What? My Baby's Seven?

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents... and Karl turned seven! Whenever anyone in our family has a birthday, that person gets to choose where we have dinner that night. We knew we'd be eating Thanksgiving dinner on his actual birthday, so we went out for Karl's birthday dinner the day before. Right now, Karl's favorite restaurant is Subway. Ok, easy enough!

Laura says she hates Subway, but she was cooperative because she knew in just under two weeks she'd be forcing Karl to eat at Perkins (Matt and I don't get a break until March, when it's our birthdays!). At least Subway has potato chips.

That night, Karl was feeling a little sad to be turning seven ("so many good things happened to me when I was six! I don't really want to be seven"). We told him the older you get, the better it gets! Laura even decorated her card for him to show him how great it is to be seven: We kicked off Karl's actual birthday with our usual birthday ritual: a pile of presents at the breakfast table followed by carmel rolls.

I think Karl decided being seven is pretty nice after all.

After school, we went to my parents' house to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was also a birthday party for the Elliott-Meissner cousins, who all have birthdays around the same time. Laura's and Colin's birthdays are in early December, and Laura resents having to ever celebrate her birthday while it's still November. To compromise, Angie ordered the cupcakes with a snowflake theme, which made it all better for Laura!

The birthday kids: Laura, Karl, Colin, and Justin. This picture was taken pre-presents. They all looked MUCH happier once they opened their birthday gifts!

Karl's College Debut

On Friday, Karl got to miss part of school to visit the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul. His guitar teacher was guest-lecturing a class on music pedagogy, and was demonstrating his method of teaching classical guitar to young students. Guess who his demonstration student was? When we walked into the classroom filled with college-aged kids with their guitars, Karl looked a little nervous. When he got set up and all the students moved closer into a semi-circle around him, he looked REALLY nervous. It was supposed to be a demonstration of a normal lesson, so we had been stressing to Karl that it would not be a performance, just a usual lesson in a different place with an audience. At first, we were wondering if he was going to be able to keep it together, but as soon as he was done with his warm-ups, he took off like a shot and played through all his pieces like a pro! I was very proud. There was my little six-year-old boy, playing his guitar amongst a big group of adults, and he overcame his anxiety to show them what he could do (Karl's teacher seemed very proud of him too; he's a great advertisement for his teaching method). Great job Karl!

Halloween 2010

This year Karl decided he wanted to be "Dash" from the Incredibles. Dash has a super-hero older sister, Violet, and Laura graciously agreed to play the part. Becoming Dash was very easy. Karl just simply put on the costume and he had super-hero muscles and was ready to go. Laura's costume, though, was a little more tricky. First of all, Violet costumes basically don't exist. We had to buy the Mom Incredible costume, which came in "one size fits all," otherwise known as "women's size 14." It was VERY large. Pam did a nice job of taking it in as much as she could, but Laura was still able to fit a coat and jeans underneath it, which, for trick-or-treating in Minnesota, comes in quite handy. Also, Violet has long, straight, black hair. Laura had the long and straight part, but it took 2 cans of black hair spray to even come close. Next year, Laura said she's going to be a Rubik's cube.


It's become a tradition that we have a Lundgren family Halloween party, and this year we had Laura and Karl as the Incredible Kids, Colin as Spider Man, Justin as a Minnesota Viking, and Damon as a Ninja.

The cousins had a good time trick-or-treating, and I got rid of most of my "old-icky-thrown-from-a-parade-float" candy when older surly kids stopped by. Kids of appropriate ages got the good stuff... Please note that this is not in front of our house. I never decorate for Halloween so enthusiastically (and I'm actually happy that Halloween is over so I won't have to avert my eyes whenever I walk or run past creepy houses).


Even Penelope got in the Halloween Spirit!

Fire Poster Contest

Karl is following in his mother's footsteps by drawing an award-winning fire-prevention poster. It just so happened that I went to the school last week to help set up for the upcoming book fair, and as I walked inside, I heard that all the kids were in the gym for a program. Then I heard, "And the third place prize for 1st grade goes to Karl Meissner!" I quickly went in the gym and saw a beaming Karl standing at the front, collecting his prize! Congratulations Karl!

Read 'n Run 5k

Today, in honor of Laura, we met the Elliotts at Harriet Island in St. Paul to run a race to benefit the St. Paul Public Library. We all had great runs--Karl came in a close second out of about 20 kids, Laura ran the whole half-mile without ever walking (it's amazing what you can do when you believe in the cause), and I beat my personal best in the 5k by a minute and a half! (Thanks Jason!) Plus, the kids got to dress up in costumes, so they had an edge with their extra muscles and super suits.

 

Spiderman and the Incredibles kids team up to run a fast race!

The kids at the starting line, sizing up the competition...

Karl coming in for his big finish, just behind the leader (you can't see any kids behind them because they were way out in front the whole time). Way to go Dash!

And here's Laura at the end of her run. Nice job Violet!

Three tired kids (but not for long; they were soon up and playing at the playground and having leaf wars).

This is how Jason and I warm up at the starting line.

While Jason and I were running, Angie and Matt took the kids over to the playground.

It won't be long until Little Justin gets in on the races too! 

What a great day for a race! Yay books!

 

 

Orchestra Concert and Fishing with Opa: The Story of an Eclectic Day

This morning we went to St. Paul to listen to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra perform a family concert in the Ordway. The theme was "The Four Seasons--Unleashed!" and featured excerpts from Vivaldi's original "Four Seasons" pieces along with a more modern version done in the 1970s by an Argentinian composer. The concert was designed for kids, so there were actors and lots of props to correspond with the seasons, and the kids laughed when the flowers danced during the "Spring" sections, and snow fell in heaps on the "composers" during the "Winter" parts. The best part, though, was when we stopped for bagels at Brueggers on the way back to the parking ramp.

Since we always seem to take pictures in Rice Park when we're in St. Paul, we decided to change it up a bit and had the kids pose in front of Landmark Center.

 

After some shopping, Karl came home and immediately set off for the highlight of the day: fishing with Opa! They were extra lucky and caught several fish in short order--and Karl even got to take a couple home for dinner!

Karl even helped clean the fish, and he talked Oma into frying them up. Since neither Matt nor I will eat seafood of any kind, Karl has never had fish (When Laura was very little I used to buy fish and cook it just for her to eat because I thought it was good for her, but that habit did not last long, and since Karl is a second child, he never got that kind of special treatment...)

Just looking at this picture makes me ill.

Karl ate some of his fish, and decided he didn't like it very much. Good man. I can stomach making tacos for dinner, but I don't think I could handle demands for fish on a regular basis!

I'd say Karl's fishing trip was quite the success, even if eating what you catch isn't all that great. I think he's got a lot more fishing in his future. The next thing you know, he'll be learning to tie flies...

 

Fall Artwork

Ok, so it's been a long time since I've written a blog post, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. In fact, we've been so busy that I haven't had time to blog (that, and I haven't been as diligent with my camera use). To keep everyone interested until I take more pictures, I want to share a sample of some of the amazing artwork the kids have produced lately. These two pieces are my favorites:

"Tiny Wheel Bus" by Karl. Karl and Laura really do ride Bus #1, and all the kids really do have happy smily faces! This picture makes me happy.

"Zippy Goose" by Laura (I asked the kids to name their pictures, and this is what I got.) This is a painting Laura made at a birthday party. I love it.