Life With Ella

So much has gone on since Ella turned 9!  Two days after Ella’s birthday, we went to uncle Jesse and aunt Heather’s place and spent the weekend with them and at Disney.  Needless to say, Ella was in heaven.  She loves being with Jesse and Heather and loves Disney.  Here are some pics from our Disney weekend with our 9 year old.

 Sweet Ella on our first morning in LA…getting ready to go to Disney.

 On the monorail heading towards the Magic Kingdom.

First ride, Star Tours!  Ella was the spy on our ship!

 Next, Space Mountain.  Ella’s face is finally in the Space Mountain photo.

The Matterhorn was our next stop.  Ella LOVED it.

Next up, Alice in Wonderland.  They redid the ride and it was so much fun.

Thunder Mountain was our next ride.  It was a blast!

A fun birthday call from Goofy and a celebration with a Disney cupcake.

 Family pic on Main Street!

 On line for the Pirates of the Caribbean.

We were stuck on line in the basement of the Indiana Jones ride.

 Ella and her buddy Olaf.

 Day two – now we are complete…Heather joined us today!

Family photo on line for Toy Story.

First show taken on Soarin’.  This is our favorite ride asa a family.  It’s not great, but it’s a first!

Still smiling on a very long line for the “single rider” Radiator Springs line.

 Mater and walking the streets of Cars Land!

Last pic of our Disney adventure.  Fun on the Little Mermaid ride.

Here is a list of the rides and attractions that we did on each day.

11/14/14

1.  Star Tours – Ella was the spy

2. Space Mountain

3. Matterhorn

4. Alice in Wonderland

5. Thunder Mountain

6. Mickey’s Maps

7. Peter Pan

8. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

9. Pirates of the Caribbean

10. Indiana Jones

11. Winnie The Pooh (mommy and Ella)

12. Splash Mountain (mama and Jesse)

11/15/14

1. Toy Story

2. Soarin’

3. Radiator Springs

4. Mater

5. Little Mermaid

6. Monsters Inc

7. Abe Lincoln

8. Pinocchio

9. Soarin’

 Panda and his cousins!

Thank you Jesse and Heather for another amazing weekend.  We love you guys.

We came back from Disney heaven and then Sunny and I were treated to our own version of heaven – watching Ella thrive at school.  Ella’s class had an assembly and then treated us to an amazing project on the Ohlone people.  Ella’s class turned their classroom into a museum and all of the students acted as docents.  Ella was an amazing docent.

Here are some shots from the assembly and the classroom museum.

 Ella and her buddy Cecilia on some “lounge chairs” that they built.

Grandma arrived on Monday night so that she could go to Grandparents and special friends day at CDS.  Ella sang in the chorus for the grandparents.  Here is a great shot that grandma took of Ella and Emmi before they went on.

Here are some great shots that Colette took of Ella and grandma in the classroom.

 Grandma was the first person outside of Ella’s classroom to read her non-fiction book on Disney.  We are going to get to read it on Friday when Ella’s class has their publishing party.

Papa arrived on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, the four of us (mommy had to go to work) went to the Lawrence Science Center.  It was a beautiful day and it’s so great to have grandma and papa here.

 The smile says it all – Ella couldn’t be happier that grandma and papa are here.

Ella loved trying all of the different activities…

 These guys are quite a trio!

We’ve had some pretty fun games of Bananagrams.  The one above shows the creativity that Papa and Ella were exuding.  Not quite sure what a “fairice” is.

We had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Crab House.  We love this tradition!

Ella was flipping like nobody’s business.  She was flipping forward and backward.  She was amazing!

 Thanksgiving selfie!

 Cool piano steps.

Off to the movies.

 We saw Big Hero 6.  We all loved it.

 Ella is super excited for this movie in July!

We got Ella this difficult puzzle for her birthday.  We all have been working really hard on it.  Ella solved it 3 levels high on Tuesday.  By Thursday, Mommy did it!

