Barely...

...staying afloat. That's how I feel right now. But we are afloat, and that's the important thing!
Let's see- I think I missed all of August as far as blogging goes, and we're about half way through September, eh?
We had a blast at the Giants game. We opted for a foam hand rather than the originally requested cotton candy (gag).

Tupp had one of her "Cullen moments": she wanted to walk on her own without holding my hand. At one point she got a little trodden on by a lady and in shock she looked around for me. When she got to me I held her hand and said, "that's why we hold Mama's hand." She looked up at me and with a look of "oh yeah?" she promptly threw my hand aside. This girl has sass.

And speaking of sass, I decided to go through with it and go red. I've always wanted to be a redhead, and apparently I can pull it off since most people think it's my natural color. Ah, if only....

We did a couple of last fun things to end the summer. One was the Sonoma county fair. Cash did this assisted trampoline thing that takes you up really high. I was impressed, because he's usually more cautious, but he did great and really liked it. We also went on the Ferris Wheel together and got to see the flower exhibit and animals. The other thing we did was rent a boat out on Lake Sonoma for a couple of hours. We packed up the kids and some snacks and headed out to toodle around the lake. We LOVED it!

One of my things I've decided to make a priority are my crafts. I haven't made much of anything for over a year- I think I've forgotten how to knit and what little I knew about crocheting. So on Sunday's I make a bit of time for a project. My latest completion is this quiet book. These pictures aren't of the finished versions, but I have an anatomy page, jack-o-lantern face, lacing and tying, tic tac toe, counting/numbers and buttoning page.

Last night I finished the sofa and bed for Cash's dollhouse for his birthday (one shelf of a bookcase) and the prototype for the finger puppets for his class for his birthday. A lot of kids in his class have dietary restrictions and the school requires you bring non homemade food items. For some reason I can't bring myself to buy a bunch of store bought cupcakes, and since some of the kids can't even eat them I figured I'd whip out some finger puppets instead. I've also made handkerchiefs and slippers for Cash for his pre-K class. 

Here he is on the third day of school. The new sign didn't go up until the third day- I actually have a picture of him on the first day in front of the old sign, but the sign itself is rather pathetic (letters falling off, etc.) And really, what's a couple of days difference? We made sure he knew where the bathroom was, I had Clay take him to use it before we dropped him off. And I was successful in not crying in front of him. He had a great time and was even excited that his teacher said he could come back the next day. On the third day he was crying at pickup because he thought his teacher was stealing his school supplies (she kept them at school so he wouldn't have to cart them back and forth in his backpack). Needless to say, we now have a whiteboard and markers at home as well at school. For the most part he loves school and is learning so much- by the third day he was using French freely in his playtime. He counts up to 19 in French and is learning the days of the week. He is definitely teaching me. I love that they are teaching them within application rather than on worksheets. So every morning they count the number of children, the number absent, the number of lunches and figure out how many hot lunches need to be ordered. They each have a duty and that rotates each week. One week he was the weather reporter. This week he jingles the tambourine when it's time to gather. There is classical music while they play and eat their lunch, which they all eat together around the table. They sing and play hard. It' s a long day and Cash has been quite exhausted. We are adjusting our schedule again hoping that that will help. We had a very rough week last week, but after a heartfelt conversation it seems as if we are back on track. Transitions are always a little trying.

 The latest prego picture. Carrying it all in front, again. We've gotten several guesses, but personally I can never tell since the pregnancies aren't that different. I confess I eat more ice cream and cookies with this one, but that's purely due to my lack of self control.

 Cindy, Kate and Ryan and their two little boys came to visit San Francisco. We went down to see them for a couple of hours. These were the most entertaining shots of the bunch.

 Our other recent visitors were Auntie Stacey and Uncle Ben. We were glad we got to see them but are sorry that our schedule didn't allow for more time with them. Clay worked two weddings and was trying to catch up on office work so he didn't see them at all. Tuppy loves her Uncle Ben.

My cousin Dawn and her family were in town for a couple of days as her husband Tim was bicycling in the Tour de Fuzz race. We packed a picnic and played with them at the park by Lake Sonoma in Healdsburg for a couple of hours. I need to get pictures from that. I've kind of been slacking in the picture taking department lately. Getting lazy in my old age. :)

 Clay's been gone a lot with work in Nevada, weddings on the weekend (me too for that matter) and then office work in his spare time. I feel like a single parent, which I guess I am at the moment. It's hard, but amazingly we're keeping it together. The house isn't in too bad a shape, I'm behind like always on my editing, but what's really important are the wee ones. My soul is happy and at peace when they are loving and feel loved. So, in spite of our imperfect situation and moments, I am at peace.

Hoping you all know of our love for each of you and wishing you a happy season as we head into fall (yay)!