Life With Ella

Things have been super hectic for us but wonderful for Ella.  Last week, Ella and her friend Tate’ had farm duty at school.  They got there a little early, went into the farm with Ms. Misty and found some eggs in the chicken coop.  They also did some clean up.  This week, it was Ella’s turn for the class share.  They usually have an assigned share, for example…bring in your favorite book or something that you do with your family or teaching the class how to do something.  For the last share, they can share anything they want except a toy.  Ella decided that she wanted to share Panda.  Ella’s teacher Luisa agreed to let Ella bring in Panda and on Wednesday, Sunny brought Panda to school and Ella presented him to the class.  Sunny reported that both Ella and Panda did an amazing job.

 Ella and Tate’ on farm duty.

Ella listening to Panda’s heart beat at the vet’s office the other day.

 Panda and Ella – they are quite a team!

This was a very busy weekend for us.  On Friday after school, Ella had baseball practice and then went to her friend Emmi’s birthday party.  Emmi’s party was a blast and Ella’s favorite girl band from school, Vons da Qua played at the party.  Ella was mesmerized and at the end of the party told me that she feels like she’s a member of the band.  She’s so cute.  When we came home, we celebrated Juliet’s birthday with Juliet and the Kim/Arena clan.  Good times and delicious ice cream cake had by all.  On Saturday, I took my big test.  I have no idea how I did but I feel so happy that it’s over.  Sunny and Ella went to the Country Fair at CDS and then I took Ella to her baseball game while Sunny went to a real Giants game and watched them take their first win in a while.  On Saturday night, I took 2 of my students to go see another one of my students in a musical and Sunny and Ella had dinner with Hannah, Naomi and Phyllis.  Today, Ella and Sunny took bike ride and took Panda to a dog run and I had a softball game.  This afternoon, we went to Juliet’s birthday party at Pump It Up.  The party was terrific, Ella had so much fun and then we came home and all spent the evening in the Zen garden eating left over birthday party food.  What a great weekend (except for the test).

 The little girls watching the big girls.  Quite amazing.

 This weekend was Emmi’s turn to get Trilby so Ella, Emmi and Trilby got another photo of with VDQ!

 Beautiful night with the Kim/Arena’s to celebrate Juliet.

 Ella at her baseball game after thir.  She had Panda “face painted” on her.

 Lots of bubbles in the garden.

Dancing with panda.

 CUPCAKES!

Today is a very special day because it’s the birthday of a VERY special woman, mom, grandma, wife, friend… We love you so much.  Wish we were there to give you a huge hug.  Hope you have a beautiful day.

 Ella getting ready to go to the game tonight.

Before I forget, Happy Birthday Nikki B!  We love you.  We’re so happy you’re so happy.  Today, Sunny brought Panda to pick up Ella at school.  Ella was in heaven and all of her friends got to meet him.  Panda was super sweet with the kids.  Sunny took some great pictures.  We are going to have a busy weekend of sports…Ella has a game tomorrow morning, we are going to see the Giants on Saturday night and then I have a softball game on Sunday.  Test studying is going well…I really hope I pass the first time around!

 Sweet Ella at ballet this past week.

 Ella and Panda this morning before school.

 This morning there was a sustainability fair at Ella’s school.  Her class and the other kindergarten class were on a mission to save the parks.  They had us write postcards to Governor Brown saying, “Please save the parks.  Keep them clean and green”.  Ella was super proud of the work they did.  We were proud too.

 Ella and her friend Macy hard at work.

 Ella getting mommy a pen.

 Panda picking up Ella from school.  All of her friends rushed to say hi to him.  He was terrific.  Stayed right on Ella’s lap!

 Warming up before baseball.

Ella and Panda are quite the pair.  Ella is being so responsible with him.  Every day when we get home from school/work, she takes him for a walk.  Of course either Sunny or I am with them, but Ella is the one who does the walking with Panda.  Every morning, Sunny takes Panda for a walk, they come back at around 6:30 and he races up the stairs and jumps into Ella’s bed.  It’s so much easier for me having Panda wake up Ella.  He puts her in the best mood!  She does need to catch up on her sleep though.  Life continues to be busy and crazy.  I think both Sunny and I will feel less stress by the end of May.  Not too much longer to go.  Here are 2 pictures of Ella and Panda from today’s walk.

 They bumped into the Quacker boat mascot.  Panda was not freaked out at all!

