back to school... happy fall!!

 my heart is so gleeful from writing those words in the subject heading!! in the past 3 days, the temperatures have dropped 30 degrees, and it was RAINING when i got home from work this morning!! helloooooo, fall! ever my favorite season (despite naysayers telling me "california doesn't HAVE fall" - we have wind and rain and cooler temperatures and sweaters and falling leaves and chai tea and pumpkin spice lattes! sounds like fall to me!! :), jason and i went out and celebrated this lovely fall afternoon with aforementioned pumpkin spice lattes (ok, his was a frappe - which totally defeats the whole "feeling" of fall to me, but he still wants it to be summer, so i guess it make sense ;)

...98, 99, 100! ready or not! here i come! 

when i was editing these pictures yesterday, i found my soul just stirring up with excitement that it's finally coming! we took these shots on the playground at the school where my sister teaches, and not only did it remind me of the warm colors of fall, but the school campus itself brought back a flood of delightful back-to-school emotions, too! probably one of the reasons fall has been a perennial favorite (i always was a nerd)... but best of all was always... school supplies!! you know what i'm talking about!
 the smell of a freshly sharpened bouquet of pencils, elmer's glue, notebooks and paper (peechee folders? any 80s kids out there??). at this time of year, i suddenly find myself wanting to buy a new box of crayons, pencil cases for nonexistent school notebooks, ahhh.... we took a trip to office depot last week. i think we were there to look at a printer, but as soon as i walked in the door, i saw nothing but school supplies wall-to-wall! pennies and dimes could get me rulers and protractors and erasers and notebooks of first-grade composition paper! :) is it just me?

 you may recognize this jungle gym from this post about accidental art - i had to do a shoot here because of it ;)

 oh, yeah, and about what i'm wearing... this was a pretty creative one ;)
tank: american eagle, thrifted
skirt (or bottom half of shirt, however you want to look at it ;): mossimo, thrifted.
shorts: ross, years ago. pre baby. yes, it is being held together by an awesome trick my best friend told me about halfway through pregnancy... put an elastic hairband through the buttonhole, and take both ends & wrap it around the button - voila! you can still wear your regular, surely much cuter than maternity clothes all through your pregnancy - and beyond! - and not have to buy a whole new wardrobe! i probably should not admit all that. oh well - it's true! and i look forward to the day when i can button my shorts again ;) 
necklace & belt: forever 21 - $4.50 and $2.50 respectively! might have even gotten me over my extreme aversion to mall shopping ;)  hair flower: handmade by me that day right before going out :) 
flip-flops: old navy, also $2.50 - my regular daily fare (yes, even in fall - ok we don't really have fall here ;) love that i can buy them in as many colors as i want, and that i can dress them up by adding a couple of clip-on flowers - super cute awesomeness! 

 fall! can you feel it??!

thanks, kristi for letting us in, jason for taking the pictures, and both of you for putting up with me wanting to shoot all over campus! there are just too many cool spots! :)