Life With Ella

On Sunday, we took a walk over to the ballpark where they were showing a live broadcast of the SF Opera Turandot.  It was cool to watch the opera at the ballpark for us, but boring for Ella. Luckily, they had a lot of kids activities to do.  Ella got her face painted and made a beautiful paper lantern.  Then she went over to the little ball field and hit some balls.  I mean she really hit some balls!  Today was a big day at school for Ella.  Ella had a classroom share today.  Every day, for 5 weeks, each student presents something that they want the class to know about them.  Ella brought in her drum set and played the drums for her class.  We weren’t allowed to watch the share.  Ella was so confident about what she wanted to to.  She showed us the night before and she was like, “The drums can be complicated and challenging.  I have been playing the drums for 2 months and I find them easy.  Here are some of my beats.  I also like to do attention beats in case people aren’t listening.  I saw Luisa right after Ella’s share and she gave me a thumbs up and said that Ella was awesome.  Ella also was the first in her class to loose a tooth this school year.  She is the first on the tooth poster.  Every day when we pick her up, she tells us about how many times she got to see Ms. Alicia.  It really completes her day.

 Ella getting face painted.

 Some serious lantern making,

 Ella smacking the blals out of the little ballpart!

 Ella right before her big drumming share.  Ella looks so proud.

\ MOre fun jumping rope!

 It’s been another busy week and it ended with Ella losing her second tooth!  This week, Sunny and I went to back to school night at Ella’s school.  We spent about an hour in the classroom and wished that we could have stayed for much longer!  The kids are learning so much already.  We learned about the classroom agreements…”1. Respect and care for all people and things.  2. Be safe, try new things and have fun.  3. Be kind to yourself when things feel hard.”  The kids came up with these agreements.  The kids then came up with logical consequences then they are not cooperating and then an action of apology.  Here is a shot of the Consequences and action of apology.  Pretty cool stuff happening at school!

This weekend, we had Friday night movie night with Stella, Juliet, KJ, Helen and Ron.  We love these Friday nights hanging out with our next door family.  Today, we went to a little fair in our neighborhood and mommy met up with Chris and walked around with him telling people why they should vote for him for sheriff.  Ella had fun because there was a bouncy house there.  After the fair, Ella went to Taekwondo.  Towards the end of the class, Ella’s tooth fell out!

 Ella on the monkey bars at school.  She’s getting great at it but falls off at least once a day.

 Ella fooling around with her buddies before school.She was showing them all her loose tooth.

This was hanging in Ella’s classroom.  It tells about her hopes and dreams. Ella hopes to learn more math.

 Ella hanging out on her favorite Lou Seal statue.

 Jumping in the bouncy house.

 Kind of looks like mommy is asking Becca if she just farted.  Doesn’t look like Ella smelled anything.

 Ella and her Taekwondo instructor Steven right after Ella’s tooth fell out.  Notice the tooth between Ella’s fingers.

 Beautiful ELla minus 2 teeth!

We woke up and took off running.   First, we went to a kick off rally for Chris Cunnie – the man we hope will be the newt Sheriff of San Francisco.  It was a great event.  After that, we went and got something to eat and then we went to a little music festival.  Ella’s favorite 7th Grade girl band was performing.  We saw Vons De Qua perform and Ella loved every minute of it.  We all did!  After the show, we went over to ACC to make a tile for Bug.  The ACC is having a fundraiser and you could make a tile and donate money.  Ella pretty much made Bug’s whole tile.  After that. Ella had Taekwondo and then I went and got my hair cut and that was about all we could handle.  Today we spent a lot of time outside, went to lunch at Maria’s and went swimming in the outdoor and indoor pools at the gym.  It was sa great weekend to spend with family.

 Ella and Gracie (the younger sister of Tess, one of the band members),

 The crowd begin to form for Vons De Qua.

 The band!

 Mommy and Ella working on the tile in memory of Bug.

 All done.  It will get glazed and fired in the kiln and it will then be a shiny green tile for the Bug!

