That's even hard to type!



More photos from the aquarium here.

As promised, the story of the "pretend" flower girl.

We spent the weekend (and some time before that) making sure that Melanie was excited for her role as the flower girl at TracyMarc's wedding. Then at the rehearsal we finally got to walk down the aisle and practice throwing our flower petals. However we didn't have a basket or flowers petals so we had to pretend. We walked down the aisle a few times, and again before the pictures, pretending to throw our flowers on the ground.

See where this is going yet?

So Melanie finally gets her basket as we line up for the procession. Laura and I precede Melanie and when we get up to the chupah we turn around to see Melanie coming down the aisle, all smiles but concentrating very hard. So much so that she wasn't bothering to actually throw the flower petals on the aisle. She was just pretending to do so!

As we recessed, Laura and I grabbed her from Grandpa Bob to walk out with us. About two-thirds of the way back up the aisle she dropped half her flower petals and stopped right then and there to pick them up. Then at the top of the aisle she grabbed a peppermint from the table as her reward for a job well done. Evidently we promised it to her, though neither Laura nor I remember doing so. All we could think about was her ruining her beautiful white dress, but she was very careful and enjoyed her spoils.



One other thing... Melanie had her first hair cut! As the flower girl, she had her hair did with the bride...



...bridesmaids and immediate family. She was the perfect client and even got a gold barrette that matched the one in her mother's hair.



As you can see, the results were great. Check out the fabulous hair in the following photo.



Melanie's curls look great too.

Tracy Anne Spitzberg, the daughter of Alicia D. Leff of San Antonio and Larry A. Spitzberg of Houston, is to be married Sunday to Marc Daniel Shedroff, a son of Elissa S. Shedroff and Steven H. Shedroff of Allentown, Pa. Rabbi Samuel M. Stahl will officiate at the Westin Riverwalk Hotel in San Antonio.

The bride, 33, will take her husband’s name. She is the managing director of staffing for the New Teacher Project in New York, a nonprofit organization that helps urban districts around the country recruit, train and place teachers. She works from her home in Palo Alto, Calif. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Shedroff, 33 is a manager of strategic partnership development at YouTube, working on licensing agreements for video content. He works in San Bruno, Calif. He graduated cum laude from Brandeis and received an M.B.A. from Penn.

Stay tuned for more photos as we collect and upload them. And you know you'll see a lot of the world's greatest "pretend" flower girl...



...along with an explanation of what that means.

Click here or on the photo to see a photo set from the girls' visit to Quail Botanical Gardens today. It was "Tales and Tunes" Tuesday and the girls loved every minute of it. They played with bubbles, washed their hands (mostly Jenna on that one), listened to stories, and played with Zoe (pictured at the left) and others in the Bamboo Forest.

Who knew? You hear it on the traffic report and it sounds like "Forest Ranch". But nope, it's 4S Ranch. Here's a little history, and here are some photos from our morning with the Bermans at the 4S Ranch Sport Park.

There's always work at In-n-Out.

I love this photo of Zoe, Melanie, and Jenna at the Prado in Balboa Park. There are some other great photos in this pathway and at the fountain.

• Hi
• Uh oh
• Mommy (which often means "I want...")
• Daddy (which often isn't directed at me)
• Doggie
• Bird(y)
• Book
• Shoes
• Milk
• Juice
• Please
• Up/Out
• No
• Yeah
• Cheese
• Ow
• Boot
• Moo
• Hippo & Mop (thanks to TMBG)
  
• Door
• Cookie
• Cracker
• Boo boo (which means poo poo)
• Head, Knee, Eye, Ear, Mouth, Nose
  
• Ball
• Bar
• Feet
• Paper
• Puppy
• Baby
• Turtle
• Train

We also wave, blow kisses, gives hugs and kisses, wipe our nose with a tissue and throw it away in the trash, wash our hands (with or without actual soap and water), and put our finger to our mouth and say "Shhh!".

(photo taken by Granny Franny @ J.W. Tumbles)