Life With Ella

This weekend, Sunny, Ella and I went to Calistoga and joined about 12 other families from Ella’s school for a really wonderful weekend.  One of the families from Ella’s class has a vineyard in Calistoga and we went “camping” on their lawn.  We had a CDS tent city, on the lawn, right in front of their pool.  The kids ranged from 2 – 14 years old.  The host family made the whole weekend so easy and fabulous.  We ate all our meals together, played in the pool for hours, went to a county fair, had a live blues band for entertainment last night and watched fireworks from the lawn.  Ella had a blast.  There was a small group of younger girls, a very large group of boys from about 4 – 8 years old and then an older group of girls.  Ella loved hanging with the older girls.  Her swimming is getting better every minute.  The pool was 8 feet at its deepest and Ella swam from the shallow end to the deep end all by herself with no help ( I was about a foot away from her at all times).  Yesterday she said that she thinks that we should stay for 6 days instead of 2.  It was great to get away.   These shots were taken after a water balloon fight that freaked out the little ones.  It was too much for them to handle so they got some TLC from their parents. Ella so happy and relaxed in the pool.Posing for the under water shot. Starting to do a little diving into the pool. Tent city – this is our tent that we rented.  Sunny put it up with one of the 10 year old girls.  The reason that there is that funny material on the top because we needed to air the tent out.  It kind of smelled. Kids dinner time! Ella and Tess – an incredible “big girl”. Ella is threatening to get someone with the water gun because the pool cover is on the pool. Our tent at night.At the county fair – turns out that it was almost the exact fair that we had across the street from us a few weeks ago. Eating chips and listening to the blues band. Ella LOVED the tire swing. Ella and Tess on the evening of July 4th.Here is a movie of Ella in the pool this weekend…it’s pretty cool.

Let’s see…Ella started CDS camp and is loving it.  She’s like the big kid in the classroom…a role that is new for her.  She is really interested in whatever they are learning.  This week they were learning about bees.  Things are very exciting in the world of bees.  They are studying honey combs and different types of bees, honey, nectar…all that cool stuff.  On Monday, I had a root canal and when I picked up Ella from school she wanted ice cream.  I thought that sounded great so we went to Bi-Rite and had delicious ice cream.  I have been doing stuff around the house, seeing friends, hanging with Ella and Sunny and watching the Giants loose.  It’s time for our boys to get back into the game.  Today, after school, Ella and I went to see an old friend of mine who is visiting from New Mexico.  My friend Jen has 2 boys, Quincy who is almost 1 and Xavier who is almost 5.  Ella and Zavier hit it off immediately and the afternoon was so much fun.  We ended up going to the Academy of Science and it was so incredible to watch their excitement with every ant, worm, snake, spider, frog…that’s not even mentioning the incredibly awesome sea creatures.  Here are some pics from this week and today.Happy Ella walking back to the car after eating delicious ice-cream.Ella and I had a dinner date on Tuesday.  This is what Ella decided to wear.  Of course people were stopping her and talking to her on the street and telling her how beautiful she looked.  She was very into it. THe princess eating a little bowl of tobiko – enough to make me want to throw up. Ella and Xaye meeting for the first time.  They hit it off immediately and began running. This is Ella saying, “Come on Zaye – let’s go to the park.” We made it to the Academy.  Here are Xaye and Ella talking with Jen. New sweet friends. Let’s not forget about Xaye’s  beautiful baby brother Quincy. I was able to take these beautiful shots just as the museum was closing.  So cool. Xaye and Ella pushing Quincy in the park. Heading home after a long afternoon.What a great day.

We started the day by meeting a bunch of people from CDS – Ella’s school to march in the Pride Parade.  It was a really great day and a great parade and there was wonderful energy and support from some great families at CDS.  Brickelle and her family were marching and Ella was so happy to hang out with Brickelle.  They hadn’t seen each other in about a month and they just picked up from where they left off.  After the parade, Sunny Ella and I went to the Java Hut for lunch.  It was a beautiful day out – pretty hot for SF so we decided to go swimming with the Kim/Arena clan and then went to Los Jarritos for dinner.  It was  a beautiful day and night.  I still haven’t edited Ella’s recital video, but I will sometime this week. Ella and her beautiful rainbow butterfly wings. We rode the train with our beautiful friends who were marching with Stella and Juliet’s school.Love makes a family.Ella had a great view from mommy’s shoulders. Some of the wonderful families from CDS. Here are mommy and our friend Bill jumping rope at the parade.  Ella was super impressed! Brooklyn, Ella and Brickelle were riding in their red wagon down Marked Street.  Brooke pulled them the whole way. At the end of a long hot fun day. Ella in her swimming gear ready to go to the pool. Juliet, Ron and Stella under water. Me and all the girls under water.  I couldn’t open my eyes because I was afraid to loose a contact lens. One more with Juliet and Ella. Helen and KJ above the water.  Check out the cool splash. Stella and Ella having a tender moment. Beautiful shot of Stella, KJ and Ron.

