Should I Take The Plunge?

The Peanut has wavy, straggly hair that tangles easily. I am seriously pondering this pixie cut for her. Of course if she gets her hair chopped then she'll have to get her ears pierced so we can avoid any confusion. Any thoughts?

Tahoe

Fresh air, water that tastes good straight from the tap, breathtaking views, chilly lake water and warm sun. We love Tahoe! The whole Fishbein clan was there: 2 grandparents, 5 grown-up kids (minus Shane), 5 spouses and 8 3/4 grandkids.

We had to change venues this year since the family is growing.

Sage & Sadie, on the drive to Tahoe...cruising along with some Raffi on the Ipod

Sage was in no mood for pictures this day

Grandma & Grandpa taking a paddle on the canoe that Sean built.


Cora entranced by Lindsay's violin solo


Nate (aka Nate-O Potato) with his daddy Dave


Sean was nice (read: brave) enough to take all these kiddies out on the paddle boat

Listen Up

Just discovered Priscilla Ahn and I think she will be our new winding down, night-time soundtrack. Listen up here.

A Child's Prayer

In Sage's prayers when she asks for something she says, "yank you" (thank you) in place of "we ask thee." Here is an excerpt from a prayer this week:

"Yank you that mommy will have a big, BIG baby."

Saturday is a Special Day....

We spent the morning at Crescent Beach. We always enjoy C.B because there's free parking and a bathroom and sometimes we get to see seals being released into the wild. It was a seal release morning so the beach was buzzing with little Brownies (seal sponsors) and their parents. It just so happened that the one of the seals was named Sage. Sage the Seal was a bit hesitant and it took her quite a while to decide to return to her watery home (see photo). In an effort to scare us away from the seals (I think) one of the ladies from the Seal Rescue place told us that these seals will bite when scared (no big surprise)...but not just any bite..."a bone-crushing bite." Woah. We stayed away.

A kind diver stopped by our beach blanket and told me that Sage was, "very sweet" and gave her a conch shell he had found diving. That made my day and Sage's too.


Today was also Reward Day for Sage (she stopped sucking her fingers). We got Zoomar's (petting farm) and ice cream in but the train (Amtrak) wasn't on our schedule so we'll have to try again soon. It was her 2nd time ever enjoying the creamy, cold goodness of ice cream. We whizzed some fresh strawberries up in the blender and poured over the vanilla ice cream...yum, yum.

Listen Up

Any friend of Jack's (that's Jack Johnson) is a friend of ours. And so that means we love ALO, a band Jack signed to his own label. They make fun, easy on the ears, cruising along on a road trip kind of tunes. Listen up here.

P.S. Check out their MySpace page and listen to Plastic Bubble and Girl I Wanna...

28

Last Thursday I turned 28. It was a lovely day from start to finish. Shane and Sage made spelt pancakes for breakfast and I blew out my candles with Sage's help. My gift arrived later that morning...my dear friend Amy Robinson came to spend a few days! We are so alike it's scary. We ranted and raved about life, laughed ourselves silly, cried (as we watched a movie on natural birth) and stayed up into the wee hours of the morning catching up. We also managed to squeeze a couple beach trips and a shopping trip in. Amy is a great shopping partner...she's got style and she's honest. Elle (4), Ava (2) and Sage got along beautifully and played non-stop.


Two of my favorite things are eating and talking with Shane; I picked a birthday dinner that included lots of both. We took full advantage of our free babysitter and went to La Fondue in San Juan Capistrano and enjoyed a fabulous meal that stretched to almost 3 hours. We had the Stinking Rose Cheese Fondue (garlic, garlic and more garlic), yummy meats and a bittersweet chocolate fondue. We rolled ourselves out of there and walked through the lovely, sleepy town and then headed home....stuffed full of food and good conversation.

A New Name

Sage was flipping through some new animal flash cards and she came upon this picture:

"Das called a bed head bird."

Listen Up

As Sage and I sat reading in Border's recently we heard Kate Walsh....it was love at first listen. Mellow and oh so lovely. Listen up here.