Archive for February, 2010

Friday morning

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

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.118.jpgIn the elevator on the way to the car.  Ella was very excited about eating her chocolate covered granola bar.212.jpg39.jpg48.jpgFriday assembly!

swimming

Friday, February 26th, 2010

We found out last week that Ella’s teacher Megan is going to be leaving SF.  She’s going back to medical school.  She’s been such an amazing teacher and Ella has responded so well to her.  We’re sad to see her go but really happy for her.  Next week will be Ella’s last week with Megan.  We’re in the process of finding another teacher who teaches in a similar way to Megan.  We now have an underwater digital camera. Megan  took a video or 2 underwater.1underwater.jpgNow this is a great shot!211.jpg  Ella showing her chop stick skills.38.jpg Ella sharing her udon noodles with mommy.

Blush

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

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.117.jpgElla and Juliet trying out samples.210.jpg Such big kids.37.jpgA rare photo of Helen and the girls.  Ron was home with KJ.47.jpg The lobby of our building is like a gymnastics studio for the girls.56.jpg66.jpg Beautiful Ella.

Testing things out

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

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.29.jpg Ella and her art project.116.jpgJust a sweet shot of Ella coming up the stairs.

No ballet movie today

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

When I went to pick up Ella from school today, one of the teachers told me that she fell while running on the pre school yard.  I went into the classroom and another teacher was putting a band-aid on her knee.  Ella was crying when she saw me. She was shaking and she seemed really sad or scared.  I held her and kissed her and told her that I was sorry that her knee hurt.  I told her that it would feel better one day.  I asked her if she was ready for ballet and she burst out crying saying that she did not want to go.  She said that she was afraid that her knee would hurt and I just didn’t want to force her.  She was very sensitive and I just wanted to support her.  She loves her ballet class so much and I didn’t want to put her through that if she didn’t really want to go.  She’s doing much better now and we’re making up the class on Saturday,  I’m tired.  Goodnight,

Bowling

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Today we met one of Ella’s classmates, his brother and their parents downtown for some bowling and playing in the park at Yerba Buena.  Its sweet watching Ella play with the boys.  She really had a lot of fun.  She has been practicing hanging on the bars and is getting stronger.  Maybe one day she’ll conquer the monkey bars at her school.115.jpgElla and her classmate Dillon at the bowling alley.28.jpgElla, Dillon and Liam on the slide at Yerba Buena.

First blog on my new computer

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

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.114.jpgHere 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 Ella27.jpgHere’s Ella with 2 of the kids I work with at the volleyball game today.36.jpg46.jpgElla in our Zen Garden when we came home today55.jpgOur doggies in the garden.65.jpgSunny reading to the girls before dinner tonight.74.jpgElla doing one of the animals in charades.

Yerba Buena and the balloon

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

We never made it to the Bay Area Discovery Museum on Monday, but Ella and I did make it downtown, did a little shopping, had lunch and met mommy at Yerba Buena.  It was another beautiful day and Ella played hard!  She still has a cold and cough so we decided to skip ballet.  Here are some pictures of Ella from yesterday.

110.jpgElla walking to the train.

25.jpg Mac and cheese at Nordstrom all gone!

35.jpg Ella at the MLK fountain.

45.jpg54.jpgElla groovin’ on the beautiful red tulips.

64.jpg73.jpg83.jpg93.jpgHaving a blast playing at the Yerba Buena playground.

Ella’s school is off this week for winter break but Sunny and I can’t take off work so we enrolled Ella at the camp at her school.  On Monday night, as I was putting her to bed, we were talking about camp and the teachers who were going to be there.  I told her about 2 teachers who are from her class and one teacher from another class.  She got a little teary and said, “I only want to teachers from my class – I have an idea, let’s skip camp.”  It was so sweet and so sad.  I told her that I promised to talk to the teachers that she knew and to ask them to give Ella some extra love.  She thought that was a good idea.  Today when Ella got to camp, she ran into the room, sat down and immediately began an art project.  I guess she got over her hesitation.  She said she had a great time.

Here are some pictures from tonight of Ella playing “volleyball” with a balloon.  I took Ella to my school on Friday to watch some of the kids that I work with play volleyball.  I guess she liked what she saw.

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More wildlife…a trip to the SF Zoo

Monday, February 15th, 2010

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.

19.jpgElla reading the map trying to figure out where to go first.

2flamingos.jpg3kangaroo.jpg4peacock.jpg6peacock.jpgWildlife!

5train.jpgEllen, mommy and Ella.  Ellen had her eyes closed because she was afraid of the train and Ella was protecting her.

7ellapeacock.jpg Ella had a blast following the peacocks around – not sure how much fun the peacocks had!

A beautiful day in Golden Gate Park

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

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.

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

24.jpg34.jpg44.jpgHere is some of the beautiful scenery that we saw while we were pedaling around the lake.

53.jpgElla is patiently looking for…

63.jpgA gopher who popped his beautiful little head out of his hole.

72.jpg Ella was also feeding the ducks.

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

92.jpgWaiting for the fish to come and get the bread…

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

112.jpg122.jpgMore beautiful nature.