Meet Halloween, our pet spider

Yes, it's not really the kind of pet that I was hoping for, yet, when all else fails, the kids will adopts just about anything as their pet to care for. We found this wonderfully frightening and quite large orb spider hanging out in our lavendar bushes.

The kids decided to name him/ her "Halloween." We watched as it captured the neighboring bees in it's nest and spun them ever so quickly into a webbing before they ate their meal. I had to remain objective about the whole process, or I might squeal and ruin it all for them!

Sierra was quite excited about her catch of the day here! She seems to be quite successful at catching fish with her bare hands. Amazes me each time.And this one we had to research a little bit before our hands on learning began! A backyard gopher snake it was indeed! Later that day, we released him back into a gopher whole and watched him slither away.