Fantastic job mommy!  You’re a genius.

 Papa and Panda during a game of Clue.

 Something seems very funny!

Today we went to the De Young Museum to see the Keith Haring exhibit.  It was a really cool exhibit.

Three amazing people. Love you guys!

 Ella kept saying, “I need that neon paint!”

 Deep.

 True love.  We love you guys!  See you in three weeks.

Oh Ella – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  We love you so much.  You are such an incredible person.  We feel lucky to be your parents.  Thank you Ella, for all of the joy that you bring into our lives.  You are an amazing teacher.  You have taught us so much about life and love.  We can’t wait to celebrate with you in Disneyland!

Here are some pics from the few days.

Cecilia, Ella and Emmi before their last soccer game of the season.  Check out the fog behind them!

 Ella loves getting her soccer medals!

The 2014 Black Widows!

 Colette sent these amazing pictures to us the other day.  The class is making tule boats out of straw.  Ella wove her straw boat together with raffia.  We saw it today in the classroom.  It was really cool.

 First morning pics of our beautiful nine year old. 

While Ella was at school and I was running errands, mommy was busy at home making Ella’s cake.  Ella asked mommy for an “Olaf” cake.  Instead of doing the sane thing and ordering it, mommy decided to make it.  It turned out to be an AMAZING cake and Ella LOVED it!  Great job mommy!  Here are the pics…

I told you it was amazing!

We went to Ella’s school to celebrate her birthday, and then we picked up Stella and Juliet and we took the 3 girls to Benihana.  After dinner, the girls came back to our place and we had Olaf cake!  Not only did it look amazing, but it also tasted amazing.

Happy Birthday Beautiful Ella!  WE LOVE YOU. 

I have way too many pics to post so I will be quick with my words.  It has been an amazingly exciting 2 weeks for the SF Giants and their fans.  We happen to be huge fans!  Although it’s sad that baseball is over, until pitchers and catchers report to spring training in February, it feels pretty good to get our normal lives back!  This is how our last week and 1/2 has looked …

 Happiness on a Friday night at the World Series.

 Having a blast with two of my co-workers at the game.

Getting a little nervous about the way the game is going…

 Yes, believe it or not, those are sad faces.  We lost the game!

 Let’s try this again…Saturday night’s home game…we are down 2 games to 1.  We’re feeling pretty confident.

 Becca joined us at the game!

 Holy cow!  It looks like we may have tied this series up!

 We did it!  On to game five!!!

 Four women watching some intense baseball together.  Our buddy Blanca joined us for the game too!

While we were at the game, Ella was at a week before Halloween Party with her Kim/Arena family.

Selfie before the Game 5 World Series party.

 Beautiful Ella at the pre-game party.

 Beautiful shot of Mommy and Ella waiting for the sun to set.

Pre game family photo.  We can do this Giants!  Let’s take the series lead!

Mommy and her panda cub.

 Watching the confetti drop a before the game begins.

 Beautiful sea of orange!

 So happy to have auntie Pie with us at the game!  we’re all feeling good about this!

 Family art shot.

 The fist bump!

 That’s more like it!

 We love this child so much!

Things are looking good for the Giants!

 Yes!  The Giants did it!  We’ve taken the series lead!

 Knitting during game 6.  This was a tough game to watch.

Game 7…  Panda has on his rally rag and we’re ready to rock and roll!

Ella and her buddies Carmen and Zoe chanting, “One more strike, one more strike!”

 They did it!  THE GIANTS WON THE WORLD SERIES!

 Outside minutes after the Giants won.  The  neighborhood was calm and happy for about 20 minutes.  We were inside safe and sound when the craziness happened!

 We went to the dug out store and Ella got her CHAMPIONS hat!

So much fun was had during this series…and the fun continued for Sunny and the Giants on Friday at the parade!

