Pumpkins and Praying Mantis

Great day today!  We started out at Team Edge, of course, because it's Saturday.  Maddie is still working with that sword, and the whole team is prepping for their upcoming performance in a few months.

After Team Edge practice this morning, we got home and had lunch.  Someone else did too!  Mom and I spotted this praying mantis outside.  I was going out there to clear an area of juro spiders, and this praying mantis was looking up at them, considering how to get some free food.  Mom came out there and hilariously lifted a juro on a stock and lowered the snack for the praying mantis...

Lunch time!  Mom actually gave the praying mantis two of these spiders.  The insect was quite happy with this free meal!

We then decided to go for a little ride out west some, back to Bradley's Farms.  It was a very pleasant visit, and the selection of pumpkins was fantastic.  Maddie and I walked amidst the larger ones and found three pretty nice ones to take home with us!  They're currently sitting at the fireplace now.  Of course, any visit there is more than just about picking up pumpkins.  We got some muscadine slushies, three of them, and then went inside to look around a bit.  There's one other tradition inside the shop there, a little marble roller coaster that Maddie has rolled around with for several years now.  I used the camera this time around.

We sat together with the family there at the front porch swing, just seated and relaxing together for a bit.  We bought a few items there along with the pumpkins, including a bar of soap with a pumpkin face on it - currently in the bathroom right now with a nice fragrance.

Maddie was taking a lot of pictures along the way too.  Here are some of the pictures she took from Bradley's Farms.  Maybe I took a few too...

Here are a few that I snapped with my phone...

After a while, we went home and it was a bit rainy again.  Elsewhere, the rain from the hurricane and a huge deluge of water before that has been so devastating to some places just north of here.  We finally heard from one of our friends who is trapped in Asheville.  The city has seen catastrophic flooding.

Here at the house, we played some LEGO Marvel on the Nintendo Switch again, this time as the Inhumans, a pretty cool reference within the Marvel universe.  After that, we watched another seasonal movie tonight, "The Corpse Bride."  We've been enjoying these seasonal movies, and actually have run through a good bit of them already.  This one is one of Maddie's favorites of course.  "Victor's Piano Solo" is an amazing bit of music.

Tonight before bed, we read from "Equal Rites" for a little while, and then got in our prayers before tucking in the Plush Entourage for a good night's rest.