The Borders Book Store across the street from our house is closing. They are having big sales – 20, 30, 40% off. I was wandering through the store today and found some really cool stuff. I found these two dry erase books for Ella. One was for math and the other was for phonics. Tonight, before dinner, I showed Ella the math book. Ella is funny with her numbers. She is not as confident with her numbers as she is with her letters (writing them). This is a great book where first you count objects and then write the number underneath the photo. When you’re all done, you pull the tabs and the numbers are revealed. Ella loved this – she began to learn to write her 2 and 3 the correct way – not backwards. Then she learned about adding things together and the last thing that she did was learn about even and odd numbers. She was having so much fun with her math book. She felt so proud when she got the correct answer and really wanted to learn about something when it didn’t make sense to her. I love watching her learning process. At one point after dinner, I was taking Towby out for a walk and Ella heard Stella and Juliet in the hallway. Ella came to the door and said, “Hi you guys – do you want to come in here? I’m learning about math”. I love it that she wanted to share her learning with her buddies. I’ll show her the phonics book tomorrow. We also got her the “The Word Caper” this Leap Frog DVD. She was watching it while we were eating dinner (we were watching the ballgame) and she was so into it. There’s nothing like watching kids who love to learn.
Archive for September, 2010
Math
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010Golden Gate Park
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010We had a great weekend in the great outdoors. Saturday in Oakland, Sunday in Gilroy and today in San Francisco. Today we went to Golden Gate Park, got a pedal boat, went around Stowe Lake, fed some huge carp or coy and had a little picnic. I took Ella to the pool for family swim at around 4:30 and then we all met Debby and Toby at the Public House for dinner. The Giants are doing great and we are getting excited about possibly having a post season here in San Francisco.
Total nerds with the self-timer on the pedal boat.
Ella feeding bread to the giant coy. What a fun day.
Gilroy Gardens
Monday, September 6th, 2010Today we went to Gilroy Gardens with the Kim/Arena clan. The weather was beautiful, the place was really sweet, the kids were wonderful the adults were somewhat well behaved (just kidding) and we had a great time. It was nice to be somewhere local where none of us had ever been. Ella of course had a blast being with her best buddies. Ella loved all the rides and she loved the water part of the park too. I have a lot of pictures to post now.
We drove out there in separate cars – at this very moment, Ella spotted the Kim/Arenas walking through the parking lot.
Sweet Stella.
KJ getting comfortable in his stroller.
Waiting on line for the strawberry ride.
Walking to the next ride.
Having fun on the fish ride.
Ella hitched a ride with KJ.
So sweet.
Firetruck fun. Giving high fives to mommy.
FUn fun fun at the water park. THe kids loved getting the water dumped on their heads and Ella loved the slide. At one point, a big kid accused her of cutting (she didn’t – I was watching the whole thing) and she looked him straight in the eye, put up her fist and said, “I DID NOT CUT”. He kind of looked at her in shock and turned around. At least we know that Ella can take care of herself!
Dippin’ dots.
Ella making a wish. I asked her what her wish was and she said that she wished for the rest of her Annie costume to arrive.
Here we are on the apple and the worm ride.
Our last ride – a very sweet boat ride that was way too short and the line to get on the ride was way too long but we all still had a sweet ride. The kids were more patient than the adults!
Last shot of the day…Ella and her new duck that she named Lilah.
Oakland Zoo
Sunday, September 5th, 2010AJ and Milo were supposed to come today but Milo had a rough time at the airport – he wouldn’t stop crying and was really working himself up so AJ decided that she didn’t feel comfortable flying alone with Milo. AJ – we totally understand. We wish you guys were here with us but we get it! Love you! The day in SF was pretty overcast but we could tell that the sun was trying to come out. We decided to take a little trip to the Oakland Zoo. It’s always fun there. We like the sky ride and train ride and the animals are sweet when you can find them. We had a really sweet day there – Bug was heavy on my heart and Sunny’s heart but that’s part of love and life. We are heading to Gilroy Gardens in the morning with the Kim/Arena clan. The kids are going to have a blast.
The 3 of us on the train.
Our big beautiful girl.
Ella was watching this monkey put on a show.
Standing on giant snake eggs.
Riding a giant caterpillar.
Spidergirl.
A refreshing ice pop on a hot day.
Ella is growing up in front of our very eyes. She’s totally into Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montanna…a little scary.
