Life With Ella

Ella had a great week.  First of all, last Friday at school, Ella won the waste free lunch contest.  She has been waiting for about 4 years for the moment when her name was pulled from the hat.  Here is Ella with the other winner, Anabel and Ms. Misty – the farm and garden teacher.

 Ella won a lemon.  She made a cup of lemonade with it.

Over the weekend, Ella had a sleep over at Stella and Juliet’s on Friday night and then they slept over at our house (and KJ too) on Saturday night.  On Sunday, Helen took KJ and the girls to see a stage production of Beauty and The Beast.  They all had a blast.

 Popsicle party with the Kim/Arenas.

On Saturday, Ella went to a Laser Tag party and had so much fun.  Sunny and I had a lot of fun too!

 Ella and her buddy Macy at the laser tag place.

Ella’s class took a trip to the Mission Dolores church on Wednesday and Sunny went on the field trip with Ella’s class.  Ella loved having Sunny with her on the field trip.

 Indians painted this ceiling with vegetable dye.

Ella this morning before the big assembly.

 This is a mural that Ella’s class painted.  Ella drew one of the churches.  I’m not sure which one.

 Ella getting ready to do her presentation.

Now here’s a short video of Ella announcing the project at the assembly today.

I guess I shouldn’t keep saying that I will keep up with this blog – I’m trying.  Things have been great – Ella is loving life and throwing herself into everything in front of her.  She has become an amazing pogo sticker – her record is 500 something.  I’ll have to catch her on video.  She does it one handed, hops all around – she loves her pogo stick.  Sunny and I want to get an adult pogo stick – looks like great exercise.  Here are some shots from the past week.

Beautiful Ella with her missing tooth.  Ella woke up with her tooth missing – she swallowed it in her sleep when her friend Marlowe was sleeping over.   Marlowe swallowed one of her teeth over the summer so Ella knew it was ok to swallow a tooth.

 Ella and Marlowe watching the Powerpuff Girls the morning after a sleep over.

Ella, Hannah and Naomi kicked Sunny and My butt during a wild game of pictionary junior.

We had a blast ice skating the other day.  Ella helped out Sunny on the ice and she was skating like a champ within 5 minutes.

Ella and Isabel went on the carousel after ice skating.

Ella and her buddy Hannah creating a poster for MLK Day at Ella’s school.

 Ella’s beautiful sign.  Joint effort with Ella and mommy.

 A group of sweet kids on the MLK march.

This video is of Ella sparring on Saturday.  She got to spar with one of the instructors.  She was doing such a great job.  She’s really getting into it!

This past weekend, mommy and Ella went to Monterey.  Sunny was invited to accept an award on behalf of the Giants Community fund from the YWCA in Monterey.  Ella and mommy left early on Saturday morning and headed straight for the Monterey Aquarium.  They both LOVED it.  Ella was super excited about the sea horse exhibit, the sharks, the jellyfish and the otters.  In the evening, they had the awards ceremony.  Ella stayed on the stage with mommy as she accepted the award.  Ella was also a big help in setting up the tables at the country club.  She placed chocolate on all of the place settings.  Here are some pictures from their adventure.

 Ella at the sea horse exhibit.

Jellyfish, sharks and otters!

Ella helping withthe table setup.

Ella and mommy accepting the award.

Frost in the morning!

We had a wonderful break with grandma, papa, AJ, Michael, Milo and Nikki B visiting us.  Thank you for coming here!  We love you guys.  Time to get back to the grind.  Here are some pictures from the end of the visit.

 Early morning video.  Milo looks thoroughly entertained – Ella looks like she’s still sleeping.

 The amount of love that these four have for each other can power a small village!  True love.

 Ella and Milo at the space ship on the way to the Ferry Building.

Watching fish.

 Learning about volcanoes.

 Cousin picture in front of the big fish tank.

Milo insisted that AJ come into this picture.

 Walking up to find the butterflies.

 Ella tried to get a butterfly to land on her finger.

 Saying see ya soon to AJ.  We love you!

 Saying see ya later to a very sad Milo.

 Cooking dinner with Nikki B.

OK – getting back on track here.  All I have to say is that we’ve been having a wonderful break from school/work.  Mommy still has to work but we love it when she comes home.  Grandma and papa have been here for a week and it has been so wonderful having them here.  AJ, Milo and Michael arrived today.  It’s going to be so much fun having everyone here.  Here are pics from the past 2 weeks.

