shut down this year. We still managed to find one with some activities. Despite it not being in a traditional "pumpkin patch" and instead in a mall parking lot, we were able to make a night of if after work.

It was Ethan's first time picking pumpkins so any kind of pumpkin patch would be exciting for him. 

He was in the spirit and knew exactly what to do. He even picked out a few pumpkins himself. We just had to give him a limit. After all we don't need a car full of pumpkins.

This was nice. The Scarecrow's ruler shows Ethan is just over 3 feet tall this year.

Of course we still had to wear a mask around people and when not posing for pictures.

A nice set up for pictures.

Of course I got some "help" pulling the complimentary wagon on hand to load up pumpkins to purchase.

Happy Halloween 2020!

Now to carve the pumpkins.

We found carving kits at Party City and the Halloween Store and they weren't expensive.

This kit came with stencils and the tools. I liked the options.

We went with the skull stencil for the first pumpkin.

After cleaning it, I hollowed it out. Ethan helped scooping. Why no pictures? Scooping out the guts is messy. (What spectacular image was I looking at with those eyes?)

Carving the pumpkin. Of course, I didn't do all the work.

Once more, here is the finished product with two LED candles inside for a safe, all night decoration. 

Adventure Kidz Outdoor Bug Exploration Kit

This isn't a review, its just a blog post on having fun with the family and teaching Ethan about nature using the Adventure Kidz Outdoor Bug Exploration Kit by Kidz@Play.

Everything came in the box for learning and fun indoors or out. Ethan opened the kit and played with all the accessories inside the house the same day we got it in the mail. It comes complete with everything you need to catch and observe insects from the wild. It even comes with larger-than-life plastic insects for kids to hold, observe, trap, and compare to their real life counterparts. I found that the dragonfly was to scale but most were larger than life which helps kid identify the insects. They also get to practice catching and trapping the plastic specimens before doing it live, in the outdoors. 

There was a break in all of these hurricanes this year and we got to go outside on a sunny weekend in late September. Ethan finally got to try out the kit in the real world, not just on the table inside with plastic bugs. 

We ran around catching whatever we could, including a bee.

Ethan was more interested in the plastic bugs and watching us run around. He's observing a plastic ant and spider on the seat of the wagon.

He's learning how to use the equipment too, like this magnifying glass that comes in the kit. He spread out the fake bugs in the grass and then caught them. 

We managed to catch a small butterfly and later a dragonfly which were both observed in the mesh cage.

We customized the kit by adding a large magnifying glass. Ethan was more interested in catching the plastic bugs that came in the kit. He'd place them in the grass and then scoop them up. He's showing me some here. 

It was nice to get out and we all enjoyed the experience. 

The net in the kit (seen above) isn't the best but it did the trick. Since this outing, we resolved to get a bigger one. We liked a larger one in the dollar store but I passed on that. Fortunately, we later found another one in the clearance section of Hobby Lobby.

After bug catching, observing, and releasing, we observed another kind of wildlife...fish in the pond. It was full experience. After a few minutes of rain, the sun came out and we fed some old bread to the fish. 

The wagon is good for times like these. 

I think we all had fun. The Adventure Kidz Outdoor Kit is a keeper. Not only can Ethan enjoy it now with the fake bugs, but he can grow into it by utilizing it for real insects.