 2 beauties strolling down King Street.

Today was Ella’s first baseball game.  If you call it T-ball, Ella will correct you because nobody on the team hits off a T.  The whole team is hitting off the coach and today, the coach was me.  Ella did a great job!  She got hits, played first base and also was the catcher during one inning.  She is totally into it and we love it.  We decided to keep Gabe who Ella has re-named Panda.  He is such a sweet little guy and Ella is totally in love with him.  He has a great personality and is really mellow.  On Friday night, we had all the kids over for movie night and Panda was wonderful.

 A little tree pose before the game.

 Sweet Mr. Panda.

 Ella is totally into walking and taking care of Panda.

The next two weeks are going to be a little stressful for me.  I have a big test to get my Music Teacher credential on May 5.  After that, I’ll be good.  I will do my best to pass the test.  Ella has been in camp at CDS all week – her school is on Spring Break.  So far, they went on a mural tour, went to AT&T Park and got a tour of the ballpark. went to the Bi-Rite store (the creamery was closed when she was there so she didn’t get any ice cream), and today they went to the SPCA and met a lot of animals.  Speaking of animals, we may be adopting a new dog.  He is a 5 year old chihuahua named Gabe.  He was found wandering the streets.  He is sweet and gentle and kind and needs love.  He jumped into Ella’s lap the first time he saw her.  We’re going to to take him for the weekend and see how it goes.  Ella totally loves him.  Tomorrow Ella goes to a tea house to have some tea and stuff.  Here are some pictures from this week and last weekend.  We went to opening night at the ballpark – the Giants won and we saw some great fireworks afterwards.  Ella’s bike riding is amazing and all she wants to do is go ice skating!  Oy vey.

 Ella going up the VIrgin AMerica tunnel at the ballpark.

 Beautiful Ella at the game with cool light up gloves.

 This was after ballet on Tuesday.  Hannah’s mom Meghan and I could not stop laughing and didn’t have the heart to tell Hannah about her little situation.  I don’t even think Ella noticed!

 Ella made this cool hula hoop house today before camp started.

Beautiful Ella after camp.

 Ella and Gabe.  Let’s see how this weekend goes…

We went to NJ for Passover and had a wonderful 4 days with family and friends.    It was a really sweet visit.  We loved being with the family.  Ella and Milo continued their love fest from the week before.  I have a lot of pictures to post.  Thank you for a great Passover grandma and papa.  We love you guys.

 The “kid’s table” on the first night of Passover.

 Ella was thoroughly entertained by Milo and his Cat In the Hat antics.

 Ella studying the haggadah.  Every year she gets  more and more into it.

 Bronwen found the afikomen this year.  Here are the beautiful cousins after the afikomen was found.

Sweet conversation after dinner with Wendy, Vicky, mommy and David.

 On Saturday morning, we had a great visit from Jordin, Twyla and KK.  Loved listening to these 3 beauties on the piano.

 Everyone on their way up to Fireman’s park.  Ella was way ahead of the gang.  I remember the days when it took Ella 20 minutes to walk 2 blocks!

 The kids had a blast at the park.

 Walking back to the house.  Look how tall Ella is getting!

 Second night of the seder.  Lots of love at the seder table.

 Ella and Sam looking for the afikomen…Ella found it!

 Nikki B had a lot of fun doing some are with Ella and Jack.

 Ellal drawing a picture for Jack.

Grandma and papa love at the end of the night.

 Ella reading a good night book to Milo.

 Trip into NY to go to the Museum of Natural History.

Ella and grandma ready for an adventure.

 Ella groovin on the dinosaur bones.

 Mommy, Ella and grandma having fun with the dinosaur exhibit.

 A huge mind blowing whale and an even bigger sequoia trunk!

 Fun times coming home from Gobo.

 We bumped into my old friend Gred and his family at Wood Park.  His son Loden looks exactly like Greg did when he was a sweet young boy.

Grandma and Milo strolling through the park.

Just one more goodnight story!

AJ and Milo left Saturday morning.  We will see them at the end of the week in NY so we won’t have too much time to miss them!  Ella has taken Trilby all over the place this weekend.  These were all planned happenings before we knew that Trilby would be with us but it was fun to bring him along…

 When the sun came out on Saturday afternoon, Ella took Trilby for a spin around the ballpark.

 We stopped for a moment to have a seat on Lou Seal.

 Nothing like a sweet pose with Willie Mays.

