Life With Ella

It seems like these days and nights are flying by!  We are all so busy.  Ella is loving life and school and her friends and all of her activities.  Sunny and I need a weekend away at a spa!  Hopefully things will calm down soon.  Here are some pics of Ella from the past week.

 Lots of fun at Saturday’s soccer game.

Water break.

 I think they were coming up with a goal scoring plan.

 Rare picture of Ella actually having posession of the ball.

 Ella looks like a pro.

 Ella doing a clever trick with her friend Emily.

 Fantastic form!

 Taking Towby for a little walk on Sunday.

 I love this shot.

 Lining up for school on Tuesday morning.

 Ballet class on Tuesday.  I dropped and broke my camera on Monday so thie iPhone is going to have to do for now.

 Fun times with Juliet, KJ and Stella on Tuesday night.

Every Friday, Ella’s class does the “Redwood News” and posts their stories outside of the classroom.  Here are Ella’s “news stories” from the past 4 weeks.

 Here is the translation…”I Heart lollipop candy bracelet, M&M’s.  I love Valentines Day.”

 Here is a picture that Ella drew of Dog Dog and she wrote…”I brang my stuffy”.

“I love Alex, love Ella”.  Alex is Ella’s third grade buddy.

 “I am going to Tahoe”.  The little person in the left hand corner in pencil is Ella swimming.

 Ella at soccer practice on Thursday.  It was so cold there!  Sweet Ella after practice.

 A Halloween picture that Ella drew after school the other day.  Here is the story on the other side.

 “Happy Halloween.  It was a dark and spooky night and my family and I were going trick or treating.  I ran in front of my family.  I stopped.  I noticed something strange.  I was alone?”  Ella said that she put the question mark there because the story wasn’t over and she was wondering if anyone else wanted to finish it.  This thing just flowed out of her during her after school program.  We got there to pick her up and she was writing away!

Ella has had an incredible weekend full of friends.  On Thursday, we went to the SF Sheriff fundraiser with the Kim/Arenas, then Friday night, Ella had movie night over at their house, and on Saturday night, the kids came over here for a movie night and Stella and Juliet slept over.  This was the first time they slept at our house – Ella has slept there a few times.  The girls had a great time.  Ella also had a soccer game on Saturday and really loved it.  It was great to see her so animated and happy on the field.  Tomorrow, Ella’s friend Emmi is coming over and we’re going to take them to see Dolphin’s Tale and then Emmi is going to sleep here.  On Tuesday, (Ella doesn’t have school on Tuesday and we have work), Ella is going to Emmi’s to spend the day.  How fun.  Ella is loving this weekend.  We are very tired.  Here are a bunch of pictures of Ella at her soccer game yesterday.

 Sleepover!!!

This was a bit of a crazy week…haven’t had too much time to sit down document the week.   Happy New Year to all who observe Rosh Hashanah.  We had friends over on Wednesday night for erev Rosh Hashanah and then went to one of Ella’s classmates houses of Thursday night for another Rosh Hashanah dinner.  On Friday, we had movie night over at our place with Helen and the kids.  They watched Ice Age.  All the kids had a great time.  Today, we went to a CDS family day at a park where Ella played on the playground all day and Sunny and I played softball all day. Here are some pictures from the week.

 Beautiful Ella at ballet on Tuesday.

 Ella during the prayer over the wine.

 Beautiful in the morning.

 Ella and her friend Torin showing their wiggly teeth!

 On our way to Rosh Hashanah dinner.

 The kids had a great time on Thursday night.

 Friday morning after assembly.

 The kids were totally into the movie.

 Ella and KJ having a tender moment.

 Ella’s latest artwork on the dry erase board…an angler fish and and octopus.

 Ella all dressed up as word girl.

On Sunday, we took a walk over to the ballpark where they were showing a live broadcast of the SF Opera Turandot.  It was cool to watch the opera at the ballpark for us, but boring for Ella. Luckily, they had a lot of kids activities to do.  Ella got her face painted and made a beautiful paper lantern.  Then she went over to the little ball field and hit some balls.  I mean she really hit some balls!  Today was a big day at school for Ella.  Ella had a classroom share today.  Every day, for 5 weeks, each student presents something that they want the class to know about them.  Ella brought in her drum set and played the drums for her class.  We weren’t allowed to watch the share.  Ella was so confident about what she wanted to to.  She showed us the night before and she was like, “The drums can be complicated and challenging.  I have been playing the drums for 2 months and I find them easy.  Here are some of my beats.  I also like to do attention beats in case people aren’t listening.  I saw Luisa right after Ella’s share and she gave me a thumbs up and said that Ella was awesome.  Ella also was the first in her class to loose a tooth this school year.  She is the first on the tooth poster.  Every day when we pick her up, she tells us about how many times she got to see Ms. Alicia.  It really completes her day.

