Life With Ella

We went to our first ballgame since we’ve been back from NY tonight.  The Giants are in a wild card race with the Rockies and that’s the team that we played.  It was an unusually beautiful balmy night and the Giants won!  Ella made it through the entire game.  We had so much fun.  Ella also wore a Giants jersey and leggings.  She didn’t even suggest that she wore a dress to the game.  She was very serious about her “uniform”.  She even put on one of her Giants hats.  So cute.

Ella in her uniform.

Even down to her orange Adidas.

I took this as Ella was leaping from the ottoman.

Heading to the game.

Yay – we won the game!

The weather is beautiful and we have been having a lot of fun playing outside.  Ella is really excited to go back to school next week.  What a change from last year.  Not too much anxiety or anticipation from any of us.  Now that’s a beautiful thing.

These pictures were taken at a park on Wednesday.  It was in a different part of town which is pretty cold, but Ella had a blast.  She especially loved the “flat swing”.

Ella collected all of the sunglasses that she could find in the house and modeled them for us.  I took this one right as the battery was running out in the camera.  Maybe she’ll do it for us again.

LOVE!!!!!

Enjoying ice cream at the Crossroads Cafe.

Enjoying Ron at the Crossroads Cafe.

Being brave and daring with mommy on a very special kind of slide with no sides.

We have been very active over the past few days.  Ella starts school next week and we have been taking advantage of the end of the the summer.  We have also been spending a lot of time with Stella and Juliet and Ella has been so happy about this.  Ella borrowed Juliet’s scooter the other day and Ella and I took the scooter outside and she rode around the ballpark.  Ella loved it and was really good at it.  We took the scooter for another spin tonight to check out the ballgame.  We have also been checking out some different parks around San Francisco.  Ella has become a great climber.  Check out the pictures.

Ella and I went on this roller coaster at the Oakland Zoo. Ella was screaming the whole time and at one point she screamed, “I want to get off – I want to get off”…but when it was over she told me that she did a great job and that she was really brave.  She was proud.

Here is Ella with our friends Tonia and Simon’s new baby Lola.  Lola is 2 weeks younger than Milo and 1 week younger than KJ.  Ella loved being able to hold her.

Ella playing at the purple playground.

Ella having a lot of fun on the scooter.

We took a little detour and went to the ballpark.  It’s open to the public when there isn’t a game.

Ella loves this Lou Seal statue.

The perfect piece of equipment to play on for the 3 Musketeers.

Ella looking a little like Jackie O wandering around the playground.

Spidergirl!

Sweet Stella climbing the web.

What an amazing climber!  She made it to the top.

Sweetness.

Riding the scooter into the night.

Hanging out in the free section.

Today Helen and I took the girls to the Exploratorium.  The girls had a lot of fun.  They are older and more interested in things.  The girls did a lot of individual exploring.  We all met up from time to time and finally ended the day feeding seagulls (we wanted to feed ducks) around the pond where the Palace of Fine Arts is.  It was great to watch the girls fling bread at these seagulls who jumped out of the water and caught the bread in their beaks.  At the end, a few ducks swam over but they had no chance against the seagulls.  Tonight we had movie night…Nemo at our house.  The girls came over and Helen and Ron got a little break with KJ.  Great day and night.  I am very tired.Ella exploring the music.Juliet and Ella trying to see how quietly they could walk.Some more fun activities.Shadow dancing. Buddies taking a stroll on a beautiful day. Juliet helping Ella get rocks out of her shoe. Beautiful girls. Ella took this picture of Helen and the girls.Feeding the seagulls. MOVIE NIGHT!

This past weekend, Sunny took Ella and Juliet to “tall mountain” to fly a kite.  They were both really enthusiastic and did a great job.  They got the kite about 6 feet in the air which I think is pretty cool for 2 three year olds.  They also did a lot of fighting over who’s turn it was.

They didn’t know that I was there taking these pictures.  I love the huddle that they were in.  I think they were discussing the direction of the wind.

Bossy Ella…”No Juliet, it’s my turn!”

Ella with our friend Donna’s cat Queenie.  Ella is so gentle with animals.

Ella took this picture of me.  She’s getting really good.

Our beautiful little crazy Cinderella.  Ella decided that she was going to wear her “not cheap” Cinderella dress to dinner with Courtney and Candace.

After a fun dinner with Candace and Courtney.

We had a great time in the Russian River.  We stayed at a really sweet place called  The Boon Hotel.  We went to Armstrong Woods which is similar to Muir Woods but much more mellow as far as tourists and we pretty much stayed in the the pool for the rest of the time.  Ella had a blast and she did a lot of swimming with a vest on.  The vest helped  her with her confidence in the water, but Ella worked hard.  She “rode the bicycle” like nobody’s business.  Ella just kept going and going, moving her legs like she was riding a bicycle.  We are going to sign her up for swimming lessons this fall.  On Friday, we stopped at this place called TrainTown on the way home.  It was a cute little place that had a train, ferris wheel, roller coaster and some more rides.  Ella went on her first roller coaster and her first big girl ferris wheel.  It was fun.  On Saturday, we joined Sunny at AT& T Park – Sunny was doing a Junior Giants event and we were fooling around on the field.  It was a lot of fun.  Last night, Sunny and I took Juliet and Ella to see Ponyo.  It was a really sweet movie.  Ella loved it and pretty much understood it.  Great weekend!

Armstrong Woods.

Ella and I walking through the woods.

Going deeper and deeper into the woods.

Ella found this money on a treasure hunt that Sunny set up for her.

Fun fun fun at the pool.

On the train at traintown.

One of the stops on the train was to the petting zoo.

Playing in the little school house.  Ella asked teacher mommy why airplanes had to fly so high in the sky.

The train is leaving the station.

Right after the roller coaster ride.

Our view from the top of the ferris wheel.

Ella flying her very own plane.

Shoulder ride races.

Here are the girls making a pyramid. So much fun had by all.