Ella's Shabbat

Today was Ella's Shabbat Day at school. This basically means that she provides the challah and the snack, she gets to lead all the prayers and pass out the challah to her friends. But the best part is that her family got to be there to celebrate with her! Her Shabbat was supposed to be last Friday but we changed with Natalie so that Gaga could be here to celebrate.

Ella was out of her mind with excitement. Every morning since Monday she'd wake up and say, "Is Gaga here? Is it my Shabbat yet?" So this morning when she woke up she said, "Has Gaga's plane landed?" when I said yes, she could barely contain her excitement.

Gaga's here!!

The only bummer of the day is that Ricardo came home from work yesterday sick as a dog. We were hoping he'd feel better by this morning but it was a no go. Poor guy had a rough night and a rough day. We're hoping after a good nights sleep he'll feel better.

Anyway, we dropped Ella off at school and had 45 minutes to kill before Shabbat, so the teachers let us take Sofia into the indoor play area.

Sliding with Gaga

Then it was showtime! We got into the classroom right at circle time. Sofia loves coming to school and always jumps right in to whatever activity the class is doing (even though she's just a sibling and not in the class). Knowing this, they set out a carpet square for Sofia so that she could be a part of the class. She loved it and sat right down and paid attention and participated with the rest of the class!

Ella and Gaga
The four of usI've got that Shabbat feeling deep in my heart, deap in my heart...The prayer over the candlesThe prayer over the Challah (we did the kiddush too but no pics)
Ella passing out challah to her friends. "Hannah, would you like a piece of challah? Yes? Ok!"
Enjoying snack and challah with the class. Once again, because the teachers know how much Sofia loves being there, they made her her own placemat and gave her her own spot at the table next to Ella. It was really so sweet, and Sofia LOVED being a big girl next to her sister.

1 out of 3 looking at the camera...

Then the last part of Ella's shabbat was that a family member of her choosing got to read a story, also of Ella's choosing, to the entire class. So of course, Ella chose Gaga, and she chose, Pinkalicious to read.

She started off sitting a couple carpet squares away from Gaga...

While sofia saddled up closeThen about 4 pages in, Ella decided sitting that far away wasn't cutting it and picked up her carpet square and moved right next to Gaga...But even that wasn't cutting it and she needed to hold her hand...but something still just wasn't right...

ahhh, that's better.

And that was Ella's Shabbat!