Life With Ella

Ella’s class is having a recital at the Disney Museum in the beginning of June and they started to rehearse for it today.  Laura the teacher had Ella head up the line.  Ella did a great job.  Check out the video. Fun at ballet. Ella made this stick bug in Tree Frog Treks today.  It’s really cute in real life.

This morning, Sunny was telling Ella that she wasn’t going to be home for dinner because she was volunteering at the ballgame to raise money for a Giants fan who was badly hurt at a Dodger game.   Sunny basically told her that there were some really badly behaving people who hurt this man for no reason at all.  She also explained that the Giants were raising money to help out his family with medical and life expenses.  I asked Ella if she wanted to donate some of her piggy bank money to help out the guy’s kids and she thought long and hard about it.  “OK, I will” said Ella.  I asked her if she thought $10 would be a good amount and she thought it was.  She came upstairs with me, took a $10 bill our of her piggy bank thing and gave it to Sunny.  Sunny told her that she was doing a “mitzvah”, a blessing.  I think Ella felt good about it.  Ella was in a great mood when I picked her up from school today.  They broke open an old honey comb at school today and found a bunch of dead bees in all different stages of “life” if you want to call it that.  She was really excited about everything that they found.  Ella also loved meeting a Ball Python at Tree Frog Treks.  Ballet was also great. I think Ella’s shirt is right…Girls WILL save the world. Paying close attention. Getting ready for a special dance move.

It’s been a very exciting 2 days of baseball at home.  The Giants had their home season opener on Friday.  Sunny and I went to the game and Ella had a sleepover at her friend Emily’s house.  It worked out perfectly for us because Emily’s mom picked Ella up from school and took her to their house.  The game went 12 innings and wasn’t over until 6:00 (it started at 1:35).  The game was great – fantastic win in the 12th inning.  Ella had a fantastic time at the sleepover and we picked her up this morning.  While in Noe Valley, we bumped into another one of her classmates and we had brunch with Dillon and his family.  Ella seemed really tired by the end of brunch and we asked her if she wanted to go to Taekwondo and she said “Yes!”  Although she was exhausted, she was fantastic in Taekwondo.  Check out the video.  Ella did 5 tornado kicks in a row!  Tonight, we stayed home and watched the game…another really exciting one down to the last moment.  We are taking Ella to the game tomorrow.  I hope it’s as exciting as the past 2 games have been.  If not as exciting, I’ll take an easy win. Sunny and me at the game on Friday. Instead of “fear the beard” I say shave the beard! Ella having fun before class today. Ella and her cool kicks. Concentrating so hard.

After swimming today, Ella had her special afternoon with Stella and Juliet.  We switched their piano lessons to this afternoon so first Ella played with Juliet while I taught Stella and then she played with Stella while I was teaching Juliet.  When Juliet’s lesson was over she went upstairs to play with the girls.  All of a sudden, Stella came downstairs and said, “Lauren, we need the talking stick”.  Whenever the girls have a conflict, they all sit down with the talking stick (rainbow lip gloss) and then they take turns talking and listening.  The only person who can talk is the one with the stick.  Basically, Stella was mad at Ella because Ella drew on the picture that Stella was making.  Stella is an amazing artist and I think that Ella was trying to draw the way Stella does.  Stella didn’t like it and she has every right not to like it.  The mediation that I did with them was to tell Stella that it was fair that she didn’t want Ella to draw on her drawing but that Ella didn’t know that she didn’t like it so she apologized to Ella for getting mad without Ella knowing.  I also had Ella apologize to Stella for writing on her artwork.  They now have an understanding and know that neither one of them like it when someone else draws on their art work.  After the talking stick meeting, they hugged it out and everything was cool.  After dinner, the girls, Helen and KJ came over and we did the Wii dance game.  Everyone had a lot of fun. This is Ella’s art therapy after the confrontation.  The first face is the one that Stella drew and Ella did the rest.  It basically says, “Bad Stella – That is Juliet – This is me – Good Juliet.”  The one of Ella is crying,  She handed this to me and said, “I just expressed myself, now I feel better”. Dance Party!Here is another dance video.  Helen has the moves.

