Life With Ella

This year, Ella’s baseball team is called the Tiger Sharks.  They had their first game on Saturday.  Sunny and I are still both coaching.  The game was a lot of fun.  It’s a sweet group of kids.  Ella played second base and catcher.  She is still batting lefty and puts everything she has into the game!

Our beautiful Tiger Shark.

Ella and Dillon hanging out in the Tiger Shark dugout.

 So beautiful!

Mother and daughter out in the field.

 Getting ready to make a play at second.

 I’m pitching again this season.  I only sort of hit one kid during the game.

 Our lefty slugger.

 I wonder if she likes being the catcher if if it’s all about the “costume”.

We just came back from Scottsdale Az after a fun filled weekend.  We went down for Spring Training – Sunny had her Giants Community Fund Board weekend of selling mystery balls to raise money for the Junior Giants.  The board sold all of the balls and raised a lot of money for the Jr. Giants.  We arrived on Thursday and the weather was beautiful.  Ella hit the pool about 1/2 hour after we arrived.  We spent about 2 hours at the pool and then went to David and Jackie’s house to see them, Cindy and Bob and meet Ella’s new little cousin Emma.  It was really sweet hanging out with everyone.  We woke up the next morning to rain and 46º!  It was incredible – the weather was the exact opposite of the day before.  Sunny went to the field early for a field visit and to get to work while Ella and I slept in and had a great breakfast at the hotel.  We met Sunny and everyone else at the ballpark and basically just sold mystery balls.  It was raining way too hard for the game to happen and they finally called it at around 3:00.  At one point, Ella got to see her very first hail storm.  There were a lot of kids there and Ella still had lots of fun.  We were with a great group of people and we didn’t let the weather stop us from having a great time. On Saturday, we went to the game and the weather held up although it was maybe 56º at the most.  The Giants lost by a lot but it was great to get to see a baseball game.  Here are some shots from our weekend adventure.

 Beautiful Ella playing around in the pool.

 Here is sweet Emma.  She’s 10 weeks old.

 The proud father David.

 Happy Aunt Sunny with her great niece!

This is a terrible shot, but Ella found a new sport – skee ball!

 Ella and her spring training buddies Jesse and Bella.

 Sunny and the kids getting shelter from the rain.

 Ella and our friend Julia doing some exercise in the rain.

 The kids were sitting by a warm and cozy fireplace.  Ella really did not enjoy the hail and stinging cold rain.

 Ella and Jesse on Saturday coming back from the game.  A much better day.

 Mommy the sports commentator!  Here is Sunny in the booth with Martie Lurie.

 Mommy giving some pointers to our catcher Hector Sanchez.

 Mommy and Bruce Bochy.  This is a great shot.

Grandma and papa came in last Thursday.  We were able to spend some great time together.  These weekend drive by trips go by way too quickly but we have many beautiful times ahead to look forward to.  We had a great dinner on Friday night and then grandma and papa had a date with Ella while Sunny and I had our own date – Zero Dark 30.  We’ll see you guys again in less than a month!  Can’t wait.  Here are a few pics.

 Walking down the street on Friday night.

 Ella and papa had a heated game of schmear!

Beautiful

 Totally silly!

We love and miss you guys.

Ella had a great week.  First of all, last Friday at school, Ella won the waste free lunch contest.  She has been waiting for about 4 years for the moment when her name was pulled from the hat.  Here is Ella with the other winner, Anabel and Ms. Misty – the farm and garden teacher.

 Ella won a lemon.  She made a cup of lemonade with it.

Over the weekend, Ella had a sleep over at Stella and Juliet’s on Friday night and then they slept over at our house (and KJ too) on Saturday night.  On Sunday, Helen took KJ and the girls to see a stage production of Beauty and The Beast.  They all had a blast.

 Popsicle party with the Kim/Arenas.

On Saturday, Ella went to a Laser Tag party and had so much fun.  Sunny and I had a lot of fun too!

 Ella and her buddy Macy at the laser tag place.

Ella’s class took a trip to the Mission Dolores church on Wednesday and Sunny went on the field trip with Ella’s class.  Ella loved having Sunny with her on the field trip.

 Indians painted this ceiling with vegetable dye.

Ella this morning before the big assembly.

 This is a mural that Ella’s class painted.  Ella drew one of the churches.  I’m not sure which one.

 Ella getting ready to do her presentation.

Now here’s a short video of Ella announcing the project at the assembly today.

I guess I shouldn’t keep saying that I will keep up with this blog – I’m trying.  Things have been great – Ella is loving life and throwing herself into everything in front of her.  She has become an amazing pogo sticker – her record is 500 something.  I’ll have to catch her on video.  She does it one handed, hops all around – she loves her pogo stick.  Sunny and I want to get an adult pogo stick – looks like great exercise.  Here are some shots from the past week.

Beautiful Ella with her missing tooth.  Ella woke up with her tooth missing – she swallowed it in her sleep when her friend Marlowe was sleeping over.   Marlowe swallowed one of her teeth over the summer so Ella knew it was ok to swallow a tooth.

 Ella and Marlowe watching the Powerpuff Girls the morning after a sleep over.

Ella, Hannah and Naomi kicked Sunny and My butt during a wild game of pictionary junior.

We had a blast ice skating the other day.  Ella helped out Sunny on the ice and she was skating like a champ within 5 minutes.

Ella and Isabel went on the carousel after ice skating.

Ella and her buddy Hannah creating a poster for MLK Day at Ella’s school.

 Ella’s beautiful sign.  Joint effort with Ella and mommy.

 A group of sweet kids on the MLK march.

This video is of Ella sparring on Saturday.  She got to spar with one of the instructors.  She was doing such a great job.  She’s really getting into it!

This past weekend, mommy and Ella went to Monterey.  Sunny was invited to accept an award on behalf of the Giants Community fund from the YWCA in Monterey.  Ella and mommy left early on Saturday morning and headed straight for the Monterey Aquarium.  They both LOVED it.  Ella was super excited about the sea horse exhibit, the sharks, the jellyfish and the otters.  In the evening, they had the awards ceremony.  Ella stayed on the stage with mommy as she accepted the award.  Ella was also a big help in setting up the tables at the country club.  She placed chocolate on all of the place settings.  Here are some pictures from their adventure.

 Ella at the sea horse exhibit.

Jellyfish, sharks and otters!

Ella helping withthe table setup.

Ella and mommy accepting the award.

Frost in the morning!

We had a wonderful break with grandma, papa, AJ, Michael, Milo and Nikki B visiting us.  Thank you for coming here!  We love you guys.  Time to get back to the grind.  Here are some pictures from the end of the visit.

 Early morning video.  Milo looks thoroughly entertained – Ella looks like she’s still sleeping.

 The amount of love that these four have for each other can power a small village!  True love.

 Ella and Milo at the space ship on the way to the Ferry Building.

Watching fish.

 Learning about volcanoes.

 Cousin picture in front of the big fish tank.

Milo insisted that AJ come into this picture.

 Walking up to find the butterflies.

 Ella tried to get a butterfly to land on her finger.

 Saying see ya soon to AJ.  We love you!

 Saying see ya later to a very sad Milo.

 Cooking dinner with Nikki B.