I took Ella and her friend Isabel ice skating at Union Square the week before the break.  We all had so much fun.  Ella was zipping around the rink!

 Here are some shots of Ella during her Winter Performance.  She was so sweet and adorable.  I can’t believe that this is her 5th CDS Winter Performance!

We had a wonderful Dim Sum meal on Christmas Day.

 Grandma and Ella had some great Jenga games going.

 An archetectural masterpiece by Ella.

 Ella and papa worked so hard on one of Ella’s Lego projects.  They make a great team.

 On Thursday, grandma and papa took Ella to see the Nutcracker.  They all had a wonderful time.

 Mr. Panda.

Beautiful cousins catching up!

 Sunny entertaining everyone with her hula hoop skills.

 More family hula hooping.  Ella was the most coordinated by far.

 Ella and AJ dancing the night away.

Grandma dipping Milo.

It has been super busy around here since Friday!  On Friday afternoon, Ella performed in her very first play.  The afterschool program at CDS put on “A Light In the Attic” and other poems.  Ella was adorable and really liked being in the play.  She thought Monday and Wednesday rehearsal was too much and probably won’t be doing another play in the spring but she had a great time.  On Friday evening, we celebrated the night before Chanukah with the Kim/Arena clan.  We had latkes, blintzes, chicken, broccoli and had chocolate gelt for dessert.  Helen and Ron got all the kids Beyblades and they had some great tournaments.  On Saturday morning, Ella took a long scooter ride as I walked quickly along side.  It was a beautiful day.  Late in the afternoon, Sunny and I watched as Ella got her green belt in TaeKwonDo.  Ella has been working hard but now needs to start working harder.  She has forms to memorize.  It was pretty fantastic to see Ella up there with some pretty big kids earning her green belt.  Tonight, we went to a fantastic Chanukah party at Becca’s house.  It was really a wonderful night with the most delicious latkes.

 Some shots from before and after the play.  I have some on a movie but I have to do a little editing.

 Twas the night before Chanukah.

 The Schwartz moms and the Kim/Arena boys!

 Green Belt!Happy Chanukah!

 Ella’s latest Powerpuff art.

I have had so much work to do that I have neglected the blog once again.  Here are some pictures from the weekend that grandma and papa were here and some from the past few days.  We miss grandma and papa very much but are so excited that we will all be together at the end of the month.  Life has been good and busy.  Ella is in a play at the end of the week and then has a music theater performance on Tuesday evening.  I have my big winter concert on  December 13th and then things should mellow out a little.

 Ella leaping her way to the Ferry Building.

 Great shot of the three musketeers after eating a delicious Dim Sum meal.

 We all had a great time bowling.  Looking forward to a rematch.

 On Saturday night, we took Ella and Emmi ice skating on the Embarcadero.  It was super crowded, but Ella did a fantastic job skating around the crazies!

 Emmi slept over and the girls went and played on the Coke slide that next morning.

 Ella and Panda right by the ballpark.

Ella and sweet Isaac on Friday night movie night.

Today was a wonderful day in so many ways – we had beautiful company, beautiful weather, great food, a fun movie, and a game of monopoly jr!  We started out our day with a bike ride for mommy and Ella and a walk for grandma, papa, panda and me.  Ella was flying on her new bike.  After a lot of fresh air, we headed to Pier 39 for our traditional Thanksgiving lunch at the Crab House.  After the Crab House, Ella went bungee jumping.  Ella flipped backwards by herself for the first time!  She was amazing.  She must have flipped like 15 times.  After all the activity, we went downtown to the Metreon and saw Wreckit Ralph.  Ella cracked up in some parts.  It was pretty good.  Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of spanakopita, grilled cheese sandwiches, bok choy and two amazing Asian Pears.  We had a heated game of Monopoly Jr. and then we called it a night.  Once again, it’s so wonderful having you here grandma and papa.

 Mommy and Ella driving down to the library.

Papa with his fur grandson.

 Grandma was jogging along for a while.  Great stamina!

 So beautiful watching you guys ride together.  Can’t wait to get my Chanukah present (hint, hint).

Beautiful family shot.

 Family shots at the Crab House.  AJ taught me that pose.  Maybe I overdid it a little.

Waiting on line to jump!

 Check out Ella the flipping fiend!

 Some more love for grandma and papa.

 It’s Monopoly Jr. time.  I was the banker.  Grandma’s glasses are at it again.

 Grandma and her fur grandson.