Life With Ella

Grandma and papa came in on Wednesday night.  We were all so happy to see them and Ella was so thrilled and even a little shy.  We have been having a lot of fun.  Today we went to the Academy of Science.  This trip was more successful than the last 2 times we have attempted to go.  We were able to go into the tropical rain forest and see the butterflies and to the aquarium to see the beautiful fish.  We are already trying to plan for the next time we can all be together again.  Possibly a weekend in San Diego.  We love you grandma and papa.

On Thursday, grandma and papa came with me to pick Ella up from school.  It was raining a little bit.  Here are papa and Ella leaving school grounds.  Ella is all rain geared up!

Here are the 3 beauties after a great lunch at the Nordstrom Bistro.

Ella and grandma in the rain.

Ella the dragon trying to blow down the tower that she built with grandma.

Ella checking out a shark through the glass floor at the Academy.

Trying to get her hands on that butterfly.

Ella, grandma and papa looking for a gopher.  Last time we were walking back from the Academy, a little gopher popped his head out.  This time, Ella was singing a gopher song to the tune of Frere Jacques.  Guess what happened…

We got gopher!

Papa and Ella enjoying the gopher.

Ella ordering dinner at Acme tonight.

Playing at the table with grandma.

We have been pretty busy over the past few days.  Sunny did her big book reading on Thursday at the public library here in SF.  Sunny was incredible, the house was packed and it will be aired on C-SPAN in a few weeks.  Last night, Sunny did a reading in Berkeley and it was also amazing.  On Thursday, there were 100 books at the event to be sold, and they sold out before the event ended!  Here are a few pictures from the reading.

Here’s Sunny reading and then the panel after the reading.  It was all incredible.

Here is Sunny on Friday night in Berkeley.

Sunny and her co-author David answering questions after the reading.

It was a little cooler today, but it was still beautiful.  We were trying to figure out what to do for lunch and Ella said, “Let’s take a walk to the Ferry Building and have lunch there”.  What a great idea.  We had a nice walk, bumped into Helen, Ron and the girls and had some fun playing around and then we had lunch and visited with Phyllis, Richard, Lisa and some other friends who are regulars at the Ferry Building.  It was a beautiful day.

Walking down the block.

Waiting for the train and playing a game.

The girls did this all by themselves.  How cute are they!  What amazing friends.

Playing around upstairs at the Ferry Building.

Doing the old behind the back pick up!

Sunny had her first book reading last night.  It was in Santa Cruz.  Sunny did an amazing job and I am really excited for the big reading at the public library on Thursday.  Here is the sign in front of the book store from last night.I guess they couldn’t take a look at the book cover to figure out how to spell her last name!

Here are some pictures from today that I took of Ella.

Ella is so happy going to school!

Happy Ella after school chewing gum and holding a handful of quarters…another potty technique.  Ella has been pulling some potty “power trip” stuff.  The money seems to do the trick.  She is saving up for a giant panda stuffed animal.

Balancing on the curb.

Ella and her buddy Brickelle.

It was so warm out today that we went for ice cream and popsicles after school.

Here is the toy chest that Ella and I built together.  I couldn’t get a good shot of the shelf thing downstairs.

Here are some pictures from the past few days.  It seems like every moment of our time is crammed into a few hours.  This week we have been trying to organize the downstairs.  We were going a little crazy with Ella’s stuff everywhere.  Last night I built these two shelves while Ella was sleeping.  Tonight I built a toy chest.  Ella was awake when I started my project so she wanted to help me…boy did she help.  She helped me with the wooden pegs, the screws and the washers.  She was so into it.  It was a lot of fun to do such a big project with Ella.

Ella in the hallway the other morning.  I wonder what’s so funny.

One smiley girl going to school this morning.

Hannah, one of the kids in the building came down with her mom and brother to share a cake that they baked.  Ella loves playing with Hannah.

Here is Ella taking her job super seriously.

I think she looks like a lady of the night from a long time ago…what do you think?

Playing with the fan.

Is this one happy kid or what?!

Ella made a really smooth transition this morning from being on a vacation for 2 weeks to going back to school.  She was actually excited and when she got there, everything was normal. How beautiful.  The kids I work with were crazy today.  Here are a few more pictures from the end of the weekend.

Last little love fest on Saturday morning.

We went swimming on Saturday.  Here is Ella helping mommy blow dry her hair.

ZINGO!  We had a fun game of ZIngo over at Kate’s house the other night.

Off to school.

After school.  What a sweeheart.

Ella is growing up so fast.  Tonight we were having dinner at a friend’s house and she said, “I eat double chocolate ice cream with gummy bears at a store in our neighborhood.  It’s just a little bit away from our house.”  Later on when we came home she was looking for me and said, “I didn’t realize you were letting the dogs out.  I peeked into your room and didn’t see you”.  Pretty sophisticated language.  Wow.  Here are some pictures from the last few days.  Grandma and papa left this morning.  It was a great visit.  We love you guys.

Grandma and papa having a tea party with Ella aka Fancy Nancy.

Grandma and Fancy Nancy at Amici’s.

Playing around at Torneau.

A little down time with papa.

Just a really happy kid.

Ella takes coloring very seriously.

Having fun with grandma and papa on the way to the Exploratorium.

This is Ella’s serious face.

Ella loves the music section at the Exploratorium.

Here we are doing yoga on my new Wii fit.  Grandma gave Ella a book (The Grumpy Bird) to stand on as her Wii fit.