Life With Ella

We’ve all had a wonderful time together.  Happy New Year.  Grandma and papa are leaving in the early afternoon.  We can’t believe how fast this week flew by!  We love you and will miss you.  Can’t wait for February.  Here are some pictures of the past few days.

 Ella and AJ having a jam session.

 Ella and Milo were treated to some rather large cookies and peanuts outside of AT&T park.

 Waiting on a long line for a cable car ride.

 The most special love in the world.

The Leoanharts on the cable car.

 Science experiments with grandma.

 Panda and Ella having a sleepover party.

Love the look of Milo weraring Ella’s Giants hat.

 Scootering cousins.

 Ella trying to bring Milo down the slide.  Mission not accpmplished, but at least she tried.

 Beautiful ELla.

 Kids playing some baseball in the little stadium.

 Ella’s cool slide.

 Get those children across the street!

 Ella at the aquarium.

Waiting on line for the bungee.  Oh – how much excitement there is!

 The kids did an amazing job bungee jumping.  Ella must have flipped at least 18 times and Milo just smiled and jumped and loved it.

 Heading down to the restaurant to bring in the new year.  Too bad the picture of me, Sunny and Ella isn’t so great.

 Big kids at the table.

 Fun with grandma.

 Running innocense.

 Happy Nw Year with love from the Schwartz/Obstbaum/Leonhart families.

 Sweet dreams angel.

Today was a beautiful day and a fun day and it ended up to be an incredible night with the Giants winning game 3 of the world series 2-0!  Sunny and I watched the game at home with Debby and Toby.  Ella went to a Halloween party with the Kim/Arena clan.  Ella had a great night and so did we!  Ella did some more sparring at Taekwondo today.  The kids are more than a foot taller than she is.  She was proud that she got a kick in.

 Ella is such a good sport!  She was trying pretty hard today.

 Ella’s beautiful face painting from the party tonight.

 Panda watched the World Series with his Giants jersey on.  He is no longer afraid of the big panda.

We started off the weekend having a delicious dinner at Koh Samui and the Monkey without Ella because Ella was having a movie night and sleep over with Juliet and KJ!  Everyone had a great night!  The Giants even beat the Dodgers.  On Saturday morning, We went to the CDS Welcome Picnic where I sold sweatshirts, Sunny talked to a number of parents, and Ella played!  On Saturday afternoon, Ella went back to TaeKwonDo.  She loved it agin and is going to stick with it during the school year.  We had dinner with my aunt and uncle on Saturday night at Eliza’s our favorite Chinese food restaurant in SF.  It was delicious.  This morning, Mommy went to spin class while Ella and I met up with Hanna and Megan for breakfast at the Crossroads cafe.  After breakfast Ella took a great bike ride – she is a changed rider for the best and then we went to the ballpark for Strike Out Violence Day.  It was a great day – great ceremony.

Ella and mommy heading to CDS for the Welcome Picnic.

 Ella getting ready for Taekwondo.

 Me and my fur son Panda.

 Mommy, Ella and panda chillin’.

 Mommy, Ella, Mommy’s new boss Wendy and our friend Julia.

 Ella getting to meet Jeremy Affelt.

 A moment of silence.

Ella, Stella and Juliet were in Rock band Land Camp this week.  They all worked really hard on writing a story, making it into a song and then performing it.  We had the pleasure and honor to see their performance today.  They were all outstanding!  Ella rocked the drums and Stella and Juliet rocked the vocals.  Here’s the video.  More pics later.

Ella, Stella and Juliet are in Rock Band Land Camp this week.  They are having  blast!  Ella loves having the girls at her school and the girls are meeting lots of Ella’s friends.  The band has a concert tomorrow (today if you’re reading this on Friday) and papa is coming to town in the afternoon.  He is going to get to see the performance and Ella is so excited for papa to see her and of course for Ella to see papa.  In a few days, we get to see the rest of the beautiful family – grandma, AJ, Milo and so many wonderful friends.  We’ll miss mommy but she’ll be joining us for a very long weekend so that is amazing.  Back to the music…last week, when we went to Benihana with Kristen and Emmi, Kristen got the girls little note pads.  They both started writing like crazy once we sat down.  Emma wrote a really sweet letter to Ella about being friends forever even though sometimes they get mad at each other, they really do love each other.  Ella said that she was writing a song but she didn’t want us to see it.  Of course, I snuck and read it and then was so blown away that I took a picture of it.  Here it is:

It says, “I love the sweet love that I, every morning wake up with.  It’s so rare for some people but I am going to fly.  I am going to fly but maybe temporary.  Whether I am shaped like a domino it doesn’t matter so I am going to fly,  I am”.  Deep stuff.  I admitted that I read it and she was a little mad but also really happy that I loved it so much.  She won’t tell me the melody.

