How was your fourth? I started the day thinking that I’d share a recipe. But then we noticed Isabelle had a fever. I thought she felt warm next to me the night before. She spent the day complaining she was cold and laying in bed. So, we were fully expecting to spend the rest of the day at home.

But then around 9pm while Alan was watering the plants (to cool them off from the heat) Isabelle heard fireworks going off. She wanted to see them. And at this point she was up and in the backyard.

So we hopped into the car and on the drive down I checked the times. According to the website it looked like the fireworks had already started and there was a good chance we would miss them. But we kept driving and luckily we caught the tail end.

We didn’t have the best view. Everywhere was crowded. There were trees in the way but we could see the fireworks.

It was Nathan’s first time. He was quite fascinated. And yes he’s just in a diaper. We were in a rush as we left and didn’t even bother grabbing his shoes. So yep that was our fourth. And today Isabelle is still not feeling well.

Exactly a month ago (and I know this because of twitter), we got a twin bed for Isabelle to sleep in. Wait for it…

To sleep in, IN HER OWN ROOM. BY HERSELF!

She was quite excited. We let her choose her own sheets, pink of course. We got her some wall stickers. We got her a special little mushroom night light. And she actually went to sleep in it! Unlike her first move from our bed to her toddler bed.

And yes getting her to sleep involved me laying down next to her until she fell asleep. Then I crept away and went to my bed to co-sleep with Nathan. And, yes, Alan did spend the night on the floor in her room. We just wanted to be sure she’d be ok and didn’t wake through the night wanting us.

As I said, she did sleep through the night just fine. However she woke up in the morning a little sad and on the verge of crying looking for me. Oh yeah…woke up at freaking 7 a.m., which she NEVER or rarely ever does.

So, yep. Slept on her own. Is that the end of the story? Nope. More for another time.

Last week was Alan’s birthday. And I’m getting to the pictures now.

This year I didn’t have anything planned. Well, I did have an idea but Alan was home all the time and I couldn’t really surprise him with anything. Isabelle wanted to get him flowers and make him a little book.

But when Alan woke up with us we couldn’t really just take off without him. So, we made the decision to go somewhere fun for Isabelle. And what would a five year old like on her half birthday? (Because, yes, it was her half birthday, she’s now five and a half.) Traintown!

We’ve never been to Traintown before. Thanks for the suggestion Wendy! Isabelle had a blast.

She enjoyed the train ride and the cute tiny little town that was a stop off along the route.

I only wish we could have stayed in the tiny little town longer. I only got to take pictures of a few of the buildings on one side. I didn’t get to explore the other side at all before the train conductor hollered, “all aboard!!”.

I guess we could have bought tickets and rode again but…but we didn’t.

We didn’t ride again because Isabelle was too eager to explore the rest of the park. Very eager. So eager that she bypassed the carousel and opted for the ferris wheel instead. She was fearless while I was fearful. I held on for dear life. Well, with one hand. The other needed to take a picture.

And, yes, there was a lot of “aaaack don’t rock” thrown about up there by me. When we got off Isabelle said to Alan, “mama was scared! But I wasn’t.”

But were we done then? Nope. We decided to go for a boat ride. It could have been a plane ride. We were driving through Sonoma when we saw a sign for plane rides. I told Alan to pull over to check it out. But that would have been crazy. They were biplanes. Open cockpits and little kids do not go together.

So, we continued onto Vallejo for a boat ride across the bay. But being a commuter boat they had a limited schedule. We had just missed the boat. We could have waited around for an hour but instead we opted to drive into San Francisco. Whoo we were all over the place that day. And it worked out perfectly. We napped on the way there. Well everyone except Alan of course, he was driving. I fell asleep and it was the quickest drive down to Pier 39 ever, well from a sleeper’s point of view, that is. I didn’t even know there was traffic. And when we arrived we were right on time to ride one of the Bay cruises on the Blue and Gold fleet.

It was the kids’ first boat ride. It was new and fascinating for Isabelle.

Nathan just took it in stride. For him it was probably just a strange, windy, rocking outing. He didn’t know it was his first time on a boat.

It was pretty cool. I cannot remember if I’ve done it before. They had something playing in the background, a recording. Some narration thing that I’m sure I would have enjoyed immensely, because I’m nerdy that way, if only I could have heard it. The gabby people on the boat were too loud and I only heard snatches of it.

After our little adventure we headed home for CAKE! I can’t ever seem to make a pretty cake.

But it was yummy.

And that was our day of trains, planes, and automobiles. I mean trains, boats, and automobiles.

I’m popping in super quick to share some pictures from last week. We went to an exhibit, Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey, with our homeschool group. And I’m not going to write much because Nathan is super grumpy. His tummy has been upset for days.

I wish I could have taken pictures of their work. It was lovely. I particularly liked seeing some of their handmade greeting cards. But since we couldn’t take pictures this was the only shot I got of the exhibit, around the corner and outside. Can you see the house in there?

If you are interested, you can find out more about the Reys in this little interactive doodad. I can’t think of the word to call it. They had it at the museum.

And that was basically it at the museum. Really, when you can’t take pictures there are no pictures to share. So, here we are outside the museum.

And then at a playground by the museum.

And riding a carousel also in the general vicinity of the museum.

It was Nathan’s first time!