bella is 4

Bella turned 4 yesterday!  To celebrate, we went on a field trip with Bella's grandma and aunt who were visiting.  A lovely time was had by all, especially those who got to eat cake lollipops handmade by Nina!

We rode the BART and the F train to Fisherman's Wharf

Where we went to the Bay Aquarium.  Discounts for Bay Area Discovery Museum members (us) and SF Zoo members (Nina).  Hooray!

The Bay Aquarium main attraction is two giant tanks that you walk through, and some other displays as well.  As you might guess from the name, it focuses on fish and animals that actually live in the bay.

Meanwhile, Buster slept.

The girls snacked on goldfish at the aquarium.  Is that wrong?

Buster eventually woke up and enjoyed the aquarium.  He had the perfect seat, since he could recline and see the tank all around him!

They have a couple of nice touch pools.  This one is a tide pool, and the girls worked up their courage to touch starfish, anemones, and sea cucumbers.  The other touch pool has sharks and rays - the girls were not up to that one, but Nina and I were very impressed.  :)

Then it was back to Bella's house for tacos and cake sharkpops and lollipops (delicious!) and a little bit of gift opening.  We gave Bella a shark shirt where you cross your arms in front of you and that makes the shark's mouth.  So cool!

I think Buster wanted a cake pop, but sorry Buster!  I'm not ready to give you all that sugar yet.  You need to be... 40, like me, and then it's perfectly alright.  You could even eat a few.  :)

Raider's day

Going to the game!

paz y libertad

para los ninos de todo el mundo
queremos paz y libertad
paz, queremos paz y libertad
en este mundo

for the children of the world
we want peace and freedom
peace, we want peace and freedom
in this world

yes, Charli sings spanish hippie songs.

sit

Today was the first time I saw Buster sit up by himself and take both his hands off the floor.  Previously he has been able to move around and then turn over and get his butt on the ground, but he always kept one hand on the floor, tripod style.  No longer!

our tribute to steve jobs

It was only one night!

For Mariposas weekend we decided we would make that a Charli thing - especially since my parents arrived on Friday and I didn't want to leave them all alone for the whole weekend...  So we left Buster with them.

I don't know what they did to him, but when we got home he was really truly crawling (when we left he could barely get a hand-hand-knee-knee combo), and he was babbling, too!  It was only one night!  He wasn't supposed to change that much!  Now how can we ever leave again?

Mariposas weekend

One of the parents at Charli's playschool knows a little vacation spot up in the Russian River Valley, and we planned a weekend for the kids and families to hang out.

The place was great.  There was enough room for 7 families, although we had a bit of attrition due to sick kids. There was also a play structure, a pool with a little kid area, a hot tub, a zip line, a little stage (we didn't use it, and there were rings and a little trapeze up there), a chicken coop, a tree house (didn't notice that until we were about to leave), and some rope things with handles to swing from.  We all had a great time!

See more pictures here: Las Mariposas weekend

And the rope swing in action (I love Kaleya on the side):