I still feel crazy without my old computer and my old programs and stuff but I am trying to make the best of it. Today after school, Ella was playing with play-doh. Ella had all these little houses lined up. I asked her what they were and she told me that they were orphanages. She’s still completely obsessed with Annie and everything that has to do with it. The other day, Ella told me that she wants to be in the Annie play. We may have to do a family production. I am attempting to put a movie on this – just a moment in time of Ella. I hope it works.
Ella and her art project.
Just a sweet shot of Ella coming up the stairs.
Testing things out
February 24th, 2010No ballet movie today
February 23rd, 2010When I went to pick up Ella from school today, one of the teachers told me that she fell while running on the pre school yard. I went into the classroom and another teacher was putting a band-aid on her knee. Ella was crying when she saw me. She was shaking and she seemed really sad or scared. I held her and kissed her and told her that I was sorry that her knee hurt. I told her that it would feel better one day. I asked her if she was ready for ballet and she burst out crying saying that she did not want to go. She said that she was afraid that her knee would hurt and I just didn’t want to force her. She was very sensitive and I just wanted to support her. She loves her ballet class so much and I didn’t want to put her through that if she didn’t really want to go. She’s doing much better now and we’re making up the class on Saturday, I’m tired. Goodnight,
Bowling
February 21st, 2010Today we met one of Ella’s classmates, his brother and their parents downtown for some bowling and playing in the park at Yerba Buena. Its sweet watching Ella play with the boys. She really had a lot of fun. She has been practicing hanging on the bars and is getting stronger. Maybe one day she’ll conquer the monkey bars at her school.
Ella and her classmate Dillon at the bowling alley.
Ella, Dillon and Liam on the slide at Yerba Buena.
First blog on my new computer
February 20th, 2010Well…something happened to me this week that has never happened to me before. My computer died – really just died. I went to the Apple store and they said that there was no way for them to help me. Of course, for a control freak like me, this was not a good thing at all, but I am trying to just put one foot in front of the other and fall in love with my new computer. Luckily, I had all 48,000 photos stored on an external hard drive to I really can’t complain. I am still getting used to doing things a little differently, but I’m sure this blog thing will go smoothly – just learning new iPhoto, iMovie (i can have a nervous breakdown at any point!)Ella had a great week at camp – she came home with different art projects every day. On Thursday when they were learning about India and peacocks, Ella brought in one of the pictures that we took at the zoo with Ella and a peacock. She was very proud to share it. Nikki B came on Wednesday for a few days and we had some really nice dinners and fun times. Today, after school, I took Ella to another volleyball game that the kids I work with were having. Ella really loved it and the kids love her so much! It’s very sweet. Tonight, Ella went to Stella and Juliet’s to for Friday night movie night – they watched Cars and we went out to dinner with Debby, Toby and our friend Tina who is in from New York. After our dinner, we came back and Ella joined us. We played a really fun game of charades.
Here is a great shot of Ella from the other night. It was really a picture of Ella and Nikki B, but she didn’t like it of her. I love this of Ella
Here’s Ella with 2 of the kids I work with at the volleyball game today.
Ella in our Zen Garden when we came home today
Our doggies in the garden.
Sunny reading to the girls before dinner tonight.
Ella doing one of the animals in charades.
Yerba Buena and the balloon
February 17th, 2010We never made it to the Bay Area Discovery Museum on Monday, but Ella and I did make it downtown, did a little shopping, had lunch and met mommy at Yerba Buena. It was another beautiful day and Ella played hard! She still has a cold and cough so we decided to skip ballet. Here are some pictures of Ella from yesterday.
Ella walking to the train.
Mac and cheese at Nordstrom all gone!
Ella at the MLK fountain.
Ella groovin’ on the beautiful red tulips.
Having a blast playing at the Yerba Buena playground.
Ella’s school is off this week for winter break but Sunny and I can’t take off work so we enrolled Ella at the camp at her school. On Monday night, as I was putting her to bed, we were talking about camp and the teachers who were going to be there. I told her about 2 teachers who are from her class and one teacher from another class. She got a little teary and said, “I only want to teachers from my class – I have an idea, let’s skip camp.” It was so sweet and so sad. I told her that I promised to talk to the teachers that she knew and to ask them to give Ella some extra love. She thought that was a good idea. Today when Ella got to camp, she ran into the room, sat down and immediately began an art project. I guess she got over her hesitation. She said she had a great time.
