A photo from the other day

May 13th, 2008

Here is a cute picture that a photographer from the Giants Community Fund took of us outside of the ballpark the other day.

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Happy Mother’s Day!

May 11th, 2008

I just wanted to wish Sunny and my mom – two of the most beautiful mothers that I know, a very happy mother’s day. I also want to give a shout out to all the other amazing moms/grandmas that I have in my life. You have all inspired me in many different ways.

And now a quick word from Ella…

From Winnie The Pooh to Kaboom

May 11th, 2008

We started off the day picking up mommy from across the street. The Giant’s Community Fund was collecting baseball gloves and money to help make sure each Junior Giant would have a glove to play with. Mommy was working – trying to help the kids. Ella got a hot dog and we were ready for the next part of our day.

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Mommy and Ella in front of the ballpark

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Look how happy Ella looks with her very own hot dog

We went to see a children’s production of Winnie The Pooh with Stella, Juliet, Helen and Ron in the afternoon. It was a really sweet production. The girls were amazing. They were super quiet and really paid attention during the entire hour!

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Here are Ella and Juliet and one of Juliet’s friends with Winnie the Pooh after the show.

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Ella, Stella and Juliet taking a ride on a Trojan horse outside of the theater

After the show, we all went to our homes and the girls rested. Tonight, we walked over to the kids park behind the ballpark and watched Kaboom…some amazing fireworks that a local rock station puts on. Before we left for Kaboom, Helen and Ron had some friends over and Helen bought a cake. She was so sweet and put 2 1/2 candles in it and we all sang (is that really a word?) “Happy half birthday” to Ella. Ella is 2 1/2 today!

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Ella driving the boat at the kid’s park. This was the first time we went to the park at night!

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Stella wearing Sunny’s glove. She kept coming up to us and trying to scare us with the glove.

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Ella and mommy watching Kaboom. Ron and Juliet are in the background.

Ella’s many looks

May 10th, 2008

We had a fun day today. We started off at Stella and Juliet’s house with a playdate with the other kids (Mei, Kai, and Tyler). The kids had a lot of fun together. I took Ella home and she seemed exhausted, but she failed to take a nap. The best she did was put her head on the pillow for about 10 minutes. Later in the afternoon, we ran some errands around the neighborhood and ended up at Borders reading lots of books. Mommy met us at Borders. Tonight, we went to the ballgame with the Kim/Arenas. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, but around the 5th inning, Ella began to cry and said she wanted to go home. Helen and I took Ella and Stella home and Ron, Juliet and Sunny stayed for 2 more innings. Ella ended her night running into the hallway completely naked screaming that she wanted to play My Gym by the elevator. Of course we wouldn’t let her which made her cry and then she finally surrendered and went to sleep. Here are some pictures of Ella that I took today. She had many different looks.

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Here is a picture from this morning at Stella and Juliet’s

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I took these two after Ella’s “nap”. She was snacking on apples and soy butter

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Here is Ella about an hour before the baseball game. She was fully clothed and we were hanging out listening to music. All of a sudden a song came on and she said, “I want to take off my shoes, shirt and pants and I want to be naked and have on my tutu” so of course, we followed her orders!

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Ella with a big smile on her face after having some cotton candy at the ballgame

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We took a little walk around the ballpark…it was a cold and windy night

Ella has a blast at My Gym

May 9th, 2008

Ella had a great time at my gym today. I had a great time playing with her and filming some of it. After My Gym, we went to get our grilled cheese sandwich, went downtown and did some shopping, came home and played around. Tonight, we went to Stella and Juliet’s for dinner. We had a lot of fun. At one point, all the girls left the table and Helen, Sunny and I just sat at the table and watched them and their dynamics. Instead of intervening, we let them work their stuff out and for the most part they did a great job. We are so lucky to have the Kim/Arena family next door!

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Ella after My Gym. This would have been a perfect picture but Ella wiped her face with her hand stamp and she has this blue mark on her face.

