The Fairy Tale News

On Tuesday the 13th, we gathered at the high school auditorium to see the 5th grade play. There were actually two plays this year, “The Merchants of Venice” and “The Fairy Tale News.”

The first play was a mash-up of Shakespeare and “The Dating Game.” The second play (obviously the main event) was a TV newscast featuring the top stories out of fairy tales. The lead news item was an interview with three pigs and a wolf, the weather report came from atop a beanstalk, the sports story featured a tortoise and a hare, and there was a human interest story about a girl in a red hood marketing a new service to avoid wolves.

Laura played the part of Jill (of “Jill and the Beanstalk” fame), the TV meteorologist who gave her weather report from the top of the beanstalk.




After the play, Laura was kind enough to pose for some photos for her adoring fans. First, Laura and her director, Ms. Nelson.




Great job on the play, Laura!

Laura turns the big 1-0!

Even though I am WAY too young to have a 10-year-old, Laura went ahead and had her tenth birthday last week. That little stinker...

We started off in the usual birthday style: a pile of presents and carmel rolls for breakfast.

Yes, I sometimes drink Diet Coke at breakfast. That is not gross!


After school, we went to IHOP, which is Laura's favorite restaurant in the world.

This past weekend, Laura had a sleepover party at the AmericInn, where she had a blast using her new swimming skills. Laura, Emily, Aly, Kyla

Aly, Laura, Emily, Kyla


We had dinner at Dairy Queen, came back to the hotel room, played board games, and then went back for more swimming.


The girls were lucky that they had the pool to themselves for much of the time. They were so tired out that when I turned off the lights at 10:30, I didn't hear a peep out of them until morning.

I hope you had a great birthday, Laura. Yay for 10!

Karl’s Christmas Program

On Friday night, Karl treated us to the second grade Christmas program “Forty Winks ’til Christmas.” Half of the stage was filled with “cousins” decked out in pajamas waiting for Santa to come, and the other half was filled with toys like a jack-in-the-box, dancing bears, and rag dolls. Karl played a toy soldier.



Here’s a taste:


Karl posing with Jaime after the performance.


Nice work, Karl!

The Meissner-Elliott Birthday Bonanza

Today we celebrated Laura's, Karl's, Colin's, and Justin's birthdays at our house. We had some serious Vikings fans in attendance, so the guys watched the game while Mom, Angie, Connie, and I passed Baby Adam around while we talked about babies. Our conclusion: They're soooo cute!! Pizza was brought to the TV room, and we even had to plan when we sang "Happy Birthday" so it wouldn't interfere too much with the game. Laura was starting to think this stupid Vikings game was getting out of hand; all she wanted was to eat her cupcake already!

We finally managed to pull the Vikings crew into the dining room to sing "Happy Birthday." This is the adorable cupcake-cake that Angie brought (she requested half chocolate cupcakes and half white cupcakes- for the Meissners. I used my Lundgren card to get in on the chocolate ones. Oh, and when I asked my Dad what kind of cupcake he wanted he said, "chocolate," like, "duh, what kind of a question is that?")

This is the best we could do with the birthday kids, who had ants in their pants to get back to the game. One of these kids is doing her own thing, come on, can you tell which one? Can you guess which kid is doing her own thing, now before my song is done? And now my song is done. Colin, Laura, Justin, Karl


Colin and Karl ran off with their cupcakes to watch football. Laura and Justin stayed behind to savor theirs. For ten minutes they were best friends.

Next up: Laura turns 10! You would not believe what it's like to live with this girl in the days leading up to her birthday. December 6, when are you coming?!?

Trampoline Heaven

Yesterday we got to go to Colin's birthday party at "Sky Zone," where you can jump and jump and jump until you collapse from blissful exhaustion. The kids were literally bouncing off the walls!

Matt's back doesn't allow jumping, so he got to hold Baby Adam. He did quite a good job!

Karl and the birthday boy

Special thanks to the Elliotts for inviting us!

