Life With Ella

After the happy birthday phone call from Goofy, they gave Ella this happy birthday pin.

This is the submarine for the Nemo ride.

Ella going down the hatch.

Everyone loved this ride.  Ella was mesmerized.

The Dumbo ride!  We stayed up high during the entire ride.

The Pinocchio ride was a little scary for Ella but she felt brave and safe sitting next to uncle Jesse.

The Peter Pan ride.  This is such a beautiful ride.

This princess part was a magical part for Ella and such a breath taking part for all of us.  Ella transformed when she saw the princesses.  It was as if she walked into another world.  The first princess is Jasmine and I think that Ella was in shock.  When she saw Ariel, she was so excited.  Ariel loved her peacock necklace and Ella hung onto Ariel’s words.  Ariel told Ella that if she saw Scuttle (a seagull from The Little Mermaid) to tell him that Ariel is waiting for him.  Ella was obsessed with finding Scuttle the rest of the day and night.  By the time she got to Belle, Ella was beyond happy.  She told Belle that she knew that Belle taught the Beast how to love.  Belle looked at Ella and said, “I can tell that I don’t have to teach you how to love…you already know”.  Ella loved that.  The only thing that would have made her day was if Cinderella was there.

We took a little break for hot chocolate and coffee and we saw a little parade that had the characters from the movie “Up”.  Ella loved watching it from mommy’s shoulders.

Ella and aunt Heather on “a Bug’s Life” ride.

Ella riding in her very first bumper car.

Getting a little tire but still having a blast.

This was the Buzz Lightyear 3D arcade game.  We all had on our 3D glasses.  This was a lot of fun and Ella who was a little scared right before the right turned to me during the ride and said, “You’re right mama, this ride is fun!”

A happy birthday cupcake.

Jesse and Heather’s doggies Bob, Inca and Snake.

What a fantastic weekend…now on with the celebrations!

Halloween started on Friday at school.  The preschoolers were not allowed to dress up but the rest of the school was.  First thing on Friday morning, Ella and Brickelle met up with their buddy Cassi for morning assembly.  Cassi was dressed up like a woman who worked out in the late 70’s/early 80’s.  Her costume came from the Broadway show Xanadu.

The girls just love Cassi.  She is so sweet with them.

Alicia did some face painting for the kids in class today so that they could have something special for Halloween.  Ella wanted a spider web and I suggested that maybe she could ask Alicia if she could paint red jewels on the spider web.  Ella told me that I needed to ask Alicia about the jewels since it was my idea.  Alicia did a great job!

Notice the glitter in the jewels.  Pretty cool.

On Saturday morning, Ella woke up and was very excited about Halloween.  Of course she had a plan to be Cinderella and we had a party to go to at 5:00 and another one at 6:30.  After having fun painting and hanging around the house, it seemed like Ella wanted to get out of the house.  We suggested that she pick one of the many costumes that she had in her closet to go outside and do some neighborhood Trick or Treating.  Ella decided to go out in her old cat costume and we knocked on Stella and Juliet’s door to see if they wanted to go around in the neighborhood.  Stella wasn’t feeling great so Juliet went with Sunny and Ella.

Ella thought the glasses gave the costume a fancy touch.

Ella and Juliet about to hit the streets.

Finally 5:00 rolled along and Ella put on her Cinderella costume.  We walked a few blocks to a neighborhood Halloween party.

All of these kids were in Music Together about 2 years ago.  It’s incredible how much they have all grown up!

Ella liked having Snow White at the party with her.

Cinderella going to her next party in her coach.

Helen and Juliet at the Glassworks party.

After all of the parties, we ended the night with some glow in the dark dancing around in the house.

This has been a really terrific past 5 days.  At some point we spent time with our immediate family and it was just wonderful.  Ella is so beautiful and sensitive with Milo.  I think she loves having him visit us.  I asked her if she likes him visiting or if she wants him to live with us and she said that she likes having him visit.  Ella knows that she has it great in her life.  She is also in love with her family that doesn’t live with us.  On Friday night, Jesse and Heather flew in to spend the evening with the family.  It’s so rare that we are all in the same place at the same time.  Earlier in the day, the final touches of Ella’s Halloween costume arrived so here is Ella in full Cinderella gear, AJ and Milo, Ella and Milo and then some more…

Ella in her Cinderella costume, cloak and all.

Milo doing what he does best…”chillin”

Mother and son.

First cousins!

Ella feeding Milo. Notice that Milo is almost as long as Ella!

Now here are some pictures from dinner at Acme.  We were all there, Me, Sunny, Ella, my mom and dad, AJ, Michael, Jesse, Heather, Aunt Abigail and Uncle Ray.  It was a great night.

