Life With Ella

Ella woke up this morning really excited – it’s Friday assembly day which means that she can hang out with her 7th grade buddy Casi and her school buddy Brickelle in the morning.  She was also looking forward to a play date with one of her classmates Emmi.  Tonight, the plan is to have dinner (the 3 of us) and then watch the movie “Bedtime Stories”.  All of these wonderful things happened.  Ella hung with Casi and Brickelle, had a great playdate with Emmi and then we had a great dinner cooked by mommy and watched “Bedtime Stories” which was cute.  Better than Annie for the 16th time.In the elevator on the way to the car.  Ella was very excited about eating her chocolate covered granola bar.Friday assembly!

Tonight after dinner, we went to Blush for some frozen yogurt with Helen, Stella and Juliet.  The girls are really growing up.  At one point, I looked over and saw Ella and Stella hanging out at a table eating their frozen yogurt – I was imagining them as teenagers.  We’re in for it!  As usual, the girls all had a blast together.Ella and Juliet trying out samples. Such big kids.A rare photo of Helen and the girls.  Ron was home with KJ. The lobby of our building is like a gymnastics studio for the girls. Beautiful Ella.

I still feel crazy without my old computer and my old programs and stuff but I am trying to make the best of it.  Today after school, Ella was playing with play-doh.  Ella had all these little houses lined up.  I asked her what they were and she told me that they were orphanages.  She’s still completely obsessed with Annie and everything that has to do with it.  The other day, Ella told me that she wants to be in the Annie play.  We may have to do a family production.  I am attempting to put a movie on this – just a moment in time of Ella.  I hope it works. Ella and her art project.Just a sweet shot of Ella coming up the stairs.

Well…something happened to me this week that has never happened to me before.  My computer died – really just died.  I went to the Apple store and they said that there was no way for them to help me.  Of course, for a control freak like me, this was not a good thing at all, but I am trying to just put one foot in front of the other and fall in love with my new computer.   Luckily, I had all 48,000 photos stored on an external hard drive to I really can’t complain.  I am still getting used to doing things a little differently, but I’m sure this blog thing will go smoothly – just learning new iPhoto, iMovie (i can have a nervous breakdown at any point!)Ella had a great week at camp – she came home with different art projects every day. On Thursday when they were learning about India and peacocks, Ella brought in one of the pictures that we took at the zoo with Ella and a peacock.  She was very proud to share it.  Nikki B came on Wednesday for a few days and we had some really nice dinners and fun times.  Today, after school, I took Ella to another volleyball game that the kids I work with were having.  Ella really loved it and the kids love her so much!  It’s very sweet.  Tonight, Ella went to Stella and Juliet’s to for Friday night movie night – they watched Cars and we went out to dinner with Debby, Toby and our friend Tina who is in from New York.  After our dinner, we came back and Ella joined us.  We played a really fun game of charades.Here is a great shot of Ella from the other night.  It was really a picture of Ella and Nikki B, but she didn’t like it of her.  I love this of EllaHere’s Ella with 2 of the kids I work with at the volleyball game today.Ella in our Zen Garden when we came home todayOur doggies in the garden.Sunny reading to the girls before dinner tonight.Ella doing one of the animals in charades.

Today was another beautiful day here.  We decided to spend the day outside again and go to the zoo.  Ellen joined us and we all had a really fun time.  Ella got to see lots of peacocks – her power animal.  We even bumped into a few kids from her school.  Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day – maybe we’ll hit the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

Ella reading the map trying to figure out where to go first.

Wildlife!

Ellen, mommy and Ella.  Ellen had her eyes closed because she was afraid of the train and Ella was protecting her.

Ella had a blast following the peacocks around – not sure how much fun the peacocks had!

Today was a great day – it was beautiful outside and we decided to spend the day at Golden Gate Park.  We walked around Stowe Lake, rented a pedal boat and rode around the lake and then Ella rode her bicycle.  We took little breaks during the bike ride to check out the Golden Gate Park wildlife.  We spent about 1/2 hour watching this guy feed these giant carp.  We were as mesmerized as Ella was!  The water was really  murky so I couldn’t get pictures of the fish, but it was very cool and a little creepy.

Self timer!  Here we are on the pedal boat.  Ella was steering.

Here is some of the beautiful scenery that we saw while we were pedaling around the lake.

Ella is patiently looking for…

A gopher who popped his beautiful little head out of his hole.

Ella was also feeding the ducks.

Getting ready for a bike ride – don’t worry, Ella had her helmet.

Waiting for the fish to come and get the bread…

Check out Sunny’s face!  I think she was more surprised than Ella.

More beautiful nature.

We had a great weekend.  On Saturday, the Giants had their Fan Fest across the street.  Sunny had to work there for the Community fund and Ella helped her sell mystery bags.  Ella did a great job.  Later in the afternoon, we drove up to Calistoga to celebrate one of Ella’s classmate’s dad’s birthday.  Not sure about all those apostrophes.  Anyway, we all stayed at this spa called Solage which was fantastic.  On Saturday night, all of the adults had a wonderful dinner and the kids had their own little party.  Sunday morning, we all had breakfast and then the kids played in the wilderness of Calistoga.  It was a lot of fun and was great to get to hang out with some of the parents from Ella’s class and their kids.  The 3 of us had a blast.

Ella, Cassi, Brickelle and a bunch of other beautiful kids at the assembly on Friday.

Ella singing to Annie on Friday night.

Ella getting ready to go to the Fan Fest.

Mommy and Ella selling mystery bags.

Cotton Candy!

Ella and some of her buddies from school hanging out at Solage.

Sunny and a bunch of the kids were moving this tree trunk so that they could build a dam.

Ella talking to a tree.

City kids having fun in the nature.

Ella going on a little bike ride.

We have had a busy week of work and life since we have been back.  I haven’t really been taking photos of Ella but I realize that some of you (grandma and papa…possibly KK) may be going through photo withdrawal so I took a shot of Ella tonight.  We’re going to Calistoga on Saturday so hopefully I’ll get some great shots this weekend.