Life With Ella

Last weekend, Sunny, Ella and I went to Scottsdale with the Giants Community Fund and saw some spring baseball!  We all had a great time and Sunny along with the fund raised around $22,000 for the Junior Giants!  Our friends from Ella’s school came with us and Ella had a blast with Zoe and Carmen.  Here are some shots from the weekend.

Ella with our buddies.

 Check out who’s watching over mommy and Ella…Willie McCovey!

 Sweet spring training family shot.

Ella is the most amazing kid and a true lover of life.

OK – life has been beautiful and super busy!  Here are some pics from the past month.  The highlight of the month was that grandma and papa came to visit and we all had a fantastic time together.  Ella continues to thrive in school and was so excited to go back after a week off.  This makes us so happy.  Soccer starts up soon, Ella is loving her new musical theatre class and is excited to do Matilda.

 A few weeks ago, Ella and I had a really sweet day at the Oakland Zoo.

 Ron set up this tent in Stella, Juliet and KJ’s room.  The tent sleeps 10.  Ella had an amazing time.

Grandma took Ella ice skating twice when she was here.  Ella loved it so much and bumped into a lot of friends at the rink.

 Beautiful day when papa arrived.

 Grandma is showing something very interesting to Ella, Papa and Panda.

 Grandma and Ella took a tour of the TCHO chocolate making facility.  They were both in heaven!

 All you need is love!

 Love the tooth brushing ritual!

We’ve all been a little under the weather over here.  Last week was pretty bad.  I had a flu/fever and Ella had a fever.  Sunny managed to stay fever free!  We’re all pretty much better now.  Ella went to a birthday party today at House of Air and jumped like crazy for an hour!  She had a blast.

Jumping, friends and chocolate cake.  Who could ask for anything more?

While Ella was home on Friday and over the weekend, she continued a project that she started over at Stella and Juliet’s house last week.  Ella is making hand made Valentines Day cards for all the kids in her class.  Here are a few of her masterpieces…

On Wednesday, Ella’s class went to the aquarium by the bay.  Sunny was one of the drivers and Ella, Delilah, Colette and Sunny drove in one car.  Ella was so happy to have Sunny there.  They had a great time.  Here are some pics that Colette sent.

 Sweet, beautiful, curious kids!

On Wednesday night, Sunny and I had an event to go to so Ella hung out with Becca.  They started at ACC and then had dinner together.  Here are a few pictures from ACC before I left.

We had a great day and a wonderful evening on Tuesday.  Grandma and papa left early yesterday morning.  Grandma and papa – we loved getting to spend so much beautiful time with you both.  We love you very much and can’t wait to see you in February!  Here are some pictures from Tuesday.

 The threesome on the train heading down town.

 Pre- New Year’s Eve dinner pics.

 After dinner at the Epic Roasthouse.

Artsy train shot on the way home from dinner.

 Panda was feeling a little shy.

 Self-timed shot…welcoming 2014 (NYC time)!

Today was a very special day for mommy, Ella and papa.  The golfing threesome went to Fleming and Ella did 9 holes with mommy and papa.  They all had a great time and mommy and papa think Ella is a natural.  Here are some great pics that mommy took.

We have been having a wonderful time with grandma and papa here.  Ella wakes up every morning and crawls into bed with them and snuggles for a little while.  Such special times!  On Christmas, Jesse, Heather and Colette met us at Yank Sing for some delicious Dim Sum.  After Dim Sum, everyone came back here and we hung around talking and Ella did a lot of art work and projects.  Colette brought her sweet dog Minka over (beautiful black lab) and Panda seemed to like her.  Panda did have a little man complex and every time he was on one of our laps and Minka came near him, he growled.  They were really great together.  Ella did a lot of drawing with the gift that Jesse and Heather gave her and Heather and Ella worked on a snow/glitter globe project.

On Thursday, mommy had to work so grandma, papa, Ella and I went to Marin to Tennessee Valley and took a really sweet hike down to the beach.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk.  In the evening, we met Abigail and Ray for dinner at a sweet little Italian restaurant in our neighborhood.

Today, mommy had to work again, so grandma, papa, Ella and I went to the Marine Mammal center and learned so much about protecting the creatures in the ocean and some of the bad effects of every day human behavior.  After our journey, we went into Sausalito and had lunch.  Tonight, we all had dinner at home and Becca came by to play poker.  Ella is getting good!  She cleaned our clocks.

This has been a really wonderful, relaxing week full of love, spending great time together and exploring!

 You gotta love the self timer!

Doing a little research…

I wonder what Jesse is showing mommy.

Art projects with Heather.  These two can spend hours together creating.

 Tennessee Valley Hike day.  So sweet.

 Learning about how we can destroy marine mammal life.

 Saw these beautiful deer on the way out.

 Love in Sausalito.

It is finally sinking in that we are on winter break!  Grandma and papa arrived yesterday and we are all having a great time.  Today, Ella went to see the Nutcracker with grandma and papa.  Reports from the grandparents say that Ella was on the edge of her seat.  She has a much better attention span than I do!  After the Nutcracker, I met the trio for lunch – mommy was still at work.  Tonight, Ella and I learned how to play poker.  Mommy, grandma and papa already knew how.  Ella is a serious gambler.  She won one hand on a bluff and if we were playing with real money, she would have lost her shirt!  She was really funny tonight.

 Ella in the Zen garden with Juliet and Audrey.  I took this from our bedroom window.

 Love before the Nutcracker.

 Ella intently listening to grandma reading the hundred dresses which Ella just received from KK.

 There was lots of laughter tonight.

 Ella wants to go all in!

Ella got her purple belt today!  We started off the day at the zoo and bumped into some old friends from the neighborhood.  Ella had a terrific time but was sad when we had to go because they were so busy playing in the playground at the park that we hardly got to see any animals.  Ella got over it after we saw a tiger, leopard, hippo, lion, some monkeys and a very active and happy rhino on the way out.  Later on in the day, Ella earned her purple belt in Taekwondo.  She was very proud and is showing some great progress.

 Friday night movie night with the Kim/Arena clan.  We gave them all Despicable Me minions for Chanukah.  Here are all the kids watching Despicable Me 2 with their minions on their laps.

 It was a beautiful day today.

 Busy working on building with some leftover sticks and wood.

 Ella had some great kicks.

 Ella is the youngest student in the group of purple belt recipients.

 FANTASTIC!

 The new belt is on!

 The class.

 Another moment of acheievement with Steven.