Turner Falls 2011

Over labor day weekend we went with my family to a cabin in Davis, OK where Turner Falls is located.  What a fun time we had!  Unfotunately we had to cut it short because of a cold invading our family...  Oh the joys of children!

We went up Friday and got settled in the cabin.  When we got there Mom and Dad had already showed up.  There was a bedroom downstairs in the basement with 4 double beds and room for a pack-n-play for Wyatt.  Mom and Dad were down there and we decided to crash with them.  There was the main floor with a kitchen, bathroom (there was one on each floor), living room, and then a third floor with a bunch more beds where Brian, Morgan, Kacie, and Joseph slept.

On Saturday we went to Turner Falls.  It is a big outdoor lake/pond with a waterfall that flows into it.  Then there is a big creek to play in.  It goes to another pond where there are cliffs and slides to go off of.  I went here with camp when I was 12, but it has changed since then.  Here's some pictures of our trip!

Standing in front of the cabin

Turner Falls.  The waterfall isn't very good because of the massive drought we are in, but you get the idea.

Playing in one of the creeks.

Swimming in the pond/lake where the waterfall is.

He loves it!

Mom, Morgan, and I visited a winery, YUM!

Nick going down the slide!

And the other slide!

Yup, even I went down the slide!

Mom and Dad with the kids.

FOOTBALL!

Our little man Cooper is now playing football!  EEK!  How did he get so big???  I feel like he is too little to be playing because he's only 3, but then again he has enough energy for the entire team!  He has practices every Wednesday and a game every Saturday until the first weekend of November.  I'm super excited for him.

First practice went well.  Nick is the assistant coach too (yay!).  There are two 5 year olds on the team (one little guy Jared is tiny...but he's quick), and the rest of them are 3!  Some of the kids are truly there to play football...while some of the others like Cooper are there to simply be around other kids.  I'm not going to lie, my Cooper is NOT a sportsman.  This is not an easy concept for his father to understand but he's not.  Cooper would rather watch than play.  I'm just happy that he is out having fun; whether that be playing hardcore football...or simply twiddling his thumbs while standing in the middle of the field!

His first game was a "gymboree."  Its score wasn't kept.  The rest of the games scores will be kept however.  There are 4 teams total in the league.  The league is an i9 league which is nationwide now.  I like it because they have a huge emphasis on teaching teamwork and having fun rather than winning.  Each week, each child receives an award.  They have to wear football cleats which Cooper loves!  Each game they have to wear their cleats, jersey (it is a reversible jersey that each kiddo gets.  One side is grey, the other is light blue), shorts without pockets (for safety I guess), and a mouthguard.  It is flag football, which means they cannot tackle, but I have noticed a bully or two.  Luckily our team is all super sweet kids and none of them a mean or have shown any roughness, but let me tell you about this pain-in-the A*S kid on the other team.

Parker, number 20, on the team we just played will be lucky if I don't kick him to timbucktwo before the end of this season.  He is so big and has no team spirit.  Three times he made kids on our team cry.  One of our guys wouldn't even play the second half of the game because of the jerk.  He clenched his fists up as yelled "yes, I made him cry."  Come on?  Lousy parenting at its best.  If I see it again, you better believe I will be making a phone call,  there is NO reason for this kind of crap on a 3-5 year old sports team.  Especially when his father is the coach.

Well, anyways...we didn't win the first game but that's perfectly okay.  Our kids had a BLAST!  We only lost by 6 which isn't bad considering the other team was full of probably 4 and 5 year olds.  I'm a super proud Mommy of our little team.  And even if we didn't win, we had the best looking little guys out there!  (Even my dad said that haha).  Mom and Dad came to cheer on Cooper and he loved it.  He TOLD EVERYONE "there's my Grams and Pop."  It made his day!

And now, for some pictures!

1st Practice!!!  Stretching out  :)

Run Baby!  He had so much fun!

Look at that hair!  Hah!

Team Practice!

First game.  We are the grey team!

Coach Nick giving a pep talk!

Love it!

Art Projects

Boy have we been a busy group of Middletons lately!  Cooper is finally old enough to do some of  the crazy art projects that I have had brewing up in this teacher brain of mine for the past few years.  Want to see what we have been doing???  Here are a few pictures!

We made a clothesline of t-shirts that had the letters of our last name on each shirt.  I laid all the shirts (mixed up) on the floor and had Cooper go to work hanging them up in order.  We have mastered our last name!

Bathtub painting!  Shaving cream + Food coloring = Super fun, but easy to clean up!

We took a large canvas and hot glued crayons to the top.  Then we took a blow dryer and heated up the crayons.  Isn't this fun???

We bought this a few weeks ago and Cooper has been busy making tons of fun pictures for us.  Its amazing, I thought it would make a mess with paint spraying all over the place, but it hasn't sprayed a single drop anywhere!  I love this!!!

Cooper is learning fine motor skills by tracing the line's from our house to the rodeo!

I drew 2 "grape vines" after the boys went to bed, and then they painted the grapes using their fingerprints the next day:

Some pipe cleaners and plastic beads helped up learn how to count.  He already knew how to count, so this helped him by pulling a pipe cleaner and showing up how he could count out the beads for each number.

Pour whole milk into a plastic bowl/dish.  Drop some food coloring around inside of the milk.  Take a toothpick and dip it into dishsoap.  Drag the toothpick through the water.  The surface tension of the milk is broken when the soapy toothpick hits.  We had tons of fun with this one!