Life With Ella

Soccer season is starting here and believe it or not…Ella is actually on a soccer team.  The team is called the Black Widows and the jersey is supposed to be just fabulous.  I am going to try to attach a draft of the jersey that was sent to us a few days ago…Here it is…pretty cool huh?  The girls should have their shirts by next week.  The practice was completely adorable.  Sunny is one of the coaches and for as much as she knows about baseball, she knows nothing about soccer.  The kids were great, the coaches were great and most importantly, Ella loved it.  It’s a great group of kids and this team thing is great for them.After the practice, we went and got an early dinner.  Early as in 5:00 – like I wish I had an early bird coupon.  We all needed to turn in early but obviously I am having a few difficulties doing that.  Sunny and Ella have been sleeping for a while now.  Here are some cute pictures from the practice.  They really don’t need captions because most of them are just of Ella being Ella.  She loves the equipment that goes with the game of soccer…cleats, shin guards, tall socks, soccer shorts and of course, the jersey. Here are some soccer shots – video to follow sometime over the weekend.  Love that Ella has her soccer shorts on over her pink and gray leggings. Playing in the park right by the soccer field. Happy and hungry child at dinner. Still playing – kickin’ it down the hall.

Ella did not have on a strapless dress…the shirt was built into the lovely dress.  I got my computer back so now I can post the video from last night.  Ella was so excited and into her dancing and singing.  At one point she fell when she was trying to do a turn – Sunny kind of laughed and Ella was clear about telling her not to laugh at her.  She’s just so cute and enthusiastic.  Unfortunately, Ella must have inherited my dancing abilities because she needs a little help.  Ella had a great day at school and tonight we went to the game.  The Giants just couldn’t pull off a win against the Dodgers.  Oh well…we’ll get ’em tomorrow night. Ella experimenting with beans this morning before I left the classroom. Here we all are at the game.Now for the video – it’s a bit long, but totally worth it.

We had a great weekend in the great outdoors.  Saturday in Oakland, Sunday in Gilroy and today in San Francisco.  Today we went to Golden Gate Park, got a pedal boat, went around Stowe Lake, fed some huge carp or coy and had a little picnic.  I took Ella to the pool for family swim at around 4:30 and then we all met Debby and Toby at the Public House for dinner.  The Giants are doing great and we are getting excited about possibly having a post season here in San Francisco. Total nerds with the self-timer on the pedal boat. Ella feeding bread to the giant coy.  What a fun day.

Today we went to Gilroy Gardens with the Kim/Arena clan.  The weather was beautiful, the place was really sweet, the kids were wonderful the adults were somewhat well behaved (just kidding) and we had a great time.  It was nice to be somewhere local where none of us had ever been.  Ella of course had a blast being with her best buddies.  Ella loved all the rides and she loved the water part of the park too.  I have a lot of pictures to post now. We drove out there in separate cars – at this very moment, Ella spotted the Kim/Arenas walking through the parking lot. Sweet Stella. KJ getting comfortable in his stroller. Waiting on line for the strawberry ride. Walking to the next ride. Having fun on the fish ride. Ella hitched a ride with KJ. So sweet. Firetruck fun.  Giving high fives to mommy. FUn fun fun at the water park.  THe kids loved getting the water dumped on their heads and Ella loved the slide.  At one point, a big kid accused her of cutting (she didn’t – I was watching the whole thing) and she looked him straight in the eye, put up her fist and said, “I DID NOT CUT”.  He kind of looked at her in shock and turned around.  At least we know that Ella can take care of herself! Dippin’ dots. Ella making a wish.  I asked her what her wish was and she said that she wished for the rest of her Annie costume to arrive. Here we are on the apple and the worm ride. Our last ride – a very sweet boat ride that was way too short and the line to get on the ride was way too long but we all still had a sweet ride.  The kids were more patient than the adults! Last shot of the day…Ella and her new duck that she named Lilah.

Ella was excited to go to school today.  That made us feel so good because we were excited for her to go to school too!  Ella had no problem with me leaving the classroom and was excited when I came to get her.  I asked her what the best part of her day was and she said, “Miss Alicia – being back in Miss Alicia’s class!”  Ella reported that many of the new kids cried and cried and I reminded her that she did the same thing her first year.  After school, we went out to dinner in the Castro with Donna and Nikki B.  After dinner Ella was taking a walk with mommy and saw a salon – it was a nail salon but Ella thought it was where you can get your hair cut.  She can’t get her hair cut there, but we all got a kick out of the name. A huge preschool smile. Doing some math with her buddy Clark.Nikki B, Ella and Donna after a delicious dinner. This is the place where Ella wants to get her haircut.  Oy Vey.

Today we went to the day game with my aunt, uncle, cousin and his 2 daughters.  Ella loves Bronwen and Georgia (her cousins) and they have lots of fun together.  They don’t get to see each other a lot because they live in NY.  At first, we were getting killed but by the 8th inning we were making a comeback and had the lead but then lost the lead in the 9th.  The final score was 12 – 11 (The Reds won) in the 12th inning.  What an exciting game…just wish that we had won.  The girls got into the game and I got some cute video of the cheers.  After the game, we had dinner at Eliza’s and continued to have a great time.Georgia, Ella and Bronwen at Mijita. Crazy happy Ella who wanted to get my camera away from me.  She did and here is what it looked like. Crazy mama. Mommy with crazy David behind her. Sweeet Aunt Abigail. Happy aunt Abigail and Uncle Ray Ray. Kooky Bronwen and Georgia. David and the girls. Ella and Georgia having fun. The beautiful wonderful Ella. Cousins at the end of dinner.

