Chinchillas and Hamsters!

June 21st, 2013

Today, Ella came home from camp with 136 pictures on her camera!  I narrowed it down to 17 here.  Ella had a great time today and her two highlights were watching a chinchilla run around the room and petting it and petting and feeding hamsters.  Here are her pics from today.

114.jpg Turtle up for adoption!

28.jpg38.jpg48.jpg58.jpg66.jpg75.jpg83.jpgChinchilla photo shoot.

93.jpg115.jpg124.jpg134.jpg144.jpg153.jpg162.jpgFun with the hamsters.

103.jpg172.jpg Self portraits.

Camp days 2 and 3

June 20th, 2013

Ella is continuing to have a blast at SPCA camp.  She spent time with cats, kittens, rats, saw some mounted horses, dogs, puppies, made toy piñatas for rats, made cat toys, learned about the environment and is just having so much fun.  Here are her pictures from Tues and Weds.

110.jpg27.jpg37.jpg Here are some of Ella’s friends…Juliet, Emmi and Macy.

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57.jpgDucks!

65.jpg Bug/Panda looking dog.

123.jpgSPCA gang in the morning.

74.jpgMore hamsters or guinea pigs.  Not sure what they are.

82.jpg Ella took a picture of Juliet’s picture of the mounted horse.

92.jpg The art of love.

102.jpg113.jpg Self portraits.133.jpgI gave Panda a practice run of the drugs that I want to give him when we fly to NY.  It zonked him out!

143.jpg Took Ella and Emmi over to ACC after camp to see Pineapple and Becca.

152.jpg Dress up time!

SPCA Camp this week!

June 18th, 2013

Today was Ella’s first day at SPCA Camp.  She appropriately wore her ACC (Animal Care and Control) t-shirt.  Enough said.  Ella, Stella and Juliet are all attending SPCA camp.  Ella and Juliet are in the same group and Stella is in the older group.  We sent Ella to camp with the little camera this morning.  Tonight’s blog will be SPCA camp through the eyes of Ella…

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Happy Father/Papa’s Day and catching up

June 16th, 2013

First of all, happy father/papa’s day.  We love you so much.  You are the best dad and papa.  Can’t wait to see you next week!  Ella had a great week at golf camp.  Can’t wait to see you guys play a little together.

Here are a few pics from the past week.  It was Mommy’s birthday on Wednesday and she took the day off, played 9 holes (while Ella was at golf camp) we gave mommy a golf lesson for her birthday so then she had a golf lesson.  At night, we had dinner at Roy’s and then the Kim/Arena clan came over with delicious peach pie.  It was a beautiful day and night for mommy.

17.jpg We took Ella, Stella and Juliet to see Epic last Sunday and they were very excited to see this ad for the new Monsters University movie.

25.jpg35.jpg Ella and mommy sharing the beautiful love at Roy’s.

45.jpg Panda loves sitting at the table with us!

Taking notes at golf and going to the zoo

June 12th, 2013

Ella loved her second day of golf camp.  When we went to pick her up, she was in a classroom meeting and she was taking notes.  Here is a picture of the notes she was taking.

55.jpgBelieve in yourself, stay positive, concentrate, perseverance, Don’t give up!  Try, try again.  We love that she is learning this great stuff and LOVE that she was taking notes!

After golf camp, I took Ella to the zoo and we met up with Marlowe and her dad.  Ella and Marlowe had a blast.16.jpg Our beautiful butterfly.

24.jpg Hanging out by the prairie dogs and meercats.

34.jpg Petting, feeding and brushing the goats…a favorite thing to do at the zoo.

44.jpg We saw the baby giraffe again…this time she was with her mommy.  So sweet.

Golf camp and Ella’s first non-fiction book

June 11th, 2013

Ella went to her first day of golf camp today.  She said that she had a great time.  We are going to have to go and spy on her during the week!  Here is a picture of Ella at home this morning before camp.

1golf.jpg

Next, here is Ella’s first non-fiction book.  She did this over a period of a few weeks at school.  She came up with the idea on her own and did the whole thing by herself.  We love everything about this book!

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Happy 50th Anniversary Grandma and Papa

June 9th, 2013

Today is grandma and papa’s 50th Anniversary.  We love you guys so much and can’t wait to celebrate your amazing life together at the end of the month.  Here’s to 50 more!

Ella got her green belt with a black stripe today.  She was doing some amazing kicks today.  Mommy and I were watching and it blew us away.   Here are some shots of Ella at Taekwondo.

13.jpg This is the face of a very happy and excited child.

