Baseball and Soccer Wrap-up

Karl had his final baseball and soccer games of the season last Thursday. His first year of Pee-Wees was a great success—he did a bang-up job in the field, really improved his batting, and got a nickname of “Wheels” due to his speedy base running.

I’m getting a bit lackadaisical in my sports photography, but here are a few of the better baseball shots from this year.

Karl was eager for his final soccer game—if they won, they would complete a perfect season. True to form, they blew out the other team and Karl had a plethora of goals. Perfect season accomplished!

Unfortunately, it’s the same story with soccer pictures. Deborah, I’d take much better pictures if we just had a DSLR…

Karl had a huge cheering section for his last game. Grandma and Grandpa were there; Angie brought Colin, Justin, and Adam; and Brian, Jennifer, and Damon came too. Look how shy Damon is, hiding on his face in the ground.

The full contingent. The prior week, Karl’s team only mustered five players! All five of them played the entire game. Man, was Karl tired that day.

Karl and his friend Nick were a great pair in soccer.

These two kids are soccer buddies from waaaaaay back…all the way back to 2010.

Caturday: Catloaf

When Pippa sits like this, with her paws tucked under, Laura calls her a "catloaf," or, "a loaf of cat."

Clarinet Buddies

Laura gets to join band this coming school year, and in preparation has just started her CLARINET lessons! Today while she was practicing I just could not resist the urge to dig my stinky, yet functional, clarinet out of the crawlspace so I could join in the fun. Laura rolled her eyes as she handed me a reed. She knows how much I love playing duets with her on the piano, and had no idea that I'd want to play clarinet with her too. I reminded her that she'll be playing in a GROUP of clarinets at school, so this would be extra good practice.

Thanks for being a good sport, Laura!

July Birthdays at Fish Lake

July is the biggest birthday month in the Lundgren family—I count eight July birthdays including cousins, in-laws, etc. We’ve been celebrating at beaches the last few years, and after our recent trip to Fish Lake Deborah suggested we celebrate there.

March and December REPRESENT!

Jennifer and Brian (no July birthdays in this picture either).

Scott (July 17), Jim, and Bryan (July 25). Jim is one of the few guys who can pull off the plaid-on-plaid look.

A bunch of the younger cousins—Laura, Damon, Colin, Justin, Karl, and Wyatt.

Jason, Angie (July 2), Justin, Colin, and Adam.

Getting decent photos today was tough…

…so tough that our pictures of Karen and Carolyn (July 23), Mike (July 17), and Laurie (July 27) didn’t turn out. Sorry.

Dan and Amanda brought their two Chihuahuas Paco and Baby. Adam homed in on them right away.

After a great lunch, the kids (and a few adults) went swimming in beautiful Fish Lake. Karl and Colin played catch in the water most of the afternoon.

Karl finds a way of making even run-of-the-mill catches acrobatic.

Deborah is under the impression that Fish Lake is clothing-optional. I’m not going to tell her otherwise.

Caturday, July 21, 2012

Matt says Saturdays are the only days I can post pictures of Pippa without being a weirdo because every Saturday is really "Caturday." Here's my first installment! The other day, Pippa decided to sleep on Penelope's bed because it was in the sun. Laura thought it was cute too, and started playing with her.


Uh oh! Penelope came back and didn't quite know what to do. She tried to lay down behind Pippa but Pippa just ran away. The end.


Stay tuned for my weekly installments of Caturday. There are always kitty antics going on around here, so the stories are endless!

Farewell Florida Meissners

Nathan has become quite a “Star Wars” fan in the last few months and Karl was an enthusiastic dueling opponent.


Tuesday was departure day for Steve, Megan, Nathan, and Kathryn. The kids took one last long look at Opa’s aquarium.


The former Montgomerian is wearing a Twins shirt, and the Minnesotan is wearing a Biscuits shirt. This must be some kind of North/South cultural exchange.


One last family snapshot before heading out.


It was fun while they were here, but the visit was just too short. At least they’ll be back in the wintertime:
_{Deborah insisted I post these.}

Fish Lake

Last Sunday morning we woke up early (well, early for me) and went with Steve and Megan for the long-anticipated visit to Fish Lake. When they first met, Megan told Steve that she really loved the beach. Steve said he did too, and told her all about this great beach back in Minnesota called Fish Lake…not quite the miles of white sands familiar to Megan.



As we got out of the car, Deborah said to me “They’ve cleaned this place up!” and Megan even agreed that it wasn’t as depressing as she anticipated.


One of the highlights was when Karl and Nathan found a dead fish washed up on the shore. They gave it a proper burial.


We moved over to the playground, but we didn’t stay too long—another difference between the beaches of Florida and Minnesota: deer flies.


Later that afternoon, Jeff, Tanya, Aly, and Emily joined us at my mom and dad’s for a little lunch and some swimming. My Aunt Barb, Uncle Gord, and cousin Kris and her kids Xavier and Amelia came as well. We had plenty of lazy time in the back yard before going to the pool.


The “anti-gravity” chairs were a hit with the kids (and I look pretty comfy there too).


Karl with his cousin Nathan, and their second-cousin Xavier.

Pool Party at the Schneiders’

Megan, Nathan, and Kathryn arrived on Thursday evening and the kids were able to get together a little bit on Friday. But the main event was on Saturday when we all went down to Jeff and Tanya’s to enjoy the pool and Jeff’s grilling.



Oma and Opa took all four kids giving Steve, Megan, Deborah, and me enough time to sneak in a movie before the party. Steve and I watched “The Amazing Spider-Man” while Deborah and Megan enjoyed “Magic Mike.” They were smiling about it for days.


(They had a mini Channing Tatumfilm festival—the following night we watched “21 Jump Street” and Deborah’s crush got the better of us and we watch “The Vow” a few nights ago.)



The pool gave way to the Slip ’n Slide.


Laura was a little under the weather but she was a trooper with her crazy cousins.


After eating some tasty grilled kabobs and corn on the cob, we wrapped up the evening with some group pictures. Laura was really droopy by this time. Getting these six kids to all smile at the same time proved quite challenging.


Karl and Nathan picked up where they left off.