Eeeeek!

*cue reel of a lady standing on a chair holding up her skirts*

We have mice in our pantry. Elena brought up a bag of frosted flakes this morning with a corner chewed open. This prompted the rest of the kids to rush down to the pantry to investigate, where they found a few more chewed up packages and some tell-tale "chocolate sprinkles". They seem to be coming in from our, ahem, "plumbing access panel" in the ceiling; how they got into the ceiling is anybody's guess.
I guess it was a good a time as any to clean and re-organize our pantry stocks. This is what our family room looks like (again), full of pantry items. The kids sorted through and pulled out anything that was nibbled, chewed, scratched, or sprinkled to toss out, while I got a broom and a bucket full of bleach water to scrub down floors and shelves. Then it was off to the farm store for mouse traps and poison, and some mouse-proof dry goods containers.
For your edification, those cheap little cartoonish mouse traps hurt a LOT when they snap on your finger. I managed to set two of them before remembering I'd need my fingers to play my guitar later this evening. The kids have checked the traps approximately every two minutes since we set them; we'll see how many volunteers step up when it comes time to empty the traps.