first day of school

Today was the first day of school for BOTH my babies. And like most moms would say, I think it was much harder on me than it was on them. Britton practically bounded into class, and might not have even given me a hug and kiss if his teacher didn't remind him. They were baking gingerbread cookies today (and going on a gingerbread hunt) - and he could hardly contain himself. They had a gingerbread door, made of cardboard, set up that the kids had to go through and Britton was in heaven. I, on the other hand, was so sad to realize this is my first born's last year at the Kirk. This time next year, I'll be in the dark. No more "inside information" from the director (AKA my mom), no more special treatment. Oh my. I was a Jenks grad - wouldn't even consider sending my kids anywhere else for K-12, but still, it's just scary.


Leyton on the other hand, DID cry when I handed him over to his teacher. It was the break-your-heart-why-are-you-leaving-me kind of cry. However, I'm wise to his tricks. :) He's pulled this before, and if you hang around long enough (2 minutes, tops), he's happy and playing with all the other kiddos. I think it's more for my benefit than anything else. The teachers told me he had a wonderful day - ate all his lunch (since when does Leyton skip meals anyway), ran around like a little monkey on the playground, and even napped on his nap mat. That last one is huge - my Mom messaged me a little after noon to tell me that Leyton was not unhappy, but was not the least bit interested in having anything to do with the nap mat. :) But the teachers worked their toddler magic and I got another message 10 minutes later that he was sleeping - ON HIS NAP MAT! :)


Ready for school! Oh yes, I totally dressed them in matching outfits. I don't care what anyone thinks - I won't be able to get away with this much longer (PJ already tells me it's so not cool).


Britton, begging me to stop taking pictures and take him up the stairs to his class. Looks a little impatient, no? :)

Leyton, considering his escape options:

Blowing Gigi a goodbye kiss (although he saw her again in less than 20 minutes)

road trip - part dos

As promised, here's pictures from our second road trip of the week. At the request of Britton, we made a trip to Stillwater today, on the hunt for Pistol Pete. PJ and I were fairly certain Pistol Pete was "in class" today, but we played along anyway. We had lunch at Eskimo Joe's (Britton's FAVORITE), complete with cheese fries. I'm fairly certain Britton and Leyton killed the entire plate, with PJ and I only getting a few when they weren't looking. :) Since it was pretty warm today, we opted out of wandering around campus and sweating to death, and instead went to Chris' University Spirit and picked out a new OSU shirt, which was just as good for BK. :)

Leyton was much too busy with the cheese fries to pose for a picture. But you can at least see he's smiling... At the fries.


Not the best picture of any of us, but I'm normally on the other side of the camera so the good ones are few and far between. :) Notice Leyton's face - as he's trying to get back to the cheese fries. What can I say, my children are driven entirely by food (like their mother).

Cheesy BK:

The growling contest. How is it that it always ends this way? Leyton thinks it's hysterical...

road trip

Since we didn't take a big family vacation this Summer and with the start of school sneaking up on us (Thursday!), PJ and I decided to take a few days off and do some fun things with the boys (basically, the plan was to squeeze as much "fun" as possible in these three days and run the boys ragged - so far, mission accomplished). At the Garcia house, we love a good road trip - basically because we break out the portable DVD player which mesmerizes the kids and PJ and I actually have a few moments of *almost* silence. We don't allow the DVD players in the car while in town, so it's definitely a special event when we head out of Tulsa.

So today, we headed for the OKC zoo. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about driving all the way there to go to a zoo when we have a zoo membership to the Tulsa zoo and can go for free. :) However, this was completely worth it! There were so many more animals (that we don't have in Tulsa), and it's just an amazing zoo. First of all, it's huge. Second, it has a ton of shade, so you don't absolutely cook walking around. And to top it off, the animals were SO ACTIVE! Not once did we stand and stare an an animal sleeping in his exhibit (which seems to be the case in so many of the exhibits here). We were just floored by all the activity, plus the close proximity of so many of these amazing creatures! I'd say the family favorite of the day was definitely the Silver-back Gorilla, which was right up against the glass staring at us. We also had an Orangutan that was hanging from a hook directly above the glass, making faces at the kids and putting his hand up against BK's.

I loved the big brown bears - they just look so cuddly (yes, I know - BAD idea).


Here's the Orangutan trying to touch BK's hand. He did actually hang lower than this and touch it with his foot, but this was the best I managed to get a picture of. It was AMAZING.


But here's the winner. This gorilla was just amazing. The picture is through the glass which is why it's a little blurry, but wow. I could have just watched this guy for hours.



Leyton did amazing - so happy the entire time! I'd say his favorite animal was the fish. Not sure why, but he's obsessed with fish.

Meet "Moto Moto," the pygmy hippo. No, that's not his name, but if you've seen Madagasgar II, you know exactly who I'm talking about... Funny, that's been Leyton's nickname for a while now... :)

Check out the waterfall in the background! Never would have expected to see that at a zoo...

down with the sickness. again.

I'm always behind on the blog. what else is new? Oh well, better late than never, right? RIGHT? So the last few weeks haven't been a ton of fun around the Garcia house. besides a few birthdays (mine and gigi's - and neither of us were thrilled to have another birthday), the boys have been busy passing bugs, viruses and other little goodies back and forth. Britton's on round 2 for the last 3 weeks, and Leyton's almost done with the antibiotics for round 2. can we all be healthy for just 5 minutes? PLEASE? I don't think I'm asking too much. :)



let me apologize up front for the quality of these pictures... they were all taken on my cell as that's all I ever seem to have with me! here's Gigi's big birthday dinner at Ted's...




in other news, we have tried to fit some fun in between the fevers. We visited the zoo a few weeks back on one afternoon that wasn't blazing hot, and the boys had a great time! So many of the animals were out and about, and the zoo was nearly empty.

we always have to make a stop at the play area at the zoo!

Britton and I thought this bird had the most hysterical "hair-do." Picture-worthy according to Britton...

this past weekend, we took the boys to dinner and to play in the water fountains at the Riverwalk - always a hit at our house. And Britton "bought" ice cream for us all on the way home with his nickel. Oh how I only wish it only cost a nickel.

Leyton is still not a huge talker, but we're working on that. he will say some words if you repeat them to him several times ('apple,' 'bubble,' 'duck,' and he'll make the vroom-vroom car noise), and Aunt Amber is so proud he said her name before any other Aunt/Uncle or Grandparent (it sounded like "Amba" but hey, we'll take it). His best word is a Leyton original - "E-Ya-Ba." We are still not sure what this means exactly, but he says it 8 million times a day and thinks it's so funny if you say it back to him. we'll be adding it to Webster's soon. :)

kristy took this one and it's one of my favorites!

that's all for now... more to come. soon. I promise. :)