Life With Ella

Today was a very special day for mommy, Ella and papa.  The golfing threesome went to Fleming and Ella did 9 holes with mommy and papa.  They all had a great time and mommy and papa think Ella is a natural.  Here are some great pics that mommy took.

We have been having a wonderful time with grandma and papa here.  Ella wakes up every morning and crawls into bed with them and snuggles for a little while.  Such special times!  On Christmas, Jesse, Heather and Colette met us at Yank Sing for some delicious Dim Sum.  After Dim Sum, everyone came back here and we hung around talking and Ella did a lot of art work and projects.  Colette brought her sweet dog Minka over (beautiful black lab) and Panda seemed to like her.  Panda did have a little man complex and every time he was on one of our laps and Minka came near him, he growled.  They were really great together.  Ella did a lot of drawing with the gift that Jesse and Heather gave her and Heather and Ella worked on a snow/glitter globe project.

On Thursday, mommy had to work so grandma, papa, Ella and I went to Marin to Tennessee Valley and took a really sweet hike down to the beach.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk.  In the evening, we met Abigail and Ray for dinner at a sweet little Italian restaurant in our neighborhood.

Today, mommy had to work again, so grandma, papa, Ella and I went to the Marine Mammal center and learned so much about protecting the creatures in the ocean and some of the bad effects of every day human behavior.  After our journey, we went into Sausalito and had lunch.  Tonight, we all had dinner at home and Becca came by to play poker.  Ella is getting good!  She cleaned our clocks.

This has been a really wonderful, relaxing week full of love, spending great time together and exploring!

 You gotta love the self timer!

Doing a little research…

I wonder what Jesse is showing mommy.

Art projects with Heather.  These two can spend hours together creating.

 Tennessee Valley Hike day.  So sweet.

 Learning about how we can destroy marine mammal life.

 Saw these beautiful deer on the way out.

 Love in Sausalito.

It is finally sinking in that we are on winter break!  Grandma and papa arrived yesterday and we are all having a great time.  Today, Ella went to see the Nutcracker with grandma and papa.  Reports from the grandparents say that Ella was on the edge of her seat.  She has a much better attention span than I do!  After the Nutcracker, I met the trio for lunch – mommy was still at work.  Tonight, Ella and I learned how to play poker.  Mommy, grandma and papa already knew how.  Ella is a serious gambler.  She won one hand on a bluff and if we were playing with real money, she would have lost her shirt!  She was really funny tonight.

 Ella in the Zen garden with Juliet and Audrey.  I took this from our bedroom window.

 Love before the Nutcracker.

 Ella intently listening to grandma reading the hundred dresses which Ella just received from KK.

 There was lots of laughter tonight.

 Ella wants to go all in!

Ella got her purple belt today!  We started off the day at the zoo and bumped into some old friends from the neighborhood.  Ella had a terrific time but was sad when we had to go because they were so busy playing in the playground at the park that we hardly got to see any animals.  Ella got over it after we saw a tiger, leopard, hippo, lion, some monkeys and a very active and happy rhino on the way out.  Later on in the day, Ella earned her purple belt in Taekwondo.  She was very proud and is showing some great progress.

 Friday night movie night with the Kim/Arena clan.  We gave them all Despicable Me minions for Chanukah.  Here are all the kids watching Despicable Me 2 with their minions on their laps.

 It was a beautiful day today.

 Busy working on building with some leftover sticks and wood.

 Ella had some great kicks.

 Ella is the youngest student in the group of purple belt recipients.

 FANTASTIC!

 The new belt is on!

 The class.

 Another moment of acheievement with Steven.

I’m already behind!  Where does the time go?  Grandma and papa were here last week and we had such a beautiful time with them.  The love was perfect, the weather was perfect, the crab was perfect – even the movie Frozen was pretty perfect.  Ella and her grandparents are so in love with each other and it brings us such great joy to watch all of the love.

 First night of Chanukah selfie.  Good job Sunny!

 Ella blowing bubbles around a cool sculpture down town.

 Waiting to go bungee jumping.

Watch Ella fly!

 Ella and her cool motorcycle skills.

 Second night of Chanukah.

 Papa did really well during our heated game of dreidel.  He just kept hitting gimel, gimel, gimel…

 Third night of Chanukah.

 We fought the crowds on Saturday and did a little shopping.

 So much love – Happy Chanukah!  Thanks so much for being with us grandma and papa.  We love you.