Life With Ella

Check out the video in this post.  I shot some cute videos at Ella’s ballet class on Tuesday and today I was able to watch about 5 minutes of Ella’s drum lesson.  She did a great job!

 Fun in ballet class!

I don’t know if I’ll be able to really catch up here.  Life has been a little hectic, but we all continue to have fun in the midst of chaos.  This weekend, we went to Tahoe with some friends from CDS. It was so relaxing and just what we all needed.  Ella had so much fun playing with Eli and Harry and Sunny and I had a great time with Arnie, Liz and Liz’s mom.  The kids went bike riding, swimming, watched movies, played games and the adults relaxed, did a big puzzle, had an adult only dinner and watched the kids play in the pool in 70º weather.  Ella has been having a blast at school and is writing up a storm.  Last week, Ella’s friend Emmi slept over and we took the girls to see Dolphin Tale.  One of Ella’s drawings below was inspired by the movie.

 Harry and Eli were very patient with Ella and were trying to teach her how to play pool.

 Ella was so happy to go swimming.

 Bike riding around.  Eli came up to meet us when Ella was taking a while to get back.

 Some down time watching the Aristocrats.

 Pics from last week…Ella and Emmi busy doing mosaics.

 An intense game of pick up snakes.

 Tic tac toe!

 This is a work of art that Ella did at school.  She had to draw about something that happened over the summer.  Ella wrote about losing a tooth.

 Ella did this at home with stencils after the movie a Dolphin’s Tale.  The dolphin’s name was Winter.  Here is the description that Ella told us about her picture…”This is called Discovery in the Sea.  The dolphin is Winter, the octopus is called Oct.  Under the waves is a fish named pretty, a dolphin called dolph and then I wrote beware on the two sharks.”  It all makes sense to me!  Great job Ella.

Here is a little movie of Ella and Eli in the pool over the weekend.

The beauty of life is love and we all have a lot of it in our lives.  I wish everyone a happy and  healthy new year.  For those who are fasting – I hope it’s easy.  Sunny and I went to Kol Nidre services tonight and Ella had a great time with Stella, Juliet, KJ and her next door parents Helen and Ron.  Ella has had a great week at school.  They are learning about math and in really beautiful ways.  If you want to glimpse into Ella’s classroom, e-mail me and I’ll give you the password to get into the School Site.  Here are some pictures of Ella from the past week.

 Some beautiful pictures of Ella doing ballet.  The video at the end is  really great too!

 Jumping rope in the rain.

 Having ginger ale last night at a rally for the SF Sheriff.

 Hungry after the fund raiser!  Nothing like pizza at 9:00pm on a school night.

 Blowing  a kiss for a beautiful day.

 This is Ella’s math/art work.  She is counting legs.  Ella got 6 legs.

 Another math question.  How many fingers does the girl on the swing have?  10!

Here are 2 videos at Ella playing at a drum store last weekend and one video of a ballet.

When we all arrived on the yard this morning, Ella showed us a new skill she’s been working on.  Ella has started to learn to jump rope at school.  The rope that she likes is way too long for her and she refuses to wrap it around her hand, but she’s managing pretty well.  There is a video of Ella jumping rope at the end of this entry.  Ella also showed us how she hula hoops and she is doing great!  I guess Ella has her own way of learning things and she keeps doing it and doing it until she feels confident.  I love the way she learns.

 Jumping rope in the morning.

 After assembly…waving and smiling at mommy.

Jumping rope in the afternoon.

 At Bi-Rite in the afternoon with her friends Tessa and Orly.

 Lighting the Shabbat candles with Juliet.  Mommy – I am so sorry I cut your head off!  I guess the camera on the phone is not as good as the real thing.

 Mommy and Stella cutting the challah.

On Sunday, we drove to San Jose with the Kim/Arena clan to spend a lovely day at an amuzement park zoo like thing.  It was a really sweet place – so easy with all the kids.  The kids went on rides, did some climbing, checked out animals and had the best time.  I’m going to post some fun shots and then a funny video.

 Carousel…just like the good old days.

Ronnie and KJ picked the boat.

 Ella loves this swing!

 Riding the Danny the Dragon train.

 All four kids squished into one bug.  Ella volunteered to ride with KJ.  She really loves him.

 The Frog Hopper!  Don’t forget to watch the video at the end of the post.

 Ella still loves riding in these silly little cars.

All the kids (including Ron) with Danny the dragon.

 This was part of the lemur exhibit.

 Ella found a sweet goat to brush in the shade.

 Ella’s latest artwork.