 Sunny and her new buddy Steve Perry.  He was on the float with the Giants Community Fund board members.  Sunny said that they had “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Lights” playing non-stop on the float.

And then Sunny ended up at City Hall and took these amazing shots…

While all of this beautiful celebrating was going on, Ella was transforming into a vampire at CDS…

and making sugar skulls to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos…

Once Ella got home from school, Halloween officially began.  We spent Halloween with the Kim/Arena clan.  It’s a wonderful tradition that we all love.

 Our beautiful vampire and her pet bat!

 In the elevator on the way to see her buddies.

Here’s the crew with Helen and Ron as Stormtroopers.

 Vampire sisters.

 Bags are starting to fill up with candy.

 Vampires leading the way.

 Halloween 2007

 Halloween 2014!

Beautiful crew!

 Nothing like a sleep over to end a great night!

I will try to keep up with this blog and our busy lives!  Let me first begin with a beautiful visit that we had from Nikki B about 2 weeks ago… Selfie at Ella’s soccer game. Nikki B took us out to a delicious dinner at the Slanted Door to celebrate Sunny’s 60th.  Ella had some amazing cotton candy for dessert.  She loved every bite!  I had a little fun with the cotton candy too!  On the walk home…  Ella and Nikki B made all of these creatures!  Talk about patience. Rosh Hashanah.  Someone is peeking!  Our last date night of the 2014 regular season. As a family, we took part in a 5K for breast cancer.  The head of the middle school at Ella’s school recently died of breast cancer, so a whole bunch of families from Ella’s school walked or ran in her memory.  Ella is her daughter’s buddy this year at school. Here is Ella and her buddy Sophie and two of Ella’s friends Marlowe and Jasmine. CDS representing for Josee! Buddies!  Ella and her friends.  Ella and Emmi – forever goofy and wonderful.  The homegirl.  I’m not sure what sign she’s throwing up. Early morning love.  The wildcard game was out of town, but the Giants opened up AT&T park so that the fans could watch together on the jumbo tron.  Sunny was on her way back from LA and met us at the ballpark during the 7th inning.  We all watched the Giants win the wildcard that night.  It was a lot of fun!  Shots from the classroom.  Thank you so much Colette.  If you are reading this, we truly appreciate each and every picture that you send us.  It’s amazing to be able to see Ella while she is learning and thriving!

I’m doing some more catching up here – as I write this I am feeling so lucky that we have so much beautiful love in our lives.  Ella – you are the greatest gift – you are becoming such an amazing person.  OK – enough mush – now onto the pics.  Fall soccer has started up again.  The Black Widows are 2 – 0.  They have been playing some pretty rough teams, but these girls are full of love and support and heart.  It’s a little nerve-racking to watch when Ella is playing goalie, but it’s also so cool to watch these young girls take charge of the field and of themselves!

 After the game on Saturday, Ella and I headed over to to the beach.  Someone had told me that there were a bunch of sand dollars on the beach.  We ran down to the water and found tons of sand dollars.  We brought home a bag full.  It was a nice little nature detour.

 Last Sunday, we went to my friend’s baby shower and Ella made them this beautiful onesie.

 On Tuesday, we went to they Giants game and were treated with this beautiful orange moon.

 Someobdy thinks she’s ready to drive a car!

 All of these great shots were taken on Strike Out Violence Day today.  It was a beautiful ceremony and Sunny was honored along with 6 other women for the amazing work that they do to help end domestic violence.  Ella was so proud to be on the field with Sunny.

 Colette sent these shots to us this week.  Here are three photos with Ella and her buddy.  This year, third graders are buddies to kids in the kindergarten class.  Ella really likes her buddy and can’t wait to hang out with her.

 This is a pic of Ella right after she found out that she didn’t have lice!

 More amazing work going on in the classroom!