 Now off to Taekwando!

Today the 7th graders hosted assembly at CDS.  They are a fun and dynamic group of kids who had a lot of fun doing assembly.  Ella LOVED it and was sitting high up on her knees so she could see the whole thing.  She was laughing and smiling the whole time.  Ella also made an announcement this morning.  She told the school that she was going to see Vons Da Qua, a 7th grade girl band tomorrow.  Ella is one confident kid.  Today, Ella brought home a folder with a little bit of her class work in it.  I will post photos and give translations.

 Looks like Ella is trying to get this kid to do something.

 Waiting to go to assembly.

 Check out Ella in the crowd with that amused look on her face.

 Elephant, antlers, egg and I’m not sure what the G word is.  They were cutting things out of magazines and Ella noticed that the Estee Lauder name started with an E!

 Ella was using the teacher’s old list as scrap paper and filled in her own names.  The top says, “Ella Keep”.  The rest are ages and names of her friends she was thinking about.  By Brickelle’s name you will see that it says 6 and then 3 circles.  Ella told us that the three circles are really 3 quarters because Brickelle is 6 and 3/4!  Next is 5 Luke.  After that is 18 Justin because Justin Bieber is 18 of course.  The next one is 6 Stella, then 5 Juliet.  By Ella’s name it is 5 and 3/4 and then the final one says 1 No Adults.  Love this stuff!

Grandma – to answer your question, helicopter is a game the kids play where they take a jump rope, spin around while dragging the jump rope on the ground, and the kids jump over the rope as it comes to them.  If the rope hits you, (I think a lot of the kids like to get hit) then you have to be the spinner.  Ella had ballet tonight.  This was her second week.  Ella did a fantastic job.  Here are the pics from today.

 Ella joking around with her friend Luke this morning.

 Ella, Luke and Emmi having so much fun in the morning.

 Ella  just loves this bar.

 Monkey bar madness!

 Our beautiful ballerina.

Ella had another great day today.  She said that she went to music, farm and garden and had Spanish.  Sounds like a super busy day!  Ella also had her first ballet class since June.  Mommy took her and said that Ella was so excited to be there and Ms. Laura was so happy to see Ella.  After ballet, mommy, Ella, Helen, Juliet and KJ had dinner at Nama.  I met them later at Blush.  Ella was just happy all day and night.

 Ella swinging the morning away!

 Lining up for school and giving Emmi some sweet love.

Ella had a terrific second day of school today.  Once we hit the school yard, she ran into her classroom, dropped off her backpack and sweatshirt, came running back out and started playing.  Mommy picked her up at 4:45 (Ella’s request because she wanted to stay and go to clay club).  Ella has been telling us things about her day in kindergarten.  Every morning, they do “focus study” which is a one minute meditation.  Ella says that she really likes it.  She also told us about something called “appreciation” where they go around the circle and say what they appreciate.  Ella told us that she said she appreciates her friends.  Another thing that she told us about was that her teacher, Ms. Luisa was telling the class that she used to live in NJ and that her family was there and she didn’t get to see them that much.  Ella said, “Ms. Luisa and I have a connection.  When you have a connection with someone, you do this hand sign”.  I asked Ella what the connection was.  She said, “I used to live in NJ too!”  I asked her when she lived there and she said, “When I was in your tummy”.  I told her that she actually lived in my tummy in SF but that she did have a connection with Luisa – that they both had family who lived in NJ.  Ella said that one of her other classmates also had the same connection.  This all sounds so wonderful.  Ella also told us yesterday that she had art (in the actual art room) and their assignment was to draw or paint something about them that was unique.  Ella told us that she drew a picture of Ella loosing a tooth and that’s what made her unique.  Great stuff!

 Hugs in the hallway from Stella and Juliet before school this morning!

 KJ started his first day of preschool today!  He’s going twice a week and Helen reported that he had a great day today!

 Ella and Emmi on the bar this morning.

 Lining up to go inside.  This is Ella’s teacher Ms. Luisa.

 One last shot before I leave the yard.