Life With Ella

I have fallen behind here.  Let’s see…happy chanukah and merry christmas to everyone.  Grandma and papa arrived on Wednesday night.  We have been having a blast.  Sunny and I did our first 2 days of “family farmers” at Children’s Day School.  On Christmas and today, we have taken care of the sheep and chickens at Ella’s school.  Christmas morning was challenging.  There was a rain storm and there was actually thunder and lightening which is so rare in SF.  It was our first morning taking care of the animals and it was a little crazy.  We felt like pros by the time we went back in the afternoon to feed them and put them back in their little houses.  Today was totally smooth in the morning and afternoon until the very end when the sheep left their barn because they got spooked and we couldn’t get them to go back in.  They started running around really fast and they were crazy.  We were afraid because it was starting to get dark, but we finally got them back in.  Oy vey.  I am getting a movie together of our “family farmer” experience.  We do it again on New Year’s Day and the day after.  Hopefully things will be easier.  We really had a fun time even though it was different than anything that we had ever done together.  Here are some photos documenting the last 4 days. On Tuesday night we opened presents with Helen and Ron and the girls for Chanukah and then we hung out on Christmas Eve.  It was great to spend time together and hang out.  The girls are all amazing.

On Tuesday, Ella and I went to the Jewish Museum downtown.  We took the bus and Ella wanted to sit in her own seat.

The big girl eating lunch at the cafe in the museum.

Ella had a lot of fun throwing money into the fountain and making wishes.

Ella ona very crowded train on the way home.  Once again, she insisted on sitting by herself.

Ella wearing another princess dress from Becca.  Ella told us that her name was princess Phillip and that she had to go to her wedding.

We had dim sum on Christmas day.

Here we are on our way to Despereaux.

Here is Ella posing with the Despereaux cut out at the movie theater.  Ella sat through the whole movie and she said that she really liked it.

Here we are- the family farmers.

Ella and papa having some tender moments.

Having fun with grandma on the way to the ferry building.

Me and Ella taking a stroll down the Embarcadero.

3 generations.

Our sweet Ella.

I love this picture.  It’s just about pure love.

Papa, Ella and grandma on the bus.

Here I am with the sheep.  They were doing pretty well here.

Here’s the family lighting the menorah.

Beautiful Ella lighting the menorah.  She loves lighting the candles.

Tonight, Sunny and I went out with Amy and Becca and some other friends to see Amy’s sister perform at Kung Pow Kosher Comedy.  We had a great dinner and and Page was very funny – the funniest performer there.  We had a lot of fun and came home at 11:45 – some kind of record for us!

One more day of school and Ella is officially on her first winter break.  The school is having a winter concert tomorrow and hopefully Ella will participate in it.  We will be there with cameras on hand to record the pre-school portion of the concert.  Here are 2 cute pictures of Ella from the past 2 mornings.

Going to school on Wednesday.

Going to school today.

Today we went to Ella’s class in the morning for family share.  Each family has the opportunity to come in and do an activity with the class on a Monday morning.  We chose this morning to teach the kids about Chanukah.  Before we did our thing, we were able to watch the morning meeting in the Leaping Lizards class.  It was so fantastic to see the kids interact with each other and with the teachers and to watch some of the kids do their class “jobs”.  At the end of the meeting, the kids were able to share something with the group.  It was just really sweet and of course it was so great to see Ella as part of the group.  She participated, didn’t freak out that we were there and she listened to Alicia.

The weather was pretty crappy this morning – it rained really early but by the time we left, the rain was finished.  Ella knew that it had rained so she decided that she was going to wear her raincoat, frog boots and carry her Elmo umbrella.  We just got a kick out of watching this sweet kid walk down a virtually sunny street with her rain gear on.  We got into the classroom and Ella would not take off her raincoat.  I think  she may have even napped in her raincoat.  I’ll have to check with Alicia.  The morning activities were lots of fun.  We told the story of Chanukah, showed the menorah, ate latkes and brought in dreidles and played the dreidel game.  We also sang the dreidel song.  Ella is with a great group of kids.

After school, I went out to buy a dress for Ella for Stella’s fancy tea/birthday party on Sunday.  Ella told me that she wanted a red sparkly dress.  When I got back from shopping, Ella was baking brownies with mommy.    Ella changed into her dress – which she loves and wore it for the rest of the night.  You’ll see from the pictures that Ella had some special touches to her outfit.

Walking to school ready for the rain.

The dry erase board and morning meeting.

At one point, Ella leaned over and flicked Bella’s hat that has a bell on the end of it.  Alicia reminded Ella that they can’t touch each other without asking.  Alicia then asked Bella if she would ring her bell for the class.  Bella rang it a little bit.

Waiting patiently to play the piano.

Ella came home to a package from Uncle Jesse and Aunt Heather – in the box was a cool Mickey Mouse t-shirt and these incredible duck feet slippers which Ella immediately fell in love with.

Here I am showing Ella her new dress.  Notice the firefighter hat that she is wearing.  Ella got that from school today and she didn’t take it off all afternoon/evening.  She likes to wear it more like a baseball hat.

Ella with her new red bow, red dress and duck feet.

Here is Ella looking a little crazy.

The firefighter licking brownie batter.