 Although it was a little difficult to wake Ella up this morning, she was so excited to go to school this morning and so excited to schlep her big back pack!

 Our kindergartener on the CDS school uard.

 Ella was so excited to go on the monkey bars this morning.  She can now finally go across with Brickelle and Emmi.

Ella getting ready to line up annd go into the big building.

 Ella and her buddies Clark, Dillon and Torin.

The time is flying by.  Ella is now in soccer camp every day and loving it.  A lot of kids from her school are also at the camp so she is having a lot of fun.  Before and after camp, Ella loves playing at this park.  Mommy has been taking Ella and picking her up from camp.  Today she shot some great video of Ella on the monkey bars.  Ella seems to have new strength. She told Sunny that she learned her new monkey bar technique at gymnastics camp.  So happy she’s been learning such great stuff this summer.  Here are some pictures from the past 6 days or so…

 All smiles at Rock Band Land camp.

 Beautiful Ella a few hours after the performance.

 Ella hanging at the pool and hot tub in Cazadero this weekend where we spent Michael’s birthday.

 Ella helped out with Phyllis and MIchael’s dog Artie.

 Looks like a serious game of fruit ninja going on.

 Michael trying to blow out his trick candles.  Phyllis thinks it’s funny.

 Ella really thought it was funny.  Seems like Charlie and Hannah were bored and mommy was slightly entertained.

 First day of soccer camp…big smile at 9:00 in the morning.

 Playing with the big kids on a cool swing.

Ella and mommy were the first ones to arrive this morning.  Ella had a blast on the swing.

An early morning climb for Ella and her friend Maya.

More fun times on the big swing.

This has been such a busy week.  I went back to work and Ella had gymnastics camp all week.  Ella loved gymnastics camp and there are some pictures and 2 videos that mommy took during Ella’s gymnastics performance today.    I was stuck at the retina specialist and found out I have Central Retinal Vein Occlusion.  I have a follow up appointment in a month so stay tuned… Tonight, we went over to the Kim/Arena’s for Friday night movie night.  Ella lost her first tooth during Friday night movie night!  Ella’s tooth was really wiggly and she kept playing with it.  All of a sudden, Ella was like, “Look! My tooth came out!”  She said that she was wiggling it and it got stuck and then she tried to wiggle it back and it came out!  Very exciting night.  So great that she was with her buddies when it happened.

 I took these pictures at around 6:30 tonight.  Ella’s tooth was so wiggly…we knew that it was just a matter of time before…

 Ella’s tooth came out!

 Here is Ella’s sweet little tooth.  It is now in possession of the tooth fairy.  Ella will wake up to 2 gold dollar coins.

Ella doing an amazing job at gymnastics camp.

This morning, mommy, Ella and I went into Brooklyn to spend some time with our friend Tina.  We hung out, had a great brunch and had a great time.  Right as we were leaving, Ella got a very special treat.  Ella and Tina took Tina’s cat Moses for a walk! After our brunch we went back to NJ where we were greeted by Milo, AJ, uncle Michael and grandma. We all went to the Leonia pool where Ella achieved another milestone. Ella passed the deep water test and she went down the slide and went off the diving board.  The Leonia pool is 12 feet deep in the diving/sliding well.  Ella was very nervous about taking the test.  I decided to take her into the lane that went all the way to the 12 foot area just so she could get used to it.  While we were swimming, Barbara, the woman who runs the pool yelled for me. Barbara was my gym teacher from 5 – 8 grade and she now runs the rec and pool for the town.  She was a great teacher and she loved having me for a student.  She was watching Ella swim and she said, “Lauren, she passed the deep water test!  Get her a bracelet and let her go down the slide!”  Ella took the slide and diving board like a pro.  We were all there to witness this except papa.  Papa has been on a golf trip with his good friends since Wednesday.  He came home while we were at the pool and Ella was so proud to tell him about it.  We celebrated today by the whole family going out to Kiku.  We had a great hibachi dinner.  The kids loved watching the chef create our dinner.  It was a great day and a great night. Ella, Tina and Moses walking the streets of Park Slope. Ella and her deep water bracelet. Approaching the end of the diving board. Swimming to the ladder in 12 feet of water! The beautiful Leonhart family.Ella had so much fun jumping off the diving board!  She would run from one end to the other and leap! Sunny took these great shots of me diving off the diving board.  I have been going off this board since I was about 8 years old! Complete love and happiness. The kids were mesmerized by the chef. The adults were pretty mesmerized too!Milo was in great spirits at the end of the night even though it was way past his bedtime! Ella did some serious firefly catching with mommy tonight.