Today was another gorgeous day and we spent most of it outside.  Ella told us that she wanted to go to Golden Gate Park and go on the pedal boats.  We thought it sounded like a great idea so we did just that!  We went around Stowe Lake and then Ella rode her bicycle around the lake again!  We all got some great exercise today.  After the park, we ended up at a little park close to where we live.  Ella has been really into dribbling basketballs lately.  I think a lot of kids are doing it at school and she loves a challenge.  She has been practicing and getting pretty good.  After our basketball game, we had dinner at Amicis.  It was really a wonderful day. Ella with her basketball.  She has been practicing dribbling in the house…good thing nobody lives under us! A rare shot of the 3 of us.  The guys at the boat dock took this.  Ella had her popcorn ready to feed the ducks. ELla was throwing the popcorn left and right .  The ducks weren’t getting it though…The seagulls were!  Here is one on our boat who we were trying to chase away. Ella biking through Golden Gate Park. Ella spotted these cute goslings on her bike ride. We warned her not to get too close.  This goose looked like she was ready to kick some ass. Ella also spotted this gopher. Ella was so curious about the gopher.  She had no fear.

Last night, Sunny wrote an e-mail to Alicia explaining about Ann and asking her if she could put Ann on her desk in the morning so Ella could see that she was OK during the night.  Well…the incredible Ms. Alicia did more than that.  When we came into the classroom this morning, Ella found Ann on Ms. Alicia’s desk like this… It was such a beautiful thing to see Ella so relieved that Ann was OK and so happy that Ms. ALicia took care of her.  It’s late and Ella is sleeping right now.  I took this picture about 5 minutes ago.  Ann and Ella are safe and sound and under the covers.Here are a few sweet pictures from today at Ella’s school.This one is actually from early this morning in the elevator. Ella checking out the silk worms in her classroom.Brickelle, Ella and Casi at the sutainability fair. Ella and Brickelle with the penguins they just made with Casi.Ella and I went to bi-rite after school for ice cream.  Ella ate most of her chocolate ice cream and then finished my salted caramel.  After ice cream, Ella had t-ball practice.  Ella did a pretty good job today – I think she may have a future in being a groundskeeper.  We’ll see.  Tonight Ella went to Stella and Juliet’s and watched Madeline and had a great time.  Sunny and I went across the street to see some friends at Mijita.  The Giants won tonight, it’s the weekend and life is beautiful.

Today Sunny and I celebrated our 10th anniversary.  Happy Anniversary Sunny.  I love you.  We told Ella that it was our anniversary this morning and she was really into it. Today when Ella came back from swimming, Ella made this for us… The three of us went out to dinner at the Crab House to celebrate.  Ella ate like a champion, she had clams, crab, fried artichokes and noodles.  For dessert Ella had chocolate mousse cake.   Either Ella was super hungry after swimming or she is going through a serious growth spurt.  Ella also has a cold again.  It is so red under her nose.  At least now she is putting vaseline on it.  She used to go crazy if we even tried to touch under her nose.  It was a really sweet night full of  a lot of love.  I also want to wish Uncle Michael a Happy Birthday!  Sorry we don’t have a video for you.  Wishing you a beautiful year Michael.  Lots of love to you. We took this tonight with the self timer.  Look at Ella’s red nose.  Poor baby. Ella took this one of us…(after she dropped the camera and kind of broke it). I took this picture on Tuesday night.  Ella wanted to wear her old rat costume.  It may have had something to do with Ella and her classmates spotting a rat in the garden at school.  Wildlife in SF.  Ella’s class is celebrating Earth Day and Alicia asked the parents to send the kids to school with stuff that we recycle.  Ella brought in a small bag of stuff to school this morning.  Tonight, Ella said, “Ms. Alicia told me that I brought great stuff for our art project”.  She then decided that she wanted to collect stuff around the house for tomorrow morning.  She was very cute with her brown bag going through the garbage and asking us for magazines.  Ella is really into school.