Heather and Ella drawing and Jesse enjoying life.

Michael, Milo, Aunt Abigail and Uncle Ray.  Notice Milo holding Abigail’s hand.

Family shot in front of the big baseball heart.  Not so bad.

The next day, Saturday, Jesse and Heather left early to go back to LA.  Helen, KJ and the girls came over and we realized that KJ and Milo are just big boy babies!

Bookends.

Ella wanted to do a little ballet and found the perfect partner in uncle Michael.

I don’t think Ella ever did ballet up that high.

We took a walk to crossroads – Ella took her scooter and we had some lunch.

Sunny and Michael are pointing at the Bay Bridge.

Grandma and Ella waiting for the light to change.

On Saturday night, Sunny, Ella, Jamie and Milo went to the Kim/Arena’s for movie night.  They all said that they had a blast.  My parents had a business dinner and I went to see 2 of my former students perform at the School of the Arts.  We also took 5 current students to try to inspire them.  The two kids who were preforming did an amazing job and have come such a long way.  I was so happy for them and really proud of the hard work that we have done with them.  Here is a picture of them.  The one on the left is a girl who refused to  wear an evening gown.  Ya gotta love her for that!

Vanna and Sana.

On Sunday, Sunny, Ella and I went to Golden Gate Park for the pet pride event.  We also stopped by at a birthday party for one of Ella’s classmates.  It was a fun day but pretty exhausting.  Ella was spent by the end of the day.

Riding the rooster.

Riding on the carriage with Mommy.

Today Ella didn’t have school so I took off to hang out with AJ and Milo.  Michael went back on the road today.  Grandma and papa came over for breakfast and then papa had to go back to work.  Grandma got to come with me to Ella’s ballet class and she just loved it.  I am much too tired to make a movie right now, but I will within the next few days.

Ella with feathers at ballet class.

Grandma and her happy little ballerina.

Today we had an influx of our beautiful family.  AJ, grandma, papa and Milo flew in this afternoon and uncle Michael drove in from San Jose where his performance was the night before.  Tonight, uncle Jesse and aunt Heather are flying in for the evening.  Ella is in heaven!  So much beautiful love around.  We are going to have a lot of fun over the next few days.  Life is beautiful.

Ella wearing a new Halloween shirt that mommy brought home for her.

Ella was looking in the mirror saying, “Oh, I look so cute” and she was kissing herself.  The pumpkin lights up.

Ella took this great picture of mommy and Towby.

Ella going to school this morning.  She’s really into having two braids these days.

Milo is in da house!

Everyone giving Milo so much love.

Milo in Ella’s Elmo towel.  Too cute.

New York hits the streets of San Francisco.

After a fun and wild Friday night, we woke up on Saturday morning, hung around the house for a little while and then went to CDS for a people of color picnic sponsored by the Committee on Inclusion and Diversity.  When Ella arrived, the first person that she saw was Brickelle and they ran into each others arms.  Ella had a great time and told us that she really liked meeting new kids and making new friends.  The preschoolers rarely mix with the elementary school – they do most of their mixing with the middle school.  Ella did a lot of climbing and running and playing and it was terrific.

Ella with Brickelle, Bella and Nora.

Ella really loves the play structure at school.

Just as we were leaving, my phone rang and when I saw that it was my mom, I let Ella pick up the phone.  They had a great conversation and Ella just looked like a big kid talking to her.

At least we know that she can walk and talk.

Kate came over on Saturday evening to watch the Yankee game and we were all treated to a ballet recital by Ella.

Our little ballerina having a blast.

After the ballet recital and up to the 11th inning of the Yankee game, we retired to the upstairs to play Beatles Rock Band.  Ella loved singing.  She can now sing “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds”, “Here Comes the Sun” and “Yellow Submarine”.  Sunny did vocals with Ella and sometimes Kate, I played the drums and I also played guitar and bass.  It was a lot of fun.

Ella between songs with mommy.

Kate and Ella in between songs.  Ella bumped her lip with one of my real microphones and has a little cut on her lip.

This morning, we were pleasantly awakened by Ron and Juliet.  Ella was actually the only one who was sleeping.  They were bringing over a crib for Milo when he comes on Thursday.  We are so excited for the whole family to come out here.  Juliet’s voice woke up Ella and Ella was so happy to see Juliet.  They had some breakfast together and then the 3 of us headed over to a birthday party for one of Ella’s old classmates.  The party was at Pump It Up.  A big place with huge bouncy houses.  It was a lot of fun.

Ella climbing up a jumpy mountain.

Ella took this shot of me and said, “It’s a keeper”.

Ella having fun with her buddy Bella.

Blue tongue…blue poop?