Ella is so happy at school
Saturday, September 4th, 2010There is nothing more beautiful than picking up Ella from school, having her run to me and give me a big hug and then want to go back and play with her friends. Ella is so happy and confident this year at school. Her whole energy feels different. I guess being one of the oldest kids in preschool is really making a difference for Ella. We both met Ella after school and took a walk over to Bi Rite. Brickelle (who is now in kindergarten) came onto the yard to meet Ella and they gave each other the biggest hug. It was so beautiful. They were both so happy to see each other and they are both doing well in their own classes! We all walked over to Bi Rite together and saw a lot of other CDS families there. It was a beautiful day and a great way to end the week – having great ice cream. Tonight the movie picked was “A Bug’s Life” – pretty intense choice since it will be one week since Bug died on Saturday. Last Friday night, we were all saying goodbye to Bug. We had a sweet night tonight.
On the way to the car. Ella skips to school! She is so happy there.
You can just feel the happiness through the photo.
Beautiful kids!
Brickelle, Ella and their buddy Maya.
Brickelle, Ella and Brooklyn – I can”t believe how much he has grown up.
A great San Francisco scene.
Second day of school
Friday, September 3rd, 2010Ella had another great day at school today. She seems really confident and excited about learning and exploring. A lot of the new kids are still having some trouble adjusting. Ella did a crying report yesterday and did another one today. She thought it was great that this one kid who cried almost the whole day yesterday only cried in the morning today. She also told me that I kid was saying the word “stupid” when they were outside playing on the structure. Stupid is a word that we do not use in our family and Ella knows how strongly we feel about it. She does not use it either. I asked her if anyone said anything to the kid and she said, “No, we were outside so none of the teachers could hear him but I said something, I told him to stop saying stupid”. I asked her how he responded and she said, “He didn’t stop”. Then I asked her what she did when he didn’t stop and she said, “I walked away”. Whether all of this happened or not, I like it that she said that she walked away. This is a good skill to have. After school, Stella and Juliet came over and the girls hung out. Stella started kindergarten at Friends on Wednesday and Juliet is in her final year at Pacific Primary. It was sweet for the girls to get together after their separate days at school. I had a massage tonight and then met everyone at Blush. AJ and Milo are coming this weekend. I am really excited to see them and also excited to see KJ and Milo together.
Ella by the elevator…she still looks a little tired.
In the classroom checking out the fingerpaints.
Jumping on the trampoline – maybe it will wake her up a little.
Ella and Stella tonight at Blush trying to get some Fruity Pebbles in every bite. Notice KJ with his sweet little frozen yogurt goatee.
Ella’s first day of her last year of preschool
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Ella was excited to go to school today. That made us feel so good because we were excited for her to go to school too! Ella had no problem with me leaving the classroom and was excited when I came to get her. I asked her what the best part of her day was and she said, “Miss Alicia – being back in Miss Alicia’s class!” Ella reported that many of the new kids cried and cried and I reminded her that she did the same thing her first year. After school, we went out to dinner in the Castro with Donna and Nikki B. After dinner Ella was taking a walk with mommy and saw a salon – it was a nail salon but Ella thought it was where you can get your hair cut. She can’t get her hair cut there, but we all got a kick out of the name.
A huge preschool smile.
Doing some math with her buddy Clark.
Nikki B, Ella and Donna after a delicious dinner.
This is the place where Ella wants to get her haircut. Oy Vey.
Annie costume
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Before I get into the Annie costume, Ella had her first unofficial day of school today. The orientation went really well. Ella seemed to be really happy to be back at school and was talking up a storm. She was talking to Alicia as if they were long lost friends, filling her in on what she did over the summer. It was actually so cute to watch Ella speaking with Alicia with such confidence and poise. She’s usually a little shy around her. After the orientation, Ella told me that she wanted to grab lunch at the Nordstrom Bistro. Ella had mac and cheese and then ordered ice cream with hot fudge. She used some of the fudge to dip her strawberries and some on the ice cream. After Nordstrom, Ella had a swimming lesson. After the lesson, we had dinner at home. A package was delivered this evening and it was a part of Ella’s Halloween costume. Yes – “Annie’s” dress came in the mail, and of course Ella put it right on. She was so cute in it. The wig should be in sometime this week. We went out for a walk with Towby and at the end of the walk, Ella did a song from Annie for us in the hallway. The song was “dumb dog”.
Ella after eating a whole bowl of mac and cheese.
Chocolate makes Ella very happy.
Sandy and Annie.
Annie walking down the street.and now for the video…