Ella was at camp at school all week because her school had spring break and we had to work.  She had a really good time at camp.  Today, they got to break open the piñata that they made on Tuesday.  Sunny came early to get Ella for t-ball and Ms. Ngoc let Sunny take one big swing at the piñata.  None of the kids were very successful at breakingit open, so when Sunny took her big swing and all the stuff fell out, they were super impressed!  Ella was chanting, “Go mommy go, go mommy go.”  It was a very exciting part of the afternoon.  We took Ella to t-ball practice and she is getting pretty good at running the bases.  She still spaces out when she is in the field.  Today she picked a flower and did some yoga.  Tonight, the Kim/Arenas came over and we watched The Princess and the Frog.  KJ is crawling all over the place and pulling himself up to stand.  He is such a cute kid and we all had a lot of fun. Ella at T-ball practice.  I’ll get some more shots tomorrow at the game. Ella is getting a lot more coordinated and the more coordinated she is, the more stuff she wants to do.  Here she is climbing her first fence all by herself. The girls watching The Princess and the Frog, eating popcorn and brownies. I just had to put these 2 pics in that I found from 2007 of the girls.  It’s so incredible to be able to watch them growing up together.The beautiful Mr. KJ.I’ll give this guy a year to be taller than Ella.

A few funny things happened tonight.  First, we were having dinner with friends and one of them had a boy who was about 3 1/2.  The mom was taking him out her car for a minute and Ella wanted to go.  Sunny wanted her to stay in the restaurant and Ella was not listening.  Sunny said (in a stern voice)…”Ella, do not go outside”.  Ella said, “But I want to” over and over and over.  Then Sunny said, “I know that you want to but you need to stay here right now.  Please come over her.”  “Ella says, “I don’t want to” Sunny says, “Come over here.”  This went on for a minute or so and then Ella looked at Sunny and said, “If you keep saying ‘come over here’, they are going to kick us out of the restaurant.  Sunny turned away so she wouldn’t laugh.  Instead she started counting.  Ella then said, “If you start counting in the restaurant, they are going to kick you out”.  Pretty funny stuff.  We all went back to Blush and met up with the Kim/Arenas.  The people who work there are super sweet and they always give the kids cups filled with gummy worms and tiny gummy bears.  The kids had a feast and were pretty wired after dessert.  It was pretty late when we came home (late for Ella is anywhere past 8 because it takes her at least an hour to fall asleep).  She went up, brushed her teeth, put on her nightgown and then wanted to listen to a book called “Skippy John Jones”.  She likes to act the book out.  At one point, skippy john jones is jumping on his bed. I told Ella that she could jump on her bed when Skippy John Jones did, but Ella’s plan was to jump during the whole story.  Since jumping makes Ella even more happy and excited, I had to squash her plan.  Then she decided that she wanted to take this box off of her shelf that had some seashells and incense in it.  I told her that she could not get the box because it was bed time.  She told me that she didn’t like my answer no and that it made no sense.  I wanted her to get a little clarity, so I said, “If you were at school and it was time to do something like nap time or art time and you asked Ms. Alicia if you could do something else and she said no, what would you say?  She looked at me and said, “I would say, OK”.  She realized what she said and told me, “Mama, you don’t make sense.”  Oh well, what are you gonna do?  Ella asked me to do something else and I said, “No”.  She then told me that I needed to work on saying yes instead of no.  I told her that  we would have to work together on it.  We are in so much trouble when Ella is 10 or 11. These are a few photos that were taken on Sunday by the babysitter of one of Ella’s classmates.  She is getting her masters at the Academy of Art in photography and was looking for kids to photograph to represent the cycle of life.  She’s going to give me the whole disc next week so stand by.  Goodnight everyone.

I don’t have too much to say –  it’s late and I have to go to sleep but I had to post this picture and a little video clip.  This is how Ella came downstairs dressed after her shower tonight. She was loving her outfit so much.  Then Ella asked us to put on the Broadway soundtrack of Annie and proceeded to entertain us while Sunny was making dinner.

Lately, only with us, Ella has been fake crying when she doesn’t get her way.  Sometimes this fake crying leads to real crying and sometimes it just goes away.  Tonight, we were getting ready to go to dinner and Ella had one of her fake crying fits because I told her that it was cold out and she needed to wear a jacket.  She wanted to wear a “cape” – really just a jacket tied around her neck.  She did her fake crying thing and then calmed down when we told her that she could wear a jacket and then a “cape” too.  This led to a conversation about things we need to work on.  I told Ella that she needed to work on finding other ways to express herself when she didn’t get her way.  I told her that crying just wasn’t working.  Then I said that I would work on getting less frustrated with Ella when she was reacting to not getting her way.  Sunny said that she would work on being more patient and that she would work on not grabbing things from Ella.  Ella also said that she would try to share better (she actually has been doing a great job with sharing).  That was the end of the conversation and then we went to dinner.  We had a great dinner at Nama and then went to Blush for some yogurt and baseball watching.  It was great hanging out there.  Ella was having fun with one of the people who worked there.  Ella was showing her movies on my iTouch – movies of Ella when she was much younger.  It was getting late and we needed to head home.  Ella wasn’t very happy about leaving.  She kept putting on more movies to watch – even after we gave her a one more movie warning.  She didn’t listen so I took the iTouch away from her and we headed home.  As we were walking out, Ella was trying to walk and watch movies.  I told her to turn the iTouch off and she wouldn’t listen so I took it from her.  She became pretty pissed at me but I just put it in my pocket and kept walking.  She kept asking me for the iTouch and I wouldn’t give it to her.  When we got home, I told Ella that if she came up with me, brushed her teeth and got into her pajamas that I would give her the iTouch and she could watch 2 movies.  She was giving me a hard time about going upstairs and finally said, “You grabbed the iTouch from me and that made me angry”.  I then said, “I wouldn’t have grabbed it if you would have stopped watching it.  Watching and walking is dangerous.”  Then she said, “Well…I think that you are going to have to work on not grabbing.”  It was so funny.  I told her that I would work hard on not grabbing and I thanked her for pointing that out to me.  Little Ella is growing up!  No pictures today – just a ballet video.

