Lots of hanging out at Grey's loooong football games. Usually around 3 hours. Thank goodness for grandma to keep them happy with snacks!
Cole had his first day of preschool.
Elise started ballet
Three kiddos at the dentist. A dental trifecta.
So this is a long, awful story. I left the kitchen window open because I love fall fresh air. I had baked a bunch of batches of muffins to freeze and left them open on the counter to cool. Cole & I left to run a couple errands. When we got back, I heard an awful screeching, squaking sound. Apparently the squirrel had chewed through the screen, cut itself and bled, peed, pooped everywhere on the entire first floor! And he got into every bad of muffins. I almost cried. He had chewed through the screen about halfway up so he couldn't get back out. I called Jared and he conveniently was going into a meeting. Lucky guy. I was freaking out terrified. Since Jared wasn't coming home, I went over to my neighbor across the street who works from home. He told me he was kind of scared of them too so he held Vanessa for me. :) We opened the front door and the back door wide open. I went around outside to take the screen off. As I started prying it off, it snapped back and the squirrel went FLYING and no more chirping. We couldn't find it anywhere. But we didn't see it run off outside either. So I went through the house searching. My neighbor brought a live trap over--which I filled with muffins. Nothing. My father-in-law came over and meticulously went through every room, nook and cranny in the house. We left the trap out for a couple days and nothing happened, so we assumed the squirrel had run out and we just didn't see it. We didn't see any evidence either. Fast forward to THREE DAYS later. We had my parents over for dinner of pizza. We decided to go for a walk and left some of the food out of the counters. When we got back from the walk, I spied a squirrel dropping as I walked in. Then I looked around and BOOM--there was poop and pee all over the kitchen and floors again. ACK!!! I went outside and told Jared I wasn't coming back home until it was gone. So I stood outside on the curb with a few of the kids while he went to work finding that nasty rodent. He finally found it hiding so silently in our family room couch. The one we had been watching movies on and sitting on for days. Yuck. Next thing I see is the squirrel running back and forth and Jared chasing it with a broomstick. That squirrel did NOT want to leave the comfort of our home. It kept hiding behind couches and everything. Some neighbors were walking by and the 10-year old wanted to help. So they got to work with a broom, snow shovels and various sticks. Finally Jared scared it out of the front room couch and Grey knocked it with the broom into our shoe bin. Jared finished it off by scooping it out the front door with the shovel. That thing went FLYING. It was hilarious and awful. We spent the next few hours disinfecting every single inch. So nasty. And then I found out my neighbor feeds the squirrel. I got mad at her after that.
My wonderful friend from high school, Tatum turned 35 and her mom threw a fantastic surprise party for her. It was so fun to see some of my best friends from high school.
Tatum, Julie, Kathy, me, Erica
Dean & Joanne celebrated FIFTY years of marriage. We had the most wonderful evening together. We met at Ken & Jodie's house and took some pictures all together. Then we surprised them with an awesome, huge limo to take us to Morton's downtown for a delicious meal. We then returned back to the house to pick up the kids. They got to ride in the limo next over to a place we rented to have cake and share a slideshow and memories. It was so perfect. I am so lucky to have their wonderful example. It was a night full of love and family.
At the end of the month, we were lucky enough to have a lunar eclipse. And it was early enough in the evening that I let the kids stay up to watch. They got out their little flashlights and notebooks so they could draw it. It was so cute.
We finished off September with a leaf-peeping drive up to Kenosha pass. It is our favorite spot. We were right at the tail end and there weren't many leaves left on the trees, but it was still so gorgeous. Such vivid colors. I love this cute family of mine. And fall. I love fall!
