Skyler signs his own name on all of his art

We picked him up from school and his teacher told us that he decided from now on to write his name on all of his papers and art BY HIMSELF (usually the teacher writes each child's name on it for them or you couldn't tell them apart). She showed us a sample on a fabulous new piece by Skyler, Caterpillar, and you can tell it says S-K-Y-L-E-R! His letters were a little shaky and his K was backwards, but we knew what it was.

He has been practicing writing out his letters and numbers and they're looking good. I can't wait until he can write us little stories!

Sonoma County Fair & Snowball the Cow

We all took a drive up to Sonoma to go the County Fair. We went on rides, (Skyler loved the giant wavy slide), walked around the booths, all selling the oddest mix of stuff (flashy jewelry, frying pans, hot tubs and snake oil), and ate tons of food - apparently people will buy anything if you put it on a stick, I had "Egg Roll-on-a-Stick", WHY!? an egg roll is so hard to hold that it needs a stick? We had yummy greasy tacos, garlic fries and too much ice cream.

We played the Arcade Games: tossing ping-pong balls into little fishbowls, throwing darts to pop balloons, ring toss over cheap glassware. Nana is a pro at darts and won a giant Teddy Bear!

My favorite part was the farm animals. The 4-H kids brought their livestock out to be judged and one beautiful black and white cow named Snowball had a corner stall so we could get up close to her. We got to feed her hay and pet her; she had a big pink nose and sweet brown eyes. She had this fancy trick of sticking her tongue up her nose and somehow this did not detract from her charm. I definitely need to get some farm animals someday - and some 4-H help keeping the stalls & pens clean, you couldn't smell a thing but hay!

Skyler got a blow-up space ship that is as tall as he is and he now runs all around the house "flying" through outer space.

"It's a Bloody Earthquake!!" said Sharon

We had our first earthquake in our 'new' house and everything SHOOOOK. I got scared and ran into Skyler's room shouting "Earthquake!" He asked me what an "Earth Great" was and then started crying because I was scared. Matt wasn't home - he was getting his award and pictures taken for the Guardian's Best of the Bay (band and club) - and he didn't even feel the quake. Nothing broke, but I was surprised at how much everything shook and rumbled with only a 4.4 earthquake. We are 'prepared' with our store of water, food, flashlights, radio & batteries, etc. but I still feel like we need to do more. I guess a small one is a good warning for us all to get it together for "The BIG One".

Our friends, Sharon, from Scotland, and Nancy, from Texas, experienced their first quakes - welcome to California! Nancy asked if our houses are going to fall down in a bigger one. I told her that they won't (?) but be prepared for everything inside to fall and break. It's good to be prepared....