The Meissner-Schneider Birthday Bonanza

The day after Karl's birthday party, we continued the festivities with the Meissner side. First we went to Taylors Falls to listen to Fred sing in the community choir's Vespers service (he's an honorary resident of Taylors Falls), then we had dinner at Keys Cafe in Forest Lake to celebrate the four cousins' birthdays.

The choir sang in the Taylors Falls Methodist church. The kids worked out their goofiness before the service began.


The birthday cousins: Emily, Karl, Aly, Laura


Pam and Fred with their Minnesota brood of grandkids.


Birthday Girl Laura


Birthday Boy Karl


All the birthday cousins

And then they got silly.

Guess what? The cake, which Pam had ordered to be white with white frosting, was CHOCOLATE, and they had no white cake which which to replace it. I got to eat (very delicious) chocolate cake at a Meissner gathering! I felt like I was living in Bizarro world. Meanwhile, Matt and the kids watched me eat it in disgust. They just don't realize. So sad…

Karl's Birthday Bash

Last week Karl invited some friends to the movie theater for his birthday party. They ate pizza and cake before we watched the new Muppet movie, and I found out how loud second-grade boys can be. Wow. I must say they were well-behaved during the movie, though, which was very much geared to the 30-something parents who grew up with the Muppet Show. Good thing we spent the last year watching the DVDs of old episodes, so Laura and Karl got all the age-appropriate inside jokes.

Here's the birthday party crew: Nick, Austin, Montgomery, Lucas, Ty, Karl, Laura, and Brock


So far, I think Karl would say it's great to be eight!

Hey Everybody! Karl's 8 today!

We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday with my family, so today was all about Karl's birthday. He was up bright and early for his birthday breakfast.

Karl got right to work on his giant Lego space center after breakfast.

Karl has wanted to be eight for a long time. We have proof from 2005:


His birthday cake ended up looking like a giant doughnut, which is just fine in our house. We are firmly pro-doughnuts (especially with sprinkles!).

Happy Birthday, Karl! You're finally eight!

Piano Exam

Last Saturday, Laura had her first piano exam at the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul.

The exam consisted of performing three pieces, playing a bunch of pentachords, and some sight-reading. Laura usually performs well under pressure and her exam was no exception—she did a great job. Her results came back on Thursday, and she passed with high distinction!

Nice work, Laura!

Halloween 2011

Halloween is near the bottom of our favorite holiday list, but Laura and Karl always make the most of it. This year, Laura had her heart set on being a cheetah, but it's very tricky trying to find a cheetah costume that fits a 5'1" girl. Luckily, Pam found some spotted fleece material and whipped up a cheetah costume for her. Karl was a giant Whoopie Cushion. He's seven. Enough said.


On Saturday, we went to a costume party at Lynn and Chad Buehrings'. Even though Laura and Karl are not into anything too creepy or scary, they did enjoy the mad scientist (Jim Schoolmeesters), who assembled a body with various "parts," like tongue, brains, intestines, etc.

Then they colored pumpkins.

Laura's cheetah pumpkin:


Karl made this one:

On Monday, the Elliotts, Jennifer and Brian, and Mom and Dad came over for some Halloween fun.

Even Penelope got in on the costumes! She enjoyed reliving her racing days.

All the boys went trick-or-treating, but Laura stayed home because she's "just not that into the whole candy thing." Maybe the cloudy 40° weather had something to do with it...

Minneapolis Tourists

Every time we see it on TV, Karl asks why we’ve never visited the “Spoon and Cherry.” So today we swung by Saint Louis Park to pick up Deborah, drove through Uptown and ended up in downtown at the Walker’s Sculpture Garden. Karl got a hold of the camera and ran off to snap some pictures. I was expecting an assortment of geese photos, but was quite surprised to find some pretty cool shots of Spoonbridge and Cherry. Deborah and Laura posing with Hare on Bell on Portland Stone Piers. Yes, Laura is growing taller. Next, we invited ourselves over to the Elliotts’ to watch the Vikings game. Adam was just full of smiles! True to form, the Vikings lost. But we had fun, and our new quarterback is giving us a little bit of hope for the future. Thanks for having us over again, Jason and Angie!