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Ella hanging out in the garden waiting for the dogs to do their thing

A CUTE MY GYM VIDEO

Ella “reading”

May 8th, 2008

Ella has always been into her books, but recently she has been telling us, “I want to read it by myself”. This morning, Ella woke up, came downstairs and started “reading”. I say reading in quotes because she obviously doesn’t read, she just puts the book on her lap, gets a really concentrated look on her face and flips through the pages. She had a pile of books on the table, sat down on the big leather chair and went through each book. I took these 2 pictures when she was reading “Llama Llama Mad At Mama”.

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Photos from Juliet’s Birthday party

May 5th, 2008

Maybe some of the photos shot by quickly in the video, so just in case…I’ve chosen some shots that I really like from today.

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Ella dancing around right before the party started

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Tyler, Ella and Stella hanging out shooting bubbles

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This was the first stage of the face painting. Ella sat on Mommy’s lap for a little protection

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It’s getting a little more detailed

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Take a look – what do you think?

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Can you meow like a cat?

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What a cool looking jeweled cat

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We are the proud parents of a glittery cat

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The three amigas…how beautiful

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Its cupcake time

Juliet’s birthday party

May 5th, 2008

Today was Juliet’s birthday party and her actual birthday. The party was a blast. It was at the same place Brandon had his party yesterday. The party started out with bubble guns and kids and their parents chasing each other all over the place. Next was a clown. The second the clown entered the place, Ella started crying. She was the only kid there freaked out by the clown. I have a little issue with clowns too, so maybe I passed it on to her. Mommy took Ella for a walk while I took pictures of the party. On the walk, Ella was crying, “I am scared, I am scared of clowns”. After the clown did her skit, she did some face painting. Ella, at this point, was in her stroller, laying down, binkie in mouth, blankie at cheek, pretty much in a daze. As soon as Stella walked over to her and showed her the face painting job that the clown did, Ella shot up and told us that she wanted to get her face painted. Ella waited her turn and got her face painted. After the face painting there were yummy cupcakes, a piƱata and then the clown made balloon things for the kids. Ella asked for a helicopter. After all of the drama, as we were leaving Ella said, “I love clowns”. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIET. What a beautiful day.

Here is a video that I made of the day. I’ll post some beautiful pictures later.

Fun and busy Saturday

May 4th, 2008

Today, we started the day going to a Country Fair at Children’s Day School. This was the first event at CDS that we have been to as a family. It was fun, a little hectic, lots of kids and parents…I don’t know if we’re ready for all of this! Ella watched a sheep get sheared, played on the slide, looked at the chickens, played a few games, had a cupcake and some cookies – she really had a good time. Here are some pictures…

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Ella told us that she was driving to New Jersey

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Playing a beanbag game

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Ella about to meet the boy on the other side of the wall who was giving her back the beanbags

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Ella and some other kids checking out the sheep with her new haircut

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Here are some of the CDS chickens

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Helping Ella climb up the curvy pole

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Ella and mommy having some fun together

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Look at our cute little chicken

We came home and Ella had some gnocchi (Ella’s request) and then Ella took a little nap. At around 4:00, we all headed over to the Channel park to go to Brandon’s birthday. The party was a train themed party – the birthday boy loves Thomas the Tank Engine. It was a really sweet party and Ella had a blast. Ella had a lot of treats including sugar cookies that she decorated and icing from a green and a blue cupcake.

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Ella arrived at the party in her red car

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Here is the birthday boy Brandon riding on a cool train that his parents set up

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Here’s Ella riding on the cool train

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Waiting for the big bubbles

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Look at all of the bubbles! Mommy did a great job making bubbles with Hariel’s dad Malcolm

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I got it!

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Look at the amazing bubbles that mommy made

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Look at the cupcake cake

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Giving Brandon a happy birthday hug

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Beautiful Ella on top of tall mountain

After the party, we went over to Stella and Juliet’s to drop off Juliet’s birthday present. I didn’t have my camera, but I think Ron got some really cute shots. Tomorrow is Juliet’s birthday. We can’t wait to celebrate Juliet!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA

May 3rd, 2008

Happy birthday Grandma. We love you and can’t wait to see you. We hope you have a beautiful day.