Since coming home from Hawaii, Ella has been to soccer camp, tennis/swimming/skateboard camp and now she is in circus camp.  Our cousins Georgia and Bronwen are visiting from NY and we already had a really fun dinner together.  They are going to sleep over this weekend.  Ella has spent a lot of time with Stella and Juliet (who are now in Hawaii) and who also moved to another apartment across the street.  I don’t thing it has sunk in for any of us, but the Kim/Arena clan are no longer our next door neighbors.  With them being across the street, it will help with the adjustment for the next year until they move into their new home.  We will be having many Friday night movie nights together this year!  Ella also spent a few hours with me at work on Sunday.  She brought her Heeleys and had a lot of fun skating around the hallways at my school.  Notice in the video that while Ella was having a blast, the school is kind of falling apart.  We never got the opportunity to watch Ella at tennis camp so I never got any pictures there.  Today, I picked Ella up from Circus Camp and she showed off her skills on the stilts.  That is also in the video.

 Ella before soccer camp.

 Beyonce and Jay-Z had 2 concerts at AT&T Park.  Here we are taking a walk around the park and listening to the show.

 Ella and her cousins!  She loves hanging to with them.  Georgia was cracking Ella up!

 Heading over to our first ballgame in a while.  Giants came back from a 1 – 5 score and won 6-5!

 A shot of my classroom that Ella helped me set up.

 Fun at Circus Camp.

We had a wonderful family trip to Hawaii…12 days in paradise.  It was completely relaxing and beautiful and we had a lot of fun.  I have a lot of pics to post so I will do a little narration as I go along.

 First shot of Ella in the pool.

 The first beach that we went to was the beach at the St. Regis hotel.  It is a sweet little beach with pretty good snorkeling.  See for yourself…

 Here are some of the shots that we took with our new under water camera.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell what your are getting pictures of, but we did a pretty good job.

 A little chess after snorkeling.

 One of the many trips to the shave ice places.

 There was an arts festival in Kilauea on Saturday night.  Sunny and Ella both got henna tattoos.

 These were taken at Lydgate Beach.  We are in one of the manmade enclosed ponds.  The rocks keep the big waves from coming in.  There is decent snorkeling and great safe swimming.

 These shots were taken at Anini beach.  We didn’t go in the water too much at this beach.  It was a great day to fly a kite and walk around the beach looking for crabs and shells though.

Another shave ice.

 Ella still had fun in the kiddie pool at our hotel.

 I’m not sure which beach this is, but it was a new one for us and we had a lot of fun here.

 This was by far the best shave ice we have ever had.  The line was an hour long and it was worth the wait.  I had mango, Ella had hibiscus and Sunny had green tea.

This is Ella at Ke’e beach.  This beach is great for snorkeling.  I went out to snorkel while Ella and mommy were setting up the tent.  The first thing that I was was this…

 My luck!  I saw this eel.  I wanted to throw up but I decided to be brave and take a picture.  I am happy that I did.  Here are some other great shots from our day at Ke’e beach.

 This is a beautiful spot in paradise.

 Nothing says vacation more than playing mimi golf in a botanical garden!

Believe it or not, this was the only rainbow that we was the entire time that we were away!  We usually see at least three.  It was a lot less rainy than it usually is.

 This goose would come visit us on our deck from time to time.

 On August 2, there was a sand sculpture contest at Hanalei Bay.  It was so cool to watch the people build their creations.

 This is a shot that I took from a much more quiet part of the beach.

 Beautiful Ella on the bay.

 On Saturday night, we had dinner at the Tavern which is a restaurant in the Princeville clubhouse.  We had a great dinner and the views were wonderful, especially at sunset.  Ella took most of the pics here.

For our last day, we wanted to go to Tunnels but when we got there, there was a paddle board race and a sleeping seal on the beach.  We weren’t allowed to go in the water near the seal.  It was really cute but we decided to go back to Ke’s.

 Sweet seal!

 A perfect way to end our trip – a beautiful day at Ke’e beach!