Life With Ella

Today I took Ella to El Cerrito  to go to Chloe’s birthday party.  It was a really sweet party at a park and there were family and friends there.  Ella didn’t now any of the other kids and was pretty shy, but she did a great job.  She’s growing up.  After the party, we came home and then we had dinner at Nama with Ellen.  Ella told me that she loves the weekends because we play with her all day long.

Bubbles were the source of lots of happiness and fun.

The serious side of Ella.

Ella with Chloe (and Oskar in the background).

About to go to dinner.

Concentrating on eating edamame.

Tonight we had dinner with Becca and Ellen to celebrate Ellen’s 50th birthday (actually today) and my birthday.  We went to Houston’s and we had a really sweet dinner.  Ella was stuck on Becca for most of the night and even whispered to Sunny at one point that she wanted Becca to take her to the bathroom.  This has not happened before.  Lucky Becca – good thing Ella didn’t poop.

Becca and Ella fooling around and having the best time together.

Best buddies – Ella looks like such a big girl.  Pretty soon they’ll be going out for Cosmos together.

Our crazy little gum chewer.

Ella and Ellen at the end of the night.  Ella really had a lot of fun.

One last shot of the night in the hallway.

Today was a great day.  First we had a sweet brunch with one of Ella’s classmates and his family and then we all went over to the ballpark for the Giants vs. Braves Memorial day game.  Ella had a great time, we had a great time and a fly ball (foul) came directly into our section and Sunny would have caught it if she wasn’t protecting Ella, but the ball landed right under Sunny’s seat and she snagged her first foul ball.  She announced to the crowd, “I have been waiting 50 years for this – I am serious!”  It was a fantastic moment.

Ella having brunch at our house with her buddies Eli and Harry.

Ella was cracking Ella up.

Look at our big girl.  We were able to convince her that she shouldn’t wear her Belle dress to the ballpark.

3 goofballs with Snoopy.

The kids had a blast and so did we.

Ella wanted to pose with Sunny’s foul ball.

Here’s the ball and a very happy mommy.

Tonight we had dinner with my cousin Robbie, her husband Aaron, their 2 girls Izze and India and their parents – my Aunt Abigail and Uncle Ray.  We had a really fun dinner at Scomas.  Ella and Izze had met once before, but really hit it off tonight.  Here are a few shots.

Ella and Izze really loving each other and hanging out with each other.  Ella had so much fun with Izze.

Here is beautiful child #2 for Robbie and Aaron…India is such a sweet beatiful baby.

I have a lot to say and a lot of pictures and movies to post but I haven’t downloaded any pictures and it’s super late.  Today was a beautiful day.  We started the day off at Ella’s school watching a Leaping Lizard (Ella’s class)  hosted assembly.  Ella’s class did one in the beginning of the year and Ella cried during the entire song that they performed.  This time, Ella was her usual crazy charming self.  She just did her own thing and was having the time of her life.  I will post it tomorrow because it’s worth seeing.  After the assembly, we went back to the classroom to watch a slide show that Alicia put together of a special project that the class has been working on and then just a photographic overview of the year.  It was really sweet and we just can’t believe that Ella is about to finish her first year of preschool!  After the presentation, Sunny and I went to the Nob Hill Spa and had massages and lunch.  It was really wonderful and such a sweet “break” from every day life.  Tonight, Sunny made a delicious dinner and an amazing cake and Helen made this incredible banana pudding and we had a really fun night with Helen, Ron, Stella, Juliet and our friends Kate and Jen.  We ate, laughed, ate more, the girls did some beautiful ballet dancing for us and then we watched Wall-E.  The reason Sunny and I are up so late is because we were playing a new Wii game that Sunny got me for my birthday.  We were singing American Idol Karaoke…oy.  It was a beautiful day and night and it was great hearing from so many people.  Now I would like to share a video that Sunny and Ella made for me.  This is Sunny’s first movie and I think she did an amazing job.  Thank you Sunny.  I love you.

Things have just been really busy and I haven’t had time to do a post.  Here are some pictures from this past week.  Ella has been doing really well.  She’s so sweet and spunky and full of life.

Ella having a milkshake on Monday night.

Here’s our little beauty.

I took these pictures of Ella while she was watching Nemo the other night.  Notice the fish pose.

Check out the “E”.  Check out the multiple lines.

Ice cream after school today.

Here’s a little movie of Ella singing “Once Upon A Dream” from Sleeping Beauty.

We had a great day today.  In the early afternoon, we went to the park behind the ballpark with our T-ball thing.  Ella was more interested in catching ladybugs than playing ball so Ella went ladybug hunting and Sunny and I played ball.

Ella loves ladybugs.

After our ladybug hunt, we had lunch at Maria’s and then we met the Kim/Arenas across the street at a pool in Helen’s brother’s apartment complex.  We swam for about an hour and had a lot of fun.  After swimming, we went over to the game to get our Tim Lincecum bobblehead.  Once we collected our bobbleheads we dropped them off at home, gave Ella a bath and headed over to the game.  The Giants finally beat the Mets tonight.  It was a great game.

Juliet after swimming.

Ella after swimming.

Presenting Amy with a thank you card from the Leaping Lizards.

Ella’s game outfit…lip gloss and all.

Another picture of Ella and Charlie Brown.

Ella and our neighbor Pablo Sandoval.

Ella took this unflattering picture of me.

Some sweet fun and happiness shots.

Ella, her classmate Leo and Leo’s brother Luke.

Ella and Leo.  Ella had a great time with Leo.  She was so excited when they came down to sit with us.

Well…I have a lot of pictures.  Once again, we have been pretty busy.  On Friday afternoon, we went to the Herbst Theater to watch Stella in a ballet recital.  Stella was wonderful and Ella was just so excited and happy and in awe.  After the recital, we came home and Ella immediately wanted to change into her ballet stuff.  She announced that she was Stella.  She asked me who I wanted to be and I said, “Ella”.  She then told Sunny that she was Mrs. Tilly – Stella’s ballet teacher.  Ella danced all around the house.  It was really sweet.

Stella right after she came off the stage.  Ella gave her those flowers.

Ella right after the recital outside of City Hall.

Our beautiful ballerina.

Lighting the shabbat candles.

After dinner, we watched Wall-E (again) for movie night.

This morning, I had some things to do, and Sunny took Ella with her to collect money for the Junior Giants.  They had their annual glove drive and Sunny and Ella hit the streets around the stadium to collect donations of money or baseball gloves.  I met up with them and was able to witness the sweetness of the 2 of them.   Sunny was yelling out things like, “Donate money or a glove to help the Junior Giants play baseball” and Ella would repeat the same exact thing.  It was so cute.  After a few hours, we went and had lunch and then Sunny and Ella went to the game and I went to do some errands.

Ella in the morning wearing her money collecting  apron.

The new hat that Sunny bought Ella.

Looking cute as ever in her new hat.

Ella taking a fundraising break to climb on a police barrier.

After all of the baseball stuff, we went swimming with the Kim/Arenas and ended the evening at Los Jarritos for some delicious Mexican food.

Ella and Stella at the jukebox.