22.jpg THe big kids waiting to get their belts.

32.jpg42.jpg Getting the promotions from Steven.

52.jpgPutting on the new belt!

62.jpg The whole class.

71.jpg Ella and her very proud teacher.

Ella and my students at a gig

June 5th, 2013

Today, Ella came with me and some of my students to play a gig at the Exploratorium.  Sunny had a board meeting and couldn’t come, so Ella hung with us.  Ella had a blast hanging with the 13 and 14 year old girls.  It was a really mellow gig, only two students performed, and Ella loved being there.  The kids really loved having her with them.

11.jpg Just in case you were wondering how the ocean got created…

21.jpgWalking on the fog bridge.

31.jpg Our cool little surfer.

41.jpg During rehearsal.

51.jpg The gang.

61.jpg Ella and Melissa watching the performance.

7.jpg At the end of a super fun night.

A trip to SF ACC

June 2nd, 2013

On Friday, I picked up Ella from school and then we picked up Stella and Juliet from their school.  We went out for yogurt and then went to visit Becca at SF Animal Care and Control.  Ella was very excited to introduce Stella and Juliet to Pineapple who now lives at the ACC.  Stella was super psyched and put her arm out for Pineapple to climb up on.  Juliet was a little hesitant but after a few minutes of watching Pineapple hop from Ella back to Stella, she put out her arm and didn’t want Pineapple to go to anyone else.  We also met a puppy named Tory who had a terrible thing happen to her.  She was brought in a few weeks ago after beaten so badly.  She is blind due to traumatic cataracts and other things were done to her, but she fought for her life and is doing so much better!  Ella fell in love with her and asked if we could adopt her.  We told her that she needs to be with people all the time but we were sure that Becca would make sure that she would go to the best home in the world.  We didn’t go into details with the girls, but we did tell them that someone very mean hurt Tory.  They had a hard time wrapping their mind around it.  The kids are so loving and beautiful.

1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg The kids (last one is Becca’s kid Tucker) with Pineapple.

5.jpg6.jpg Tory!

An amazing weekend in Disneyland!

May 30th, 2013

We went to Disneyland this past weekend to celebrate my birthday and because we wanted to go to Disneyland!  We went with the Kim/Arena clan, Jesse and Heather joined us and so did Emily.  We had such a fantastic weekend.  For anyone who was there who is reading this, it was so great to get to hang out.  This was the first time that Ella was at Disneyland with other kids.  Although she had a great time with the adults, she had such an amazing time being there with Stella, Juliet, KJ and Isaac.  Ella went on some rides she was never on before.  She went on Space Mountain – sat next to Heather and had her head buried in Heather for the whole ride.  She made it through and actually said she liked it!  Ella also went on Indiana Jones for the first time…she has been looking forward to doing this ride for a while.  The last new ride that Ella went on was Splash Mountain.  She did not like it at all and cried from the first big drop to the last one.  She is not interested in going back on that one.  Here are some pics from our weekend.

112.jpg Getting ready to go on the Star Wars ride.

23.jpg On line for Autopia.

33.jpg Ella drove me around on Autopia.  She’s not the greatest driver!

42.jpg Ella right before we blasted off on Space Mountain.

52.jpg Here is a picture of our picture on Space Mountain.  Stella and I were in the front and a very crouched down Ella was next to Heather!

61.jpg Ella and Jesse on Buzz Blasters.

71.jpg Ella and Juliet caught up with Alice who was kind of a jerk.

81.jpg Jesse, Heather and I on Splash Mountain.

91.jpg Ella after Splash Mountain.

101.jpg113.jpg121.jpg131.jpg Jesse and Heather treated us to a very special birthday dinner at Club 33 – a fantastic private restaurant in Disneyland.  It’s wonderful to have friends in high places!  Notice the fancy toilet…

141.jpg Sunny and I on the Cars ride the first time around.

151.jpg Our car raced against Jesse, Ron and the kids.  They beat us!

161.jpg Here’s the “Disney shot” of Sunny and me on Radiator Springs racers.

171.jpg Here’s the Disney shot of Ella’s car.

181.jpg191.jpg Jesse and his posse.  The kids LOVED Jesse and all of the Disney stories that he shared.

20.jpgRadiator Springs second time around.

211.jpg This shot really made Sunny laugh.  Check out my hair.

221.jpg231.jpg Snack break!

24.jpg Ella and Juliet reading the Disneyland newspaper.

25.jpg Heading back in to DCA!

26.jpg Ella is checking off rides from her list.