Preschool Trike-A-Thon!

If we weren't already completely sold (which we were) on Raegan's preschool, this morning did the trick! The students wheeled in their decorated bikes and sported harvest colors to the annual Lil' Lighthouse Preschool Trike-a-thon Fundraising event.

And here's our super star!

First things first. Morning Routine. Each day begins with the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag and the Christian Flag AND to the bible. Then "It's a happy day!" song and "suiting up" with the armor of God.

Here's Raegan's lead teacher Miss Peggy and Director Mrs. Menashe putting on the helmet of salvation and leading "I'm in the Lord's army." Like I said, this place is fabulous!

Mrs. Menashe and our bicyclist!

We were all there to support our girl!

And around they go!

As you can see (purple helmet,) we had one serious rider on our hands. She waved and smiled at us a few times, but mostly she put the pedal to the metal and hit the road.

After the ride, the athletes had orange slices and water together. That's Raegan's little friend Kayla in mid sentence.

Just one more cute shot from the night before- orange nail polish!

Home.

We moved again!

Just a few blocks away, into a place of our own where we'll be for a while. It's a rental, it's furnished with somebody else's furniture, but it's "home." And I love it. Yes, I miss my pink giraffe print broom, my quilt on my bed, and my kitchen gadgets, but we're hanging up Raegan's art projects to decorate and enjoying simplicity for now.

If you want to send me love letters, we got ourselves a little P.O. Box!

P.O. Box 3125

Newport Beach, CA

92659

Since we had 5 kids running around in the last house, I had to purchase one of these on move out day:

Before.

After. Eww nasty.

And can I just say that this magic sucker got out every color of crayon and every scuff mark!

Friends

We are so thankful for our friends slash housemates- the Ords. It's a pretty amazing thing to actually LIVE with your friends. You should try it sometime. Not just live close by, next door, see everyday, etc... but actually LIVE under one roof. We get to drink coffee in the early mornings and hot tea when it's late at night. And built in playdates for the kids! What a blast!

We decorated fall cupcakes together last week~

Remember when you used to dress as "twinsies" with your bff's?

Speaking of bff's. I really wish I could post an old picture here, but I'd have to dig through boxes of 3x5s for a while to find the perfect shot of me and Meg in matching stretch pants with coordinating baggy sweatshirts and pigtails.

But here's us laughing together today! (thanks to my new iphone)

And here we are as kids... oh wait! Nope! Those are our beautiful daughters- beautiful little friends. They play together only a handful of times a year, but it's always so fun and they're always so glad to see each other.

Tuesday, Raegan and I drove down to Camp Pendelton for an afternoon visit with my oldest friend. As we pulled up to the house, Megan and I both had tears in our eyes. Sometimes I just can't believe how fast time goes by. Wasn't it just yesterday that we were sharing a piano bench and playing dolls?

*Sigh*

Pumpkin carving!

We are having such a wonderful FALL! These sisters are such sweet friends, and although occasionally lil' sis can bug her big sis, and sometimes big sis can pick on her lil' sis, they just love each other SO darn much.

All of our friends so hard at work!

Guts! Last year, she wanted nothing to do with the inners. This year she dug in and squished the slime and seeds between her fingers, just for the fun of it.

Raegan has plans to strut her stuff as Ariel from the Little Mermaid this Halloween. I'm still on the hunt for a red wig. (Casey, if only I lived closer!) But here's a little sneak peak- the crown.

Getting ready for school

Don't forget to brush your teeth!

Lil' Lighthouse

Almost unaware that she was the new kid on the block, Raegan boldly started a brand new preschool this week. Lil' Lighthouse Christian Preschool. On day one she was confident, sweet, and excited to make new friends. "Pink girl and her yellow friend" (she's still learning names, so therefore identifying kids by the color of their outfits) were two new classmates that Raegan liked.

Anabelle sat on the floor right next to Raegan during the morning welcome. Each student has to wear their Lil' Lighthouse backpack to school each day, and she even has homework. It's mostly for fun of course, but Raegan's really enjoying the work book pages and taking her assignments very seriously. I'm feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude that we basically stumbled upon this incredible place, they had one opening left, and took Raegan the next day!

Here's a photo of Raegan's new teacher, Miss Peggy, and the Preschool Director, Marge, holding Scruffy the dog.

We enrolled just in time to join the class for their October fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch! My mission? Learn some names! So along with feeding goats and picking out the perfect round pumpkin (who we named Priscilla) Raegan jumped in the bouncy house with a beautiful new friend named Kayla.

Daddy and little sissy picked us up and got to explore the fall display for a few minutes.

Pumpkins!

Fall is here!

Yippee!

Lovin' October

Fall has arrived. And although there aren't exactly red and orange leaves falling from the Southern California palms, it still feels like fall to me. Cooler breezes are in the air and even a little rain graced our rooftops this week.

It's time for steamy Chicken Pot Pies,

homemade orange playdough,

wet hair and slick rain boots,

and snuggly blankets!

After it stormed for almost 2 days straight, we were left with this.

A perfect cotton candy sunset.