Life With Ella

The birthday celebrations continue!  I think today was the last day of celebration and presents.  On Saturday night, we went to the Rainforest Cafe (bad food but fun for Ella and her friend Hannah) with Hannah and her mom Meghan.  It was a fun night and Ella and Hannah had so much fun.  On Sunday we took Ella, Marlowe and Emmi to the Academy.  Once again – they all had a great time with a little 6/7 year old drama at the end of the night.  On Monday, grandma and papa arrived.  We are all so happy that they are here.  Grandma, papa and mommy went to Ella’s school for grandparent’s day on Tuesday (I had to work).  Ella read stories and made bookmarks for grandma and papa.  On Tuesday night, Sunny and I had a date night and went to the MLB screening of the Giant’s World Series movie.  It was a fantastic movie and it was really exciting to be at the event.  Grandma, papa and Ella also had a date night at Momo’s.  I’m sure they had as much fun as we did!  Today, grandma and papa took Ella to the bicycle store to get her birthday present…a new bicycle with 20″ wheels.  Can’t wait to see Ella soar on her bike.  We had a great dinner at home tonight and then we played Pictionary Junior.  We had some great laughs.  It’s great to be on a mini-vacation from work and to have grandma and papa here!

 Mommy and Ella at the Rainforest Cafe.

 Hannah and Ella and Ella’s volcano birthday cake.

It’s snowing at the Academy.

 Ella, Marlowe and Emmi having a great time.

 Ella and papa worked really hard on Ella’s new Star Wars Lego project.

Grandma gave great moral support.

 Grandma, papa and Ella were quite a great pictionary team.

 Papa drawing a tennis court.

 Ella drawing her version of a turtle dove.

 Panda really wanted to play.

 I was not so great at pictionary tonight.

 We only had a few turns becuase Ella and her grandparents were such a great team.

 I couldn’t resist…grandma had a little issue with her reading glasses but she hung in there!

So as you can see – so much fun was had on the first day.  Here are the shots from day two and a few shots from today.  Stella and Juliet (and the rest of the Arena/Kim clan) gave Ella her birthday gift tonight…something Ella was dreaming about having that we were not willing to get her.  Ella now has her own American Girl Doll.  Ella named her Sophia.  She is so happy and they are now sleeping soundly in Ella’s bed.  They are both in their pajamas.

 Ella and Heather on Day 2.  Look out Disneyland…here we come! Showing some beautiful love on Main Street.

 Ella and Heather waving at the characters driving by.

 Ella getting a birthday wish from grandma.

 Our beautiful 7 year old.

 Waiting on line at Star Tours.

 Here we are before going into the Buzz Lightyear ride.

 I don’t know exactly what was going on but it looks like fun.  We were waiting to go onto the little roller coaster.

 Jesse, Ella and Heather on the Roger Rabbit Ride.

 Jesse and Ella on the Mader ride.

 Ella and her chihuahua cousins.

I took these two shots of Ella today before Musical Theatre class.  We climbed up a tall hill and we were on top of the world.

Ella’s dreams have come true.  Here she is with her “sisters” and their American Girl dolls.

We just came back from a wonderful weekend with Jesse and Heather in LA/Disneyland.  We celebrated Ella’s  7th birthday at Disney.  This is becoming such an incredible tradition.  We all had a terrific time.  We went to the new Cars section of the California Adventure Park.  One of the rides, Radiator Springs Racers was the greatest ride.  The first day there, we waited on line for 3 hours for the ride and then were turned away when the ride broke down.  Ella was such a champion – she hung in there.  We left that part of the park and went on a bunch of different rides – The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, Soarin’, and then Ella went on her first little roller coaster type thing.  It was Goofy’s Flying School.  She got a little nervous on some parts, but she loved it.  We also went on the Bug’s Life rides, Monsters Inc (3 times) and then we went on Luigi’s Tires and Mader’s Ride in Cars land.  At the end of the night we decided to go on the single rider line for Radiator Springs Racers.  The line is much shorter but they separate you into cars that need the extra people.  Luckily, Sunny and Ella ended up on the same car, but Ella said that she was willing to go alone if she had to – not her first choice though!  We all LOVED the ride.  The next day, we woke up and drove to Disney for Ella’s birthday.  This time, we started in Disneyland.  First we ate an amazing lunch in “New Orleans”.  After lunch, we went on Pirates of the Caribbean.  Ella liked it but it sort of creeped her out.  After pirates, we went to the Star Wars Star Tours ride – it was amazing.  We all loved it.  After that we went on Buzz Lightyear, and then went over to Toon Land so that Ella could ride on a roller coaster.  We all ended up going on it and although it was a “kiddie ride” it was thrilling.  After the roller coaster, we went on Roger Rabbit and then we went on the Haunted Mansion ride.  We took the train back to the main gate and then headed back into the California Adventure Park.  We went to Radiator Springs Racers again – single rider line and Sunny and Ella once again lucked out.  Then we did Mader’s ride again, Soarin’, Monsters’s Inc and we finished our night at the Little Mermaid.  Today we spent them morning hanging out with Jesse and the dogs.  What a perfect weekend.

Beautiful Ella at the airport ready to rock and roll.

 Waiting on line for the Radiator Springs Racers.

 Making a birthday wish.

 Now that face is saying, “I don’t want to be on this line anymore!”