When I went to pick the girls up from camp the other day, I couldn’t find them until I headed over to the farm.  They were all working hard raking hay.  Here are a few iPhone shots.

 OUr little urban farmers.

 In the beginning of the week, Panda ripped his fingernail almost off.  He had to get it removed.  Here he is post surgery.  He was pretty doped up, but still very sweet.

 Here is Ella seriously rehearsing her song from Friday.  She’s actually going to be drumming during this song.

We went to Gilroy Gardens today with Ella’s friend Marlowe and Marlowe’s mom.  We had a great time.  It warms my heart to see that Ella is still into going on silly kid’s rides with plenty of excitement.  It was really hot there today – 99º!  Here are some pics from the day.

 Beautiful Ella at the beginning of the day.

 Marlowe and Ella about to hit their first ride.

 The bouncing fish ride.

 See the little thrill in Ella’s face.

 On the artichoke ride.

 The caterpillar.

 Sweet Ella drove me around the track.  She was very serious about her driving.

I am super tired but wanted to post this.  Ella came to work with me today.  She had a blast.  She especially loved the 6th grade class.  She played drums with them, sang a few songs and interacted with them on such a mature level.  The kids love Ella.  After work, we met Ella’s friend Marlowe and her mom at Lucy Strike for some afternoon bowling.  After bowling, we met mommy ar the burger joint for dinner.  it was a really full day.

 Ella and some of my 6th graders.

 Here they are singing “Beautiful”

 Ella and the 6th s Grade group.  They were terrific.

 At Lucky Strike with Marlowe.

 Ella is quite the little bowler!

The Burger JOint with Marlowe.

 We started our weekend about to get a puppy and ended the weekend getting a small orange Prius.   It was time to give up the city car and we needed a second one.  It’s pretty cool!  This weekend, Ella Stella, Juliet and KJ friday night movie night and then the girls slept over.  It gets easier for them every week.  On Saturday, Ella had taekwondo, and then a birthday party and then she went and slept at Stella and Juliet’s.  Rumor has it, they had a blast.  Sunny and I spent some lovely time together and had dinner at Lucky Strike.  We didn’t bowl. but we had a lot of fun!  Today, Ella spent a big part of the day with helen and Ron (thanks you so much) while Sunny and I bought a second car.  Time to say goodbye to the city car.  After the car, Ella a had a playmate with her buddy Hannah from ballet.  Tonight we had a great dinner at Moki’s with Kate.  The end.

 Ella an Friday in the rain.  She loved her puddles.  Check out how deep the water was?!

 A very serious part of the sleep over.

SO much fun at Taekwondo.

Fun fun fun at Pump it up!

 We bought a new car today…an orange Prius.  It will be great second car.

Goodnight.

I want to share some video I shot during ELla’s winter performance.  It was absolutely beautiful and sweet and very meaningful for the kids.  We are off on our vacation adventure tomorrow and we can’t wait!

Happy thanksgiving everyone out there.  Hope everyone got what they needed today.  We had a great day.  We leisurely woke up, watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, went to see Happy Feet 2 in 3-D IMAX (a little too much) and then went out for dinner at the Crab house.  What a wonderful day to all be together.  We were home by 6 and we were all ready to go to sleep!  Ella played some games and we laughed and talked.  Now I am very tired.  Too tired to post this so I have also added Friday.  We can’t believe how the time has flown by.  It’s been so fantastic having grandma and papa here all week.  We love you guys.  Can’t wait for our family vacation in December.

Having a blast at Happy Feet 2.

 You can’t tell from these shots, but Ella did some seriously high jumping today.

 We all loved out delicious early dinner at the Crab House.  We all wore our bibs proudly.

Jesse and Heather came by for breakfast today and brought one of their dogs Shirley.  Ella loved getting to hold her.

 This afternoon, we went back to Pier 39 because Ella wanted to go to the aquarium with grandma and papa.  It’s funny how much Ella loves that place.

 Tonight we had dinner at Benihana.  These last few shots are of the people in the last shot singing happy birthday to Papa.  Check out Ella in these pictures.  She was seriously cracking up.  Papa was a great sport.  He normally would not like being the center of attention, but he just rolled with it.

 The Benihana family photo.

 After dinner, ELla, grandma and mommy played Wii Just Dance.  A great time had by all.