Today was a very special day for mommy, Ella and papa. The golfing threesome went to Fleming and Ella did 9 holes with mommy and papa. They all had a great time and mommy and papa think Ella is a natural. Here are some great pics that mommy took.
Ella’s first time golfing 9 holes
December 29th, 2013Dim Sum, family, hikes, marine mammal center…
December 28th, 2013We have been having a wonderful time with grandma and papa here. Ella wakes up every morning and crawls into bed with them and snuggles for a little while. Such special times! On Christmas, Jesse, Heather and Colette met us at Yank Sing for some delicious Dim Sum. After Dim Sum, everyone came back here and we hung around talking and Ella did a lot of art work and projects. Colette brought her sweet dog Minka over (beautiful black lab) and Panda seemed to like her. Panda did have a little man complex and every time he was on one of our laps and Minka came near him, he growled. They were really great together. Ella did a lot of drawing with the gift that Jesse and Heather gave her and Heather and Ella worked on a snow/glitter globe project.
On Thursday, mommy had to work so grandma, papa, Ella and I went to Marin to Tennessee Valley and took a really sweet hike down to the beach. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk. In the evening, we met Abigail and Ray for dinner at a sweet little Italian restaurant in our neighborhood.
Today, mommy had to work again, so grandma, papa, Ella and I went to the Marine Mammal center and learned so much about protecting the creatures in the ocean and some of the bad effects of every day human behavior. After our journey, we went into Sausalito and had lunch. Tonight, we all had dinner at home and Becca came by to play poker. Ella is getting good! She cleaned our clocks.
This has been a really wonderful, relaxing week full of love, spending great time together and exploring!
You gotta love the self timer!
Doing a little research…
I wonder what Jesse is showing mommy.
Art projects with Heather. These two can spend hours together creating.
Tennessee Valley Hike day. So sweet.
Learning about how we can destroy marine mammal life.
Saw these beautiful deer on the way out.
Love in Sausalito.
Winter Break
December 25th, 2013It is finally sinking in that we are on winter break! Grandma and papa arrived yesterday and we are all having a great time. Today, Ella went to see the Nutcracker with grandma and papa. Reports from the grandparents say that Ella was on the edge of her seat. She has a much better attention span than I do! After the Nutcracker, I met the trio for lunch – mommy was still at work. Tonight, Ella and I learned how to play poker. Mommy, grandma and papa already knew how. Ella is a serious gambler. She won one hand on a bluff and if we were playing with real money, she would have lost her shirt! She was really funny tonight.
Ella in the Zen garden with Juliet and Audrey. I took this from our bedroom window.
Love before the Nutcracker.
Ella intently listening to grandma reading the hundred dresses which Ella just received from KK.
There was lots of laughter tonight.
Ella wants to go all in!
More beautiful music from the Octopus class
December 22nd, 2013Ella’s last day was 1/2 day on Friday. She participated in the school winter concert with the Octopus class. I snuck away from work because I didn’t want to miss it and Sunny ran from City Hall after she performed a marriage ceremony! There was nothing better that watching Ella and her class singing “Moon River” accompanied beautifully by Ella’s teacher Colette. Check it out for yourself!
Purple belt!
December 15th, 2013Ella got her purple belt today! We started off the day at the zoo and bumped into some old friends from the neighborhood. Ella had a terrific time but was sad when we had to go because they were so busy playing in the playground at the park that we hardly got to see any animals. Ella got over it after we saw a tiger, leopard, hippo, lion, some monkeys and a very active and happy rhino on the way out. Later on in the day, Ella earned her purple belt in Taekwondo. She was very proud and is showing some great progress.
Friday night movie night with the Kim/Arena clan. We gave them all Despicable Me minions for Chanukah. Here are all the kids watching Despicable Me 2 with their minions on their laps.
It was a beautiful day today.
Busy working on building with some leftover sticks and wood.
Ella had some great kicks.
Ella is the youngest student in the group of purple belt recipients.
FANTASTIC!
The new belt is on!
The class.
Another moment of acheievement with Steven.
