Life With Ella

On Saturday, I volunteered at Ella’s school and Ron, Helen, Sunny and the girls went to Crissy Field to the beach.  The weather has been incredible.  Not only did Ella play and run on the sand, she lied down in the sand and made sand angels.  After the beach, I met up with everyone and we had some ice cream and ran around in the grass.  Yesterday, Sunny and I went to a funeral in the early afternoon and then came home and took a walk with Ella who was dressed as a princess.  She was so happy to be outside running around.  She also said that she was excited for baseball season!

Very serious about making bubbles.

The bubble sisters.

Look at all the sand angels!

Yummy ice cream

True Love

Princess on the run.

Riding on Lou Seal.

No fake smiles in these shots!  Ella has had a pretty bad cold and cough all week but her spirits have been amazing considering.  Here are some pictures from last night and today.  The weather was incredible and Ella was actually outside in a sundress.

Those eyes say everything.

This is a happy kid.

Walking with mommy and Towby.  The walk was too long for Bug.

Calling Towby…good boy!

Ella playing with her shadow.

Checking out some hallway construction with Stella.

Sunny did a reading at Book Passage in Marin on Thursday night.  It was a fantastic reading – at least 40 people showed up and the Q & A was incredible.  Time for some TV shows!   Sunny – you are amazing.

We dropped Ella off at school on Monday and found out that there was a lice case in the classroom.  This meant that Alicia had to check each kid’s head before they settled into the class.  It really threw Ella for a loop and she was not happy about it.  We left the class on Monday and Ella was in tears.  Today, I took her to school and there was another head check and this time, Ella was totally cool about it.  She brought this peacock to school with her that grandma and papa gave her and first Alicia checked the peacock for lice and then checked Ella and Ella didn’t cry at all.

Love those stripes…Ella picked this outfit out all by herself.

Circle time.

Ella enjoying a cup of tea at Nama tonight.

Grandma and papa came in on Wednesday night.  We were all so happy to see them and Ella was so thrilled and even a little shy.  We have been having a lot of fun.  Today we went to the Academy of Science.  This trip was more successful than the last 2 times we have attempted to go.  We were able to go into the tropical rain forest and see the butterflies and to the aquarium to see the beautiful fish.  We are already trying to plan for the next time we can all be together again.  Possibly a weekend in San Diego.  We love you grandma and papa.

On Thursday, grandma and papa came with me to pick Ella up from school.  It was raining a little bit.  Here are papa and Ella leaving school grounds.  Ella is all rain geared up!

Here are the 3 beauties after a great lunch at the Nordstrom Bistro.

Ella and grandma in the rain.

Ella the dragon trying to blow down the tower that she built with grandma.

Ella checking out a shark through the glass floor at the Academy.

Trying to get her hands on that butterfly.

Ella, grandma and papa looking for a gopher.  Last time we were walking back from the Academy, a little gopher popped his head out.  This time, Ella was singing a gopher song to the tune of Frere Jacques.  Guess what happened…

We got gopher!

Papa and Ella enjoying the gopher.

Ella ordering dinner at Acme tonight.

Playing at the table with grandma.

We have been pretty busy over the past few days.  Sunny did her big book reading on Thursday at the public library here in SF.  Sunny was incredible, the house was packed and it will be aired on C-SPAN in a few weeks.  Last night, Sunny did a reading in Berkeley and it was also amazing.  On Thursday, there were 100 books at the event to be sold, and they sold out before the event ended!  Here are a few pictures from the reading.

Here’s Sunny reading and then the panel after the reading.  It was all incredible.

Here is Sunny on Friday night in Berkeley.

Sunny and her co-author David answering questions after the reading.

It was a little cooler today, but it was still beautiful.  We were trying to figure out what to do for lunch and Ella said, “Let’s take a walk to the Ferry Building and have lunch there”.  What a great idea.  We had a nice walk, bumped into Helen, Ron and the girls and had some fun playing around and then we had lunch and visited with Phyllis, Richard, Lisa and some other friends who are regulars at the Ferry Building.  It was a beautiful day.

Walking down the block.

Waiting for the train and playing a game.

The girls did this all by themselves.  How cute are they!  What amazing friends.

Playing around upstairs at the Ferry Building.

Doing the old behind the back pick up!

Sunny had her first book reading last night.  It was in Santa Cruz.  Sunny did an amazing job and I am really excited for the big reading at the public library on Thursday.  Here is the sign in front of the book store from last night.I guess they couldn’t take a look at the book cover to figure out how to spell her last name!

Here are some pictures from today that I took of Ella.

Ella is so happy going to school!

Happy Ella after school chewing gum and holding a handful of quarters…another potty technique.  Ella has been pulling some potty “power trip” stuff.  The money seems to do the trick.  She is saving up for a giant panda stuffed animal.

Balancing on the curb.

Ella and her buddy Brickelle.

It was so warm out today that we went for ice cream and popsicles after school.

Here is the toy chest that Ella and I built together.  I couldn’t get a good shot of the shelf thing downstairs.