A Mouse in the House

It's been a pretty boring week around here. In fact when today's post is the highlight of the week you know it's been a bit dull. I guess a quiet week once in a while though is a good thing - I should just learn to enjoy it!

Well - the big excitement of the week was really a Mouse in the House! I debated whether I should blog about this or not. The girls were afraid that people would think we had a dirty house because we had a mouse in the house.

Now, while my house is not always immaculate we do not live in filth and squalor! It is just a fact of life when you live across the street from a pond - you will have mice. The mice have always stayed in the garage where we regularly set traps but this week one brave little mouse ventured inside.

Cali and I were standing in the kitchen on Thursday night when Cali let out a scream - "There's a mouse". I didn't even bother to look but I took off screaming and running and jumped up on the chair in the family room. Cali jumped up onto the window seat in the kitchen . I never even saw the mouse but Cali said it headed towards the dining room..

Jim was confused and couldn't figure out why we were both screaming! By the time he figured out why we were screaming the mouse was long gone. He opened up the french doors in the dining room thinking maybe it would go out and he had me stand on the chair next to the doors to see if it left. After a few minutes I gave up.

Tessa wasn't home and we decided not to tell her about the sighting as we knew it would totally freak her out. Unfortunately she saw the two mouse traps Jim set in the kitchen when she got home.

Friday morning Cali got up to take a shower. She pulled back the shower curtain and there was our friend - running along the edge of the shower. More screaming ensued and Jim who was on a conference call came upstairs with a bowl. I guess he was going to try and catch it in the bowl???

The mouse disappeared again and Jim had to leave for an appointment.

Several minutes later Tessa went into the bathroom and there running along the floor was Mr. Mouse - you guessed it - more screaming - all three of us this time. This time I was on a call but I screamed anyway - sorry Sherra!

Jim was gone so I quickly slammed the bathroom door and stuffed a towel under the door so he/she couldn't escape.

I called Jim on the phone and he suggested I put one of the mousetraps he had put in the kitchen into the bathroom. So I very carefully carried the peanut butter enhanced mouse trap upstairs and slipped it into the bathroom - opening the door as little as possible - restuffing the towel underneath.

About 10 minutes later I got brave enough to open the door again and take a peek - yeah! The trap had worked and our little friend was trapped - and DEAD!

We left him in the bathroom until Jim got home so he could take care of it.

So who knew mice could climb stairs and scale a bathtub!!

Blongo Ball

Our favorite backyard/beach game is Blongo Ball. I found it at Costco several years ago and haven't seen it there since.

I have ordered them at http://www.blongoball.com/ though for Christmas gifts for people. You could probably easily make your own too with a little PVC pipe and some golf balls!

We took it with us down to the beach and had fun playing it. It was quite a conversation piece with people on the beach too - wondering what it was and how you played it.

One person asked if we were setting up a course for dog jumping!

Four people can play at one time. You throw the two golf balls which are attached by a piece of rope and try and wrap it around the pvc pipe - there are three levels of pipe and each one is worth a different amount of points. You win when you reach 21 points exactly. You can't go over.

Blongo Ball is fun!

Week at the Beach in Review

We had a wonderful Week at the Beach. We escaped the 95 degree temperatures in Portland and enjoyed cooler temperatures at the beach. We had sun all week until Friday when some clouds rolled in but burned off by mid afternoon.

We enjoyed lots of walks on the beach...
We enjoyed dinner at Mo's our first night at the beach - Clam Chowder and Fish and Chips!

We had a Manzanita Mud Dog - I think the glow in the dark pickle relish is amazing. Amazing to look at it not eat! The boys like to eat it though. The buns and hot dogs are flown in from Chicago. It is the one place I will eat a hot dog!

We ate at our favorite pizza restaurant - Marzanos...

On Wednesday we drove down to Tillamook to hike Cape Lookout. Logan left a couple of hours earlier and rode his bike 28 miles to meet us in Tillamook - what a man!

Cali's friend Kat came down for a couple of days and joined us on the hike. It was a beautiful view from the point of Cape Lookout.Of course we couldn't go through Tillamook without stopping at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We were starving after our hike so we had a Tillamook Cheeseburger and of course an ice cream cone!

We played lots of cards and games. We finally figured out how to play Ticket to Ride which we got for Christmas - we love it and played it lots!

One day we headed over to Hug Point. It's a great beach to go to when it's windy in Manzanita Beach. We played Bongo ball, read, walked around the point and just layed in the sun!We enjoyed lots of beautiful sunsets...
The girls even practiced their ballet positions at sunset...
We went into Cannon Beach and went to their Farmer's Market, checked out Haystack Rock...

and of course stopped by Bruce's Candy Kitchen to pick out some salt water taffy and my favorite - White chocolate covered gummie bears!

Our neighbors the Osborne's and Adams joined us later in the week and we had lots of fun bonfires on the beach roasting hot dogs and making s'mores.

We had a little bit of Beaver Fever going on too....

It was fun having the neighbor kids there and they had a great time playing on the beach.

We also checked ot the Manzanita Farmer's Market on Friday night.

Saturday we enjoyed Fourth of July Activities - see post here for more

Another wonderful Week at the Beach!

Cul de Sac Moms minus one

This is what happens when Cali gets a hold of the camera. We didn't even know she was taking pictures until the last picture!

We were just trying to get one nice picture of the Cul de Sac moms - Debbie, Leigh Anne and Sheri. We missed you Katie!!

Happy Fourth of July

We're home, unpacked and the laundry is going!

We had a wonderful week at the beach. I have lots of pictures to share of our fun week.

I'll start off with the Fourth of July.

On Friday our neighbors the Osbornes and Adams came down to join us for the weekend.

Saturday morning started with our pancake breakfast compliments of Chef Jim.

After breakfast everyone dressed in their red, white, and blue.

Tessa's red Van's came in handy for the holiday.

The kids' put on some patriotic tattoos for the occasion too!

We lined the street with our chairs to enjoy the Manzanita parade!

I think my favorite part of the parade every year is the HUGE American Flag.

After the parade we went back for a barbeque at the house.

After dinner we headed down to the beach for the evening and fireworks!!

Despite the signs and the warnings there were TONS of illegal fireworks on the beach. We had quite a show right next door and over the top of our heads!

We were one of about 200 fires on the beach - and there was a LOT of smoke!

We roasted hot dogs and made s'mores over the fire.

After dinner we did some of our own fireworks while we waited for the big show to start.

We were only able to see about half the fireworks show because a fog rolled in and the fireworks disappeared! We had enough illegal ones going off right next to use though that we don't feel like we missed anything!

Happy Fourth of July!!