 On the Little Mermaid with Jesse and Heather.

 Waiting on another line for Goofy’s flight School

 It was starting to get cold!

 We were a little chilly but really excited to go on  the Toy Story ride.

Best shot of the weekend.

 Jesse and Heather on Toy Story.

 Having a lot of fun on Luigi’s tire Ride.

Stay tuned for day 2…I am super tired.

Here are a few shots of Ella during the past few days.  Ella got a pogo stick from us for her birthday and she is starting to learn how to operate it.  She is having a lot of fun with it.

Here are the girls meditating before watching Madagascar on Friday night.  Beautiful.

 Let the pogo sticking begin!

Today Ella’s six game season was over.  It’s pretty incredible how much this team has grown.  Ella actually likes it!  Maybe she will play next year after all.  Ella played goalie today for the entire game.  She did a great job – only let 3 goals get by her.  We’re going to work with her on getting in there and grabbing the ball.  She’s a very sweet goalie.  Time for her to learn to be more aggressive.  Tonight, we had dinner with a friend of ours who is in town from Maryland.  We had a great dinner at Koh Samui and the monkey.

 Ella was doing a great job following the game today.

 Presenting the 2012 Black Widows.

Ella getting her medal.

 After dinner with Cheryl.

 Ella and Willie.

Today was a super busy day for mommy and Ella. It was a regular busy boring work and school kind of day for me.  Mommy was in the World Series Parade with the Giants Community Fund and Ella was busy at school getting ready for Halloween.  Ella and her friends Marlowe and Sakura were planning on being the Powerpuff Girls.  They were going to go trick or treating together and have been very excited about this since the beginning of the school year.  Sadly, Sakura was sick and wasn’t able to go to school or go trick or treating.  Ella (Buttercup) and Marlowe (Bubbles) went trick or treating together and although they missed Sakura (Blossom), they had a blast.  Here are some shots from yesterday.

 Here are Ella, Marlowe and their other buddy Gabriella.

Ella and her friend Macy at the CDS Halloween Parade.

 Buttercup and Bubbles!

 Papa – Sunny took this picture for you – it’s Roberto Kelly!

 Here are some more great shots from the parade.

What an exciting few weeks we have been having!  Not only were we going to work and school and schlepping Ella to ballet and musical theatre and drum lessons and swimming lessons, soccer, taekwondo…we have had to arrange our lives around going to the playoff games!  Now we can breathe and get back to normal life and enjoy the beauty of the season that the Giants gave us.  This morning, we treated the day as a normal day…Sunny went to play golf and I took Ella to a strange pumpkin patch with her friend Marlowe.  The girls had a blast.  We spent a great day getting ready for the big game tonight, did some laundry, took some walks and then at 5:00 our friend Arnie and his sons Eli and Harry came over and were later joined by the 4th beautiful member of the Levinson family, Liz.  We all watched the game, the kids played their own games and then THE GIANTS WON THE WORLD SERIES!  We all walked outside and got in the mix with the crazy happy drunken people.  Ella wanted to go in so we did, but it was pretty crazy!

 Ella on a very strange little horse.

 What’s a pumpkin patch without a huge bouncy slide?

 Bouncy house fun!

 Riding on another strange horse.

Here we are right after the game.  We headed downstairs and joined the happy crowd for a few minutes.  What a great experience to have with my beautiful family.

Here is a shot from Saturday night when Ella went to the Halloween party with the beautiful Kim/Arena clan.

Ella has been incredibly busy in first grade building her reading muscles and becoming a writer.  Yesterday, Sunny and I joined all the other parents in the Owl class for a publishing party.  Each student shared their first book with their parents and friends.  Here is Ella’s first book.  Ella read it to us and she was so proud of her work.  We are too!  What a fantastic book.  We can’t wait to read more stories by Ella Schwartz.

Ella had a great week.  She’s been working on head stands, hand stands and cartwheels at school.  Here are some shots from Friday morning.

 Hair down at soccer practice.

 Glow sticks and friendship.  Stella and Juliet slept over on Saturday night and then they spent most of the day with us today.  Ella loved it.

 Well hello there girls!

Ella played really well in her soccer game Saturday.  The Black Widows played French American.  One of Ella’s friends Hannah goes to French American.  We didn’t know that they were playing each other.  Ella was so happy to see Hannah and when Hannah scored a goal against Ella’s team, Ella gave her a high five and a hug.  What beautiful sportsmanship!

Here we are in the beginning of game 6 tonight.

 And the Giants takegame 6!!!!  Can’t wait for tomorrow.

The Giants post season baseball continues and we have been having a blast.  Sunny and I went to the game on Sunday night with some friends while Ella hung out with the Kim/Arena clan.  After Sunday’s loss, we decided that we needed to take Ella to the game tonight.  We took her and the Giants won!

 Ella and Panda outside of the ballpark on Sunday afternoon.  The weather has been beautiful here.

Here we are at Sunday’s game.  WE were a little nervous for the Giants.

Pixie sticks at the ballgame.

Feeling good about the game…Ella is with us!

 Pure happiness.

Ella is so dedicated to her homework that she insisted on doing her reading after we came home from the game.  First she read the book to herself and then she read it to Sunny and me.  She’s becoming a great reader.  So happy that she loves doing homework.