Today was a strange day weather wise.  It was pretty cloudy for most of the day and the sun was fighting to come through.  It was a little rainy and misty and then it stopped – just in time for opening night for the Giants.  We went to the game with Amy and we all had a great time – except the Giants who lost.  We stayed until the end of the game to see the fireworks.  Ella was amazing during the game and magical during the fireworks.  It was a great night.Sunny, Amy and Ella at Mijita before the game. Here we are in the beginning of the game.  Ella had a churro, cotton candy and a hot chocolate.  We were trying to keep her awake for the fireworks.I think this was after the cotton candy. Ella and the fireworks.  We all loved it, but watching Ella made it so much more meaningful.

Today, Ella and I went to see 2 of my childhood friends and their kids.  We met at a park and Ella told me how much fun it has been going to different parks and playing on all different things.  It’s time for us to start doing the park tour in San Francisco again.  Ella had a blast with my friend Sue Sue’s twins, Sofia and Ava.  They were really sweet to her.  When we were having lunch, Ava suggested that Ella sit between them.  Ella loved that.  Cheryl’s son James was there and Ella has a sweet thing with James, but her daughter Emma couldn’t make it.  We missed you Emma!  See you in SF one of these days.  After playing, we went into NY to hang out with AJ, Milo and Michael.  It was a really sweet time – Ella got to feed Milo a bottle and we all had a lot of hugs and kisses.  We are leaving to go back to SF in the morning.  This has been an amazing week.  We love you grandma and papa – thanks for everything.  Mommy – we will see you tomorrow afternoon.  We love you and can’t wait to see you.  Life is beautiful.

Ella and her buddies Ava and Sofia.

Ella and grandma blowing bubbles on the terrace.

Papa and Milo in a sweet and tender moment.

The big girl feeding Milo.  She gave him the whole bottle with no help!!

I think this is a cute picture of my mom.  Also – the photo above of me and Milo…the caption got messed up, but what I said was that I wasn’t going to let a week go by without a picture of me and Milo!

Today was another fun filled day.  Ella and I went into NY to meet KK, AJ and Milo for lunch. We all met up at KK’s house and then went to the Scandinavian House for lunch.  Ella played in the playroom there after lunch.  Milo had a good nap after lunch.  After we ate, we went back to KK’s and Ella, KK and AJ did a really cool art project.  Ella and I came back to NJ and then went to the little park a few blocks from grandma and papa’s house.  Ella played on everything there including the monkey bars.  Ella is getting much stronger and more confident.  Ella also played a little basketball with papa.  We all had a lot of fun.  Tonight, I went into NY to meet Adam for dinner and Ella stayed with grandma and papa for Friday night movie night.  They watched Mary Poppins.  I got home after Ella was sleeping but grandma and papa reported that they had a wonderful night.

We love you mommy/Sunny.  Hope you had a great day and night.  See you on Sunday!

Ella and KK working the meditation bowl.

Ella playing with another one of KK’s cool toys.

Ella and Milo having a beautiful cousin moment.

Milo takes full command of the chair.

3 beauties.

You know I love my crossing the street shots.

Ella in the playroom at the Scandinavian house.

KK’s house is like a fun fantasy house for Ella.  She was constantly discovering new things.  Here she is pulling the little string on a lamp to turn it on and off.

A leopard skin dinosaur?

AJ and Ella fooling around.

Ella and grandma playing hard at the park.

Ella and papa practicing dribbling and throwing the ball.  Ella is totally into dribbling the basketball.

Grandma and papa were trying to steal the ball from Ella.

I think their smiles say it all.  They had a blast at the park!