MICE or rats, hopefully just mice

When you live in the northwest it is a very common problem to have mice and/or rats! We have seen ours and they are still pretty small so we think they are mice. However, they have been with us for far too long! Initially we thought we just had one that had set up camp in our garage. We killed it, cleaned out the garage and called it good. We saw more signs of poop so we set out a few more traps. So far we have killed 9 and have seen an entire box of decon disappear. Unfortunately, we still have MORE and it is a larger problem than we thought! They have set up camp in our attic which is totally annoying as now we might have to rip out our insulation. Anyway, we put about 10 boxes of decon up there and a few more traps. Matt will have to investigate again soon but hopefully we have finally got them!

Halloween Festivities

We started out the holiday with a party at our friends house. Unfortunately Matt wasn't able to join us as he was addressing our mice issue (it deserves its own post) and doing homework. The boys and I had a good time and we made these donut hole eyeballs to take for a treat!

On Thursday we carved pumpkins. The boys mostly liked to watch and I enjoyed cooking up the seeds afterwards.

We each carved one and then the boys decided they wanted to carve the itty bitty pumpkin that grew in our garden this summer! That was all we got and it was tiny, but the boys liked it. It has a sad face because they carved it for Grandma Mattie and as she isn't here they were sad.

Friday, we of course visited Matt at work because Microsoft sure knows how to throw a good Halloween party. There was lots of trick or treating, a Willy Wonka house and lots of things to do with the kids. We joined Matt for lunch and enjoyed spending the extra time with him.

On Saturday I took the boys to their gymnastics gym where they had a little Halloween party. It was great fun and FREE! The boys got to play at the gym for an hour and then got a little bag to take home filled with goodies. It was really fun.

That night we did our first official trick or treating. Both boys were dressed as Batman this year. That will be two years in a row for Cole. I say, why mess up a good thing! The boys had a great time. Ethan was a little slower so Cole did his best to help him and we had him skip a few houses in between. They loved the idea of knocking on doors and getting candy. Then we visited our friends and hit a halloween party. It was a great night.

The first quarantine of the year

Swing flu is buzzing around like crazy and it seems like everyone we know has it or just gotten over it. The fevers hit our house as well, but I don't know that it could have been swine flu as the kids weren't very sick! I hope it was and it just hit us lightly, but maybe we will have many more weeks indoors this winter as to the crazy cold/flu season. This sickness wasn't so bad this time because it is the first time I didn't get sick with the kids since being a mother. It meant however, that we had to get creative with activities.

Here is one such activity. Fill up the bathroom sink with water and play in it! Hey, they soaked the whole place so I just ended up cleaning it afterwards. Nothing like kids to motivate you to get some cleaning done.