 O fcourse, we took Trilby to Taekwondo.  Notice the happy picture and then the serious picture.  Even Trilby looks serious in the second one!

 My favorite blue wall.

 On Saturday night, mommy and I took Ella to the sing-along Wizard of Oz.  We met up with our friends from Ella’s school, Gracie and Tess.  Ella adores these girls.  Ella sat on Sunny’s lap during the movie and Sunny said that she could feel Ella’s heart pumping so hard during some parts.  Good thing she was on her mommy’s lap.

 On Sunday afternoon, Ella went to her friend Hannah’s bowling birthday party.  Ella had a great time.

 Tonight, we were heading over to a club to watch Ella’s favorite 7th grade band perform and we bumped into Emmi and her family so we went and grabbed some dinner before the show.

 After the show, Ella, Trilby and Emmi took a picture with Vons de Qua – the 7th grade girl band.  Ella loved this so much!

Today, Ella went to school and Jamie, Milo and I went on an adventure to the Bay Area Discovery Museum.  Milo had so much fun there.  His favorite activity was climbing on and “driving” a ship.  Milo was having so much fun because every time he wanted to drive, the wheel was available.  Then came a sticky situation…a little girl was steering the wheel and Milo was not having it.  He pushed her out of the way and  grabbed the wheel.  She sat up and went back the wheel like nobody’s business.  This went on for about 10 seconds too long and.  They were screaming and crying and needed parental intervention.  AJ got Milo right out of the situation.  He was very  upset and took a while to calm down.  He finally did and let us know that he felt better.  He said that he was sad and that he wanted to be the captain.  We tried it again after lunch and he was very successful.  After the Bay Area Discovery Museum, we picked up Ella from school.  Then off we went to Pier 39 to the aquarium and then both kids went bungee jumping!  Ella went super high and Milo was so brave for his first time.  For the most part, he had a huge smile then every once in a while, he got this look like…”what the hell am I doing” and then it went back to joy.  After our Pier 39 adventure, we came home and Helen and the kids came over for a pizza party.  Milo had a lot of fun with all the kids.  On Friday (today, I was too tired to do the blog last night), Milo and AJ joined me and mommy at Ella’s school for the assembly.  It was so great to have them at Ella’s school.  AJ and Milo got to meet a lot of our friends.  After assembly, mommy went to work and AJ, Milo and I went to a park near Ella’s school and met KJ, Helen and Isaac.  Milo and KJ played really well together and they had a lot of fun.  We went home for a few minutes and then we took Milo for a little ride downtown on Muni.  Milo was saying that he wanted to go on a train – on Muni during this week and today was a great day for it.  We took the train, had some lunch, did a little shopping and then turned around and went home to get the car so we could pick up Ella from school.  We picked up Ella and then headed over to Ella’s baseball practice.  Milo and Ella played in the park for a little while and then Ella went over to practice.  Ella was amazing in baseball.  She got 3 hits, played first base, threw the ball where it needed to go and was just fantastic.  After baseball we had dinner and then we ended the evening over at the Kim/Arena household.  The kids watched Winnie the Pooh.  Milo laughed out loud.  It has been so wonderful having AJ and Milo here.  We are going to miss them so much!  We love you guys.

 A very happy Milo at the wheel of the ship.

 Getting a quick hug from mommy before going back to the wheel.

Ella took this shot of Milo on the way to Pier 39.

 Ella leading the way over the troll bridge.

 Beauties.

 Ella was under the bubble and this amazing octopus swam by.  She wasn’t freaked out at all.

 Ella and Milo in the tunnel.  I love these two together.

 Waiting patiently (and beautifully) for a ray to swim by.

 Ella really caught some air!

 Sweet Milo and the bungee.

 Love, love, love.

 AJ meeting Isaac for the first time.

 Milo hanging with the 4th Floor gang.

 Milo and KJ had a blast.

 Milo and I somehow got ourselves stuck in this net.

 Milo really liked this thing that spun around.

 AJ and Milo riding the Muni.

This weekend, it was Ella’s turn to take hom Trilby, the class stuffed animal.  We’re so happy that Milo was here to take a picture with Trilby.

 Ella on the monkey bars with Trilby.

 Milo rockin’ the monkey bars.

 Ella our baseball superstar.

 Ella and one of her buddies Torin with Trilby.

 Fourth floor family shot with Trilby.

 Watching Winnie the Pooh.