 Ella getting face painted.

 Some serious lantern making,

 Ella smacking the blals out of the little ballpart!

 Ella right before her big drumming share.  Ella looks so proud.

\ MOre fun jumping rope!

 It’s been another busy week and it ended with Ella losing her second tooth!  This week, Sunny and I went to back to school night at Ella’s school.  We spent about an hour in the classroom and wished that we could have stayed for much longer!  The kids are learning so much already.  We learned about the classroom agreements…”1. Respect and care for all people and things.  2. Be safe, try new things and have fun.  3. Be kind to yourself when things feel hard.”  The kids came up with these agreements.  The kids then came up with logical consequences then they are not cooperating and then an action of apology.  Here is a shot of the Consequences and action of apology.  Pretty cool stuff happening at school!

This weekend, we had Friday night movie night with Stella, Juliet, KJ, Helen and Ron.  We love these Friday nights hanging out with our next door family.  Today, we went to a little fair in our neighborhood and mommy met up with Chris and walked around with him telling people why they should vote for him for sheriff.  Ella had fun because there was a bouncy house there.  After the fair, Ella went to Taekwondo.  Towards the end of the class, Ella’s tooth fell out!

 Ella on the monkey bars at school.  She’s getting great at it but falls off at least once a day.

 Ella fooling around with her buddies before school.She was showing them all her loose tooth.

This was hanging in Ella’s classroom.  It tells about her hopes and dreams. Ella hopes to learn more math.

 Ella hanging out on her favorite Lou Seal statue.

 Jumping in the bouncy house.

 Kind of looks like mommy is asking Becca if she just farted.  Doesn’t look like Ella smelled anything.

 Ella and her Taekwondo instructor Steven right after Ella’s tooth fell out.  Notice the tooth between Ella’s fingers.

 Beautiful ELla minus 2 teeth!

We woke up and took off running.   First, we went to a kick off rally for Chris Cunnie – the man we hope will be the newt Sheriff of San Francisco.  It was a great event.  After that, we went and got something to eat and then we went to a little music festival.  Ella’s favorite 7th Grade girl band was performing.  We saw Vons De Qua perform and Ella loved every minute of it.  We all did!  After the show, we went over to ACC to make a tile for Bug.  The ACC is having a fundraiser and you could make a tile and donate money.  Ella pretty much made Bug’s whole tile.  After that. Ella had Taekwondo and then I went and got my hair cut and that was about all we could handle.  Today we spent a lot of time outside, went to lunch at Maria’s and went swimming in the outdoor and indoor pools at the gym.  It was sa great weekend to spend with family.

 Ella and Gracie (the younger sister of Tess, one of the band members),

 The crowd begin to form for Vons De Qua.

 The band!

 Mommy and Ella working on the tile in memory of Bug.

 All done.  It will get glazed and fired in the kiln and it will then be a shiny green tile for the Bug!

 Now off to Taekwando!

Today the 7th graders hosted assembly at CDS.  They are a fun and dynamic group of kids who had a lot of fun doing assembly.  Ella LOVED it and was sitting high up on her knees so she could see the whole thing.  She was laughing and smiling the whole time.  Ella also made an announcement this morning.  She told the school that she was going to see Vons Da Qua, a 7th grade girl band tomorrow.  Ella is one confident kid.  Today, Ella brought home a folder with a little bit of her class work in it.  I will post photos and give translations.

 Looks like Ella is trying to get this kid to do something.

 Waiting to go to assembly.

 Check out Ella in the crowd with that amused look on her face.

 Elephant, antlers, egg and I’m not sure what the G word is.  They were cutting things out of magazines and Ella noticed that the Estee Lauder name started with an E!

 Ella was using the teacher’s old list as scrap paper and filled in her own names.  The top says, “Ella Keep”.  The rest are ages and names of her friends she was thinking about.  By Brickelle’s name you will see that it says 6 and then 3 circles.  Ella told us that the three circles are really 3 quarters because Brickelle is 6 and 3/4!  Next is 5 Luke.  After that is 18 Justin because Justin Bieber is 18 of course.  The next one is 6 Stella, then 5 Juliet.  By Ella’s name it is 5 and 3/4 and then the final one says 1 No Adults.  Love this stuff!