After a week of tutu camp, Ella’s class put on a little recital this afternoon.  They had been working on 4 pieces all week danced to the Sleeping Beauty Ballet.  The girls were all really adorable and it was a sweet recital.  I will publish a bunch of  photos tonight and edit the movie tomorrow.  Ella was so much fun to watch.  She was excited and enthusiastic and spaced out a few times of course.  She did such a great job – her first time learning any kind of choreography.  Tonight, Sunny and I went to Karen’s retirement party and Ella had her perfect Friday night…Stella, Juliet, Helen, Ron, KJ…shells with butter and parmesan, popcorn, mommy’s brownies, princess dresses and Ponyo.  Perfect.  We came in at the end and got to spend some time with our friends.  Here are the ballet pictures.

Ella has had a great week at Tutu Camp.  This morning she told me that it wasn’t long enough – that she wanted it to go on for another week.  Then I took her to camp and she wouldn’t let go of me and was about to cry.  I hugged her tight and told her to have a lot of fun.  I had to signal one of the teachers over to take her and make her busy…they finally got it – nobody is quite as intuitive as Alicia.  The teacher came over and said, “Ella, do you want to be my helper?  I need help putting things in envelopes.”  Ella said, “Yes I want to do that”.  I kissed her and left.  The teacher told me that she was totally fine about 2 minutes after I left.  I knew that would be the case and that’s why I left without wondering.  Ella has a little recital tomorrow to end the week at Tutu camp.  I will certainly film it.  Tonight we had dinner with our friends/neighbors, Max, Hannah and Ilene.  Max is 2 1/2 years older than Ella and Hannah is 4 years older than Ella but they all have a lot of fun together.  They also “grew up” in our building and although they don’t spend a lot of time together, they really know how to have a good time. Ella going to Tutu camp on Monday.Ella going to Tutu Camp on Tuesday. Dinner Tuesday night at the Burger Joint. Ella was doing some silly walking and fell.  Here is her red elbow. Going to Tutu School on Wednesday. GEtting ready to go to dinner tonight. Ella and Max on the corner telling “funny” jokes to each other. Max messing around wtih Ella during dinner.Being very silly during dinner.Hannah was having fun picking up ELla tonight.  Ella loved it.Ella drew this.  She said it was someone doing Karate. Sometimes Ella and Max remind me of an old married Jewish couple.  Very sweet.Ella gets to have movie night with Stella and Juliet tomorrow night (Friday).  She is so happy about this.

This morning I took my parents to the airport – the visit was short but wonderful.  See you guys in a month!  Love you.  Late in the morning, we met Phyllis, Michael and the rest of the family at Los Jarritos for a delicious brunch.  All of Michael’s “kids” were there to give him lots of love for father’s day and to give him support because his mom died over the weekend.  There was lots of love at the table.  After brunch, we met up with one of Ella’s buddies, Eli and his family to see Toy Story 3.  What a great movie.  We all loved it.  After the movie, we had dinner at Eli’s dad’s club and met up with another family from Ella’s school.  It was great to see the kids together eating, talking, playing and entertaining each other.  We really had a wonderful weekend full of love and fun. Ella and her skyscraper and rocket ship.  She put these together while I was in the shower and Sunny was out grocery shopping. Ella’s new cowgirl sun hat.Michael and his father’s day gang of love. Ella and her buddies Alec, Macy and Eli. Eli and Ella were in a race to see who could finish their dessert first.The great power of the iPhone.  There must have been something really exciting going on.

Today was another fun day.  We all hung around in the morning except papa who had a meeting.  Sunny and I had to leave at around 2 for a wedding and Ella convinced my mom to take her to the county fair.  They went there but it was closed for a private party.  Instead, they went to the park, ate lunch at the Java House (aka Maria’s) and then came home to “help” us get ready for the wedding.  I was getting ready to put my dress on but I put on a pair of Spanx in order to keep myself contained and Ella said, “Are those shorts?”  I said, “No, they’re called Spanx”.  Then she said, “Oh, I think they are pre-k’s”.  I asked her what she meant and she said, “You know, they are a little longer than shorts (mine were above my knee) but not pants or anything like that, you know, pre-k’s”.  I really concentrated and then I figured it out.  I then asked her, “Do you mean capris?”  She said, “Oh yeah – that’s what I meant”.  What a sweetheart.  It really just tickled me.  As we were leaving for the wedding, Ella and my mom bumped into Ron, Stella, Juliet and KJ in the hallway.  They all decided to go for a bike ride.  When they came back, my dad was back from his meeting and Ella had some alone time with grandma and papa.  Papa had to go to a business dinner and Ella and grandma had dinner at Amicis and then went to Happy Donuts for dessert.  They ended the night watching Mary Poppins.  Sunny and I had a great time at the wedding.  Sunny did a fantastic job officiating the wedding.  She had people laughing and crying and the bride’s father loved her so much that he asked her to renew his vows with his wife (it was their 35th anniversary) right then and there at the wedding.  Sunny pulled that off too and it was beautiful. We had to document the two of us all dressed up.Great family shot. Sunny marrying our friends Adrianna and John.  We all met each other at the old Acme Chop House.