Here are some pictures from tonight of Ella playing “volleyball” with a balloon. I took Ella to my school on Friday to watch some of the kids that I work with play volleyball. I guess she liked what she saw.
More wildlife…a trip to the SF Zoo
February 15th, 2010Today was another beautiful day here. We decided to spend the day outside again and go to the zoo. Ellen joined us and we all had a really fun time. Ella got to see lots of peacocks – her power animal. We even bumped into a few kids from her school. Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day – maybe we’ll hit the Bay Area Discovery Museum.
Ella reading the map trying to figure out where to go first.
Wildlife!
Ellen, mommy and Ella. Ellen had her eyes closed because she was afraid of the train and Ella was protecting her.
Ella had a blast following the peacocks around – not sure how much fun the peacocks had!
A beautiful day in Golden Gate Park
February 14th, 2010Today was a great day – it was beautiful outside and we decided to spend the day at Golden Gate Park. We walked around Stowe Lake, rented a pedal boat and rode around the lake and then Ella rode her bicycle. We took little breaks during the bike ride to check out the Golden Gate Park wildlife. We spent about 1/2 hour watching this guy feed these giant carp. We were as mesmerized as Ella was! The water was really murky so I couldn’t get pictures of the fish, but it was very cool and a little creepy.
Self timer! Here we are on the pedal boat. Ella was steering.
Here is some of the beautiful scenery that we saw while we were pedaling around the lake.
Ella is patiently looking for…
A gopher who popped his beautiful little head out of his hole.
Ella was also feeding the ducks.
Getting ready for a bike ride – don’t worry, Ella had her helmet.
Waiting for the fish to come and get the bread…
Check out Sunny’s face! I think she was more surprised than Ella.
More beautiful nature.
Vampire teeth and swimming
February 12th, 2010Ella has had another great week. Her cold is pretty much gone and she’s been sleeping great. The other day, Ella told Sunny that she wanted vampire teeth – I think she got the idea from a cartoon Max and Ruby. Like the great mommy that she is, Sunny found vampire teeth for Ella. Ella just loves them.
Ella told us that she is a friendly vampire – not a mean one.
Beautiful Ella without her vampire teeth.Today Ella had swimming. She did a great job. Sunny contacted the swimming people at the gym and they do allow people to photograph their kids in the pool. Good thing…
I can’t wait to go swimming with Ella this weekend.
Ella behind the gym.Here’s a little swimming video.
Monday Ballet
February 9th, 2010After a great weekend, it was time to go back to work and school. Ella seemed like she had a good day at school today although she wouldn’t tell me anything about it which is rare these days. Ella was, however, very excited to go to ballet. We arrived a little early and she was dancing and running and twirling all over the place. Here are a few pictures and of course the video.
Ella having a blast before class.
Great weekend
February 8th, 2010We had a great weekend. On Saturday, the Giants had their Fan Fest across the street. Sunny had to work there for the Community fund and Ella helped her sell mystery bags. Ella did a great job. Later in the afternoon, we drove up to Calistoga to celebrate one of Ella’s classmate’s dad’s birthday. Not sure about all those apostrophes. Anyway, we all stayed at this spa called Solage which was fantastic. On Saturday night, all of the adults had a wonderful dinner and the kids had their own little party. Sunday morning, we all had breakfast and then the kids played in the wilderness of Calistoga. It was a lot of fun and was great to get to hang out with some of the parents from Ella’s class and their kids. The 3 of us had a blast.
Ella, Cassi, Brickelle and a bunch of other beautiful kids at the assembly on Friday.
Ella singing to Annie on Friday night.
Ella getting ready to go to the Fan Fest.
Mommy and Ella selling mystery bags.
Cotton Candy!
Ella and some of her buddies from school hanging out at Solage.
Sunny and a bunch of the kids were moving this tree trunk so that they could build a dam.
Ella talking to a tree.
City kids having fun in the nature.
Ella going on a little bike ride.