Octopus assembly
December 14th, 2013Today, Ella’s class had their assembly at school. About two months ago, Ella had a music share in her class. She decided that she wanted to teach her class how to do the Cups song. Ella’s teachers loved the lesson and decided that they would all perform Cups for the assembly. Ella worked hard with Colette and Kay to teach some of her classmates how to do the Cups rhythm. Today, after months of hard work, the Octopus class hosted an amazing assembly. They were all wonderful. After the assembly, we were invited up to the classroom to take part in a book publishing celebration. We loved Ella’s book. I don’t want to ruin it by trying to summarize it, but the story was so creative and Ella truly worked so hard on in. I am going to try to take some shots of it next week and put it on the blog.
Ella and her classmates getting ready for the assembly.
Check out the video…
Happy Birthday Papa!
December 12th, 2013Hi dad aka papa. We love you so much and hope that you have a beautiful birthday. Video will come later on in the day. Can’t wait to see you!
Mary Poppins
December 12th, 2013Ella performed in her third MTW musical last night. They did songs and a small dialogue from Mary Poppins. As always – Ella was wonderful. She was a little less shy and self conscious this time. Ella had a terrific surprise tonight. Her wonderful teacher Colette came to the show to give Ella some love. Ella was so happy that Colette was there. Things are winding down over here. I have my big concert tomorrow and Ella has her assembly and book publishing celebration on Friday. We can’t wait for that!
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Sweet Ella did a great job singing her heart out and doing her part as Mary Poppins.
Ella and Colette – sweetness!
Wonderful Chanukah/Thanksgiving visit with grandma and papa
December 5th, 2013I’m already behind! Where does the time go? Grandma and papa were here last week and we had such a beautiful time with them. The love was perfect, the weather was perfect, the crab was perfect – even the movie Frozen was pretty perfect. Ella and her grandparents are so in love with each other and it brings us such great joy to watch all of the love.
First night of Chanukah selfie. Good job Sunny!
Ella blowing bubbles around a cool sculpture down town.
Waiting to go bungee jumping.
Watch Ella fly!
Ella and her cool motorcycle skills.
Second night of Chanukah.
Papa did really well during our heated game of dreidel. He just kept hitting gimel, gimel, gimel…
Third night of Chanukah.
We fought the crowds on Saturday and did a little shopping.
So much love – Happy Chanukah! Thanks so much for being with us grandma and papa. We love you.
Our beautiful 8 year old in Disney Land
November 20th, 2013We spent last weekend in Disney Land with Jesse and Heather. It was a fantastic weekend. We loved being with Jesse and Heather and loved conquering so many rides at Disney. Here is the ride list for the two days we were there.
11/15
Jungle Cruise
Indiana Jones
Haunted Mansion
Splash Mountain (Lauren and Jesse)
Winnie the Pooh (Sunny and Ella)
Pinocchio
Matterhorn (Lauren and Sunny)
Alice in Wonderland (Jesse and Ella)
Snow White
Star Tours
Pirates of the Caribbean
Peter Pan
Fantasmic
Disney Train
11/16
Monsters Inc
Soarin’
Little Mermaid
Goofy’s Flight School
Jumping Jellyfish (Sunny and Ella)
Toy Stor Mania
Arcade
Mickey’s Fun Wheel
Radiator Springs Racers
Luigi’s Tires
Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree
Tuck and Roll
Redwood Creek Challenge Trail
Buzz Lightyear (Sunny, Ella and Jesse)
Space Mountain (Lauren and Heather)
Small World
Here are some shots from the weekend…
Here we are at the airport getting ready to head off to LA.
A little fruit with some whipped cream.
First line of the day…Jungle Cruies.
So much of the weekend looked like this…such sweetness.
Me on Splash Mountain with an Australian family.
Ella and Jesse about to go and get Ella’s birthday pin.
Heading into the Star Tours ride.
On line for the Peter Pan ride.
Family shot in front of It’s A Small World. LOVE!
Watching Fantasmic – absolute sweetness.
Heather joined us on day 2! So great to get to spend time with her.
The Little Mermaid Ride – one of Ella’s favorites.
Ella overcame her small fear of Goofy’s Sky School. She had a lot of fun.
Toy Story Mania fun!
Love on the giant Ferris Wheel.
Radiator Springs Racers…Jesse decided that Dumbo needed to experience the ride. Heather and Ella held hands and Sunny was in another car that won.
Heather and I went on a little detour to Space Mountain while Jesse, Ella and Sunny went on the Buzz Lightyear ride.
Panda wearing his new kermit bandana – a gift from Jesse and Heather.
Thank you Jesse and Heather for making this incredible weekend possible. Love you guys.