Today one of the neighborhood kids had a birthday party at Alta Plaza Park.  Cassidy, the birthday girl was turning 3, but she’s tall enough to be Ella’s age.  Ella loves this park so she had a blast.  She went on one thing that she was afraid to go on the last time so I thought that was great that she got past her fear.  After the party, we hung around at home.  None of us were used to so much beautiful weather in one day!  We went out later to stop by at an adult birthday party and then had dinner at Pasta Pomodoro.  We bumped into Debby, Toby and Rachel there and had a really fun dinner with them.  What a great full day.  Bug hasn’t been doing so well this weekend so we are just going to watch her and figure out what she needs next.  This is really sad.  We have been talking about it in front of Ella so that she isn’t shocked when Bug eventually dies.  So far she seems ok with the whole thing.  Hopefully Bug will hang with us for a little longer.  She’s a great dog. Climbing high up to the clear blue sky. This was not really a fair balance – I was sitting on the other side of this. Ella is not having any fun at all. A vision of happiness. This was the thing that Ella was afraid of.    She walked all the way across it! Ella and Cassidy, the birthday girl, zipping down the slides. At home,  Ella threw this blanket over Sunny’s back and decided that she was her elephant from Egypt. Always having lots of fun together.

Today I took Ella to Pump It Up for a classmate’s birthday party.  Ella hadn’t seen some of her buddies for a while and it seemed like she had a great time.  Ella went on every bouncy thing there and had a lot of fun.  We spent some time together on my favorite wall with small squares of velcro.  You’re supposed to run up and put a flag on one of the little squares and then also be able to get it down.  I tried and tried and could not get the flag that I wanted!  After the birthday party, Sunny and Ella took a scooter ride all the way down the channel.  They ended up on the sandy volleyball court and Ella had fun playing in the sand.  Tonight, when Ella was going to sleep, she told me that she didn’t want to go to camp tomorrow.  I asked her why and she said that she wanted to stay with me.  I told her that it’s true, we have had a lot of fun this summer and had some great times, but she had to remember that she has so much fun at camp and school.  Ella is going through a transition and we’ll just have to ride it with her.  Hopefully the drop off will be ok tomorrow. On the way to Jun-Yen’s party at pump it up. THis is the wall that kills me.  Ella has fun putting the flags on the bottom row and taking them off, but she gets really angry when other kids take them off.  I told her that it’s all part of the game. Ella and her buddies working the wall.  Brickelle had a cool method of climbing up the side sideways.  Sam was really sweet and shared his flags with Ella. Here I go trying to get the blue flag… Oh – so close…but I never got it. Ella and some of her classmates. Having a drink after a hard hour of working out. Brickelle, Bella and Ella.  They will all be in different classes next year, but I’m sure they will stay buddies.

This morning, we met our friend Erik for brunch at Sears for some great pancakes and stuff.  This evening, we met Debby, Toby and Rachel for a delicious dinner at Liberty Cafe.  It was great to see them – it had been a long time.  The pleasant surprise is that Sunny took Ella to observe a Taekwondo class at our gym.  I stayed home because I had stuff to do around the house.  About 10 minutes after the class started, Sunny texted me a photo of Ella bowing with the rest of the class.  The teacher invited her in and she was totally into it.  I took the train down and observed her in the rest of the class.  First of all, she’s the youngest, and she’s the smallest, but I have to say, this kid has focus.  She knew nothing about the taekwondo in the beginning of the class.  In an hour and 1/2, she really learned a lot and worked hard.  She was so cute.  The teacher invited her back so it looks like Ella will be doing taekwondo every Saturday from 3 – 4:30.  Sounds like a nice time for me to play squash.Here are a few pictures and then a video from today. Ella busy in class.Now here’s the video…notice the improvement in just one hour.

Today was a sunny beautiful day – not so hot, but at least it was Sunny.  I went into work for a little while to check in and see if I had a job and then Ella and I took her scooter around our neighborhood.  First we went to tall mountain and then we went around the track.  Ella had a lot of fun on Tall Mountain, jumping down it, climbing down it, and rolling down it.  Ella took the camera and started taking shots or birds and stuff.  She took some great shots.  Tonight, Ella went to Stella, Juliet and KJ’s for dinner and a movie and Sunny and I went to the ballgame with Alicia and her husband Allen.  We had a lot of fun.  It was great to just hang out and talk and watch the game.  The Giants didn’t have such a great time, however.  We need to win the next 2 games this weekend. Ella riding her scooter down Berry Street. Rolling and jumping. Ella’s nature shots. Me and the wonderful Ms. Alicia. Sunny and her new boyfriend Allen – Alicia’s husband. Alicia and her favorite parents.