Ella had a fun filled, activity filled day today.  The Asteroids had their first T-ball game today and the team did a great job.  Ella was really involved in the game – different than last year.  She fielded and hit and didn’t pick any flowers (at least not when the game was going on).  After the game, we came back here, had lunch and then we took Ella to Taekwondo.  Ella is learning a lot in class and little by little, she is starting to be able to do her forms.  Forms or “Hyungs” in Korean, are a series of defending and attacking movements performed against imaginary opponents in a set pattern. After class, we came home and we were supposed to have Stella, Juliet and KJ over.  KJ and Stella weren’t feeling well so Helen and Ron decided that they weren’t going to go out. When Ella heard this, she became very upset.  Then she came up with a plan – why not have Juliet come over and hang out the way they were supposed to.  Ella’s plan worked out, and she had a fantastic night with Juliet.  They had pizza for dinner, dressed up, watched Tangled and then ended the night playing one of the Wii dance games.  Don’t miss the video at the end… pure entertainment – especially Ella and Sunny’s dance competition at the end.  I am starting to feel a lot better and now Ella has a little cold.  I hope everyone feels better soon.  Today was a really great day and night. Getting ready to go play some ball. Running the bases during practice. Cheering on the team from second base. Ella and Rosie waiting to get up to bat. Ella and her friend Dillon. Our little lefty. Ella and Juliet all dressed up.  They said they were rehearrsing for a show that they were going to put on for us but then decided that the show wasn’t ready. One big love fest. Helen and KJ came over to get Juliet and KJ got right into the dancing.  KJ has some moves!  Enjoy the Taekwondo/dance video.

Ella has her first t-ball game tomorrow.  The kids had a great practice today and got their uniforms.  It’s a good thing that the kids can’t really read yet.  Asteroids is spelled wrong on their shirts. Check it out in the next to last pic of Ella.  Tonight, Helen, Stella, Juliet, Ella and I went to see HOP.  Ella thought it was really funny.  I thought it was cute but dumb…not so sure what Juliet and Stella thought.  They said it wasn’t one of their favorites.  We are taking the Kim/Arena kids tomorrow night for Saturday night movie night.  We are going to watch Tangled that just came out on DVD.  The video at the end is of Ella getting better at the monkey bars. Ella running to third. Watching the batter from first base. Ella was very serious about playing 3rd.  She didn’t want to take her eye off the batter. Ella getting her uniform. Beautiful Ella – proud member of the “Asteriods”. Ella and her friend Rosie climbing the fence.

Ella was in a great mood when I picked her up from Tree Frog Treks.  She told me that she had a great day at school and that she learned about the life cycle of a bee…”egg, larva, pupa and then it’s a bee…then it starts all over again”.  Smart kid – great teacher Ms. Alicia!  Ella is learning so much this year on such a different level.  Ella had a great ballet class – there are only 2 kids in the class.  The growler dropped out.  Ella and the other kid are getting some great instruction from Ms. Laura.  Ella is becoming more and more coordinated as the weeks go by.  Enjoy the video and pictures. Fun fun fun!

Here are some pictures of Ella during the past few days.  She has been having a blast and loving life.  The video at the end is from the Taekwondo class on Saturday. Ella on the way out to dinner on Tuesday night. We are all so excited for baseball to start again. Our little harmonica playing astronaut. Tonight we had a little yogurt party in the lobby.  Even Towby had yogurt.  The girls had a lot of fun on their Wednesday afternoon playdate…we decided to continue it into the night.

We had a wonderful week full of love and a lot of fun.  Ella spent most of the day on Sunday with Stella and Juliet.  They were away for part of the break and then we were all so busy that Ella didn’t get her time with the Kim/Arena sisters.  Sunday made up for lost time – Ella had a fantastic day on Sunday.  On Sunday night when Ella was falling asleep she told me that she was really happy that she was going back to school.  I love it that she loves school so much.  The first thing that Ella did when we entered the classroom this morning was run up to Ms. Alicia and give her a big hug!  Ella was very excited that she was able to touch a “nice” chicken today during farm and garden and that she planted a seed for a tomato plant.  After school during tree frog treks, Ella touched a bearded dragon and made a flying machine that she was really proud of.  Ballet was great – there were only 2 of them in the class and they were both really focused and into it.  The growler was absent.  After dinner tonight, Stella, Juliet, KJ and Helen came over.   The girls and KJ were hula hooping.  There is some pretty funny hula hoop footage at the end of the ballet video. A hug and kiss for papa before he left on Sunday morning.Big smiles – big love. Beautiful cousins.  I can’t wait to watch these two grow up together. Here are some photos from ballet today.  Ella loved it that they used the barre.Stella and Juliet decided that they were going to do the hula hoop at the same time.  Notice KJ doing his own hula hooping and Ella and Sunny cracking up. Sunny was really cracking up! KJ really wanted to be a part of the fun. Ella has this hysterical way to hula hoop.  She puts her arms in the air.  Watch the video. Ella’s latest/greatest creation.  The sweet hand in the photo is Stella’s…she was adding a flower.