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.

Fourth of July

We had a pretty lazy Fourth of July this year, but we were gearing up for a busy weekend to follow. Steve, Megan, Nathan, and Kathryn were coming for a quick visit and we were planning on packing in a lot of time with the Florida cousins.

Steve arrived the previous Saturday, but he and my dad promptly headed up to Grand Marais for a few days of fishing.

On the Fourth of July, Deborah, the kids, and I invited ourselves over to my mom and dad’s to watch the Twins game and to wait for Dad and Steve to get back home. Then it was off to North Branch for some fireworks.

Sole Survivor

Laura was enrolled in Project SEEK again this summer in the acting class “Shakespeare’s Kids.” The culmination of the class was the performance of the play “Sole Survivor” six times! We saw one performance on June 28. It was a cute play with a cliff-hanger ending involving a group of mystery-solving Girl Scouts whose plane crashes on an Atlantic island. They encounter pirates, ghosts, a shadowy villain, and a TV reality show.

Laura played Julianne Thisby, a Girl Scout who had her nose buried in her iPhone most of the time—a character I could relate to (well, not the Girl Scout part…). She helped her friends out of a few jams by searching on the web for trivia and sending text messages and emails. Obviously she was my kind of heroine.



Saving the day with a phone call.


Saving the day by reading a Wikipedia article. I can relate. I don’t know how many times everyone has thanked me for reading a Wikipedia article aloud to enlighten them.


The kids all had short biographies in the playbill. Laura’s was pretty funny:

Laura Meissner—plays Julianne Thisby, Girl Scout

She is the daughter of Matt and Deborah Meissner and attends Jacobson Elementary School in Rush City. She wanted to take this class because she loves to act. Her past acting experiences include her Fifth grade play, music programs, and two years in the “Sing it, Act it, Shake it!” class. She says she likes EVERYTHING about this class and it is really fun! Some of her other hobbies are reading, reading, and more reading, and drawing cat faces. When she grows up she wants to be a cake maker who can make cakes in cool shapes.

I think six performances wore Laura out:

Saints vs. Pheasants

Last night my dad, Karl, and I went to our first Saint Paul Saints game and we had a great time.

The Saints have a pair of pig mascots this year named Kim Lardashian and Kris Hamphries, and we were lucky enough to be guests at their wedding! But first, the Saints had to play some baseball against the Sioux Falls Pheasants…



At Midway Stadium, the diversions are just as fun as the game. Our entertainment for the night was a cast of characters roaming the stadium. I had two favorites. The first was the Robber Baron/Owner of the team, a late nineteenth/early twentieth century tycoon wearing an ill-fitting suit (think Daniel Plainview in flood pants). The whole game I was worried he would walk up and drink my milkshake.

My other favorite was The Nerd. For most of the game, he planted himself atop the visitors’ dugout right in front of us, dancing, prancing, and cheer-leading all night. He didn’t seem to know much about baseball, but that was part of the fun.


After every frame Kim and Kris were trotted out on the field to be bottle-fed by the umpire, and there are crazy contests going on at the same time. These lucky kids had to drive their White Castle cars around the cones and into the white castle. The winner got a free slider. The loser got two free sliders (not really, but I can’t imagine 7-year-olds enjoying White Castle).


As the game went on, the Pheasants looked like they were going to sneak by the Saints. But in the bottom of the ninth inning, Karl’s favorite player Ronnie Bourquin came through with a HUGE home run to extend the game to extra innings (The Nerd reported that it was going into overtime because the teams had a field goal apiece). In the top of the 13th, the Pheasants’ Cory Morales hit a home run that plopped into the left field hot tub. The Saints couldn’t match it, and we lost 4-3. But that was just the warm-up for the nuptials.



It was a beautiful wedding. The bridesmaids were four men dressed in Marilyn Monroe drag, and the groomsmen were two goats and two sheep. It was officiated by a local radio personality.

After the wedding, we stuck around for the excellent fireworks and then called it a night. Karl was tired when we got home about 12:15, but he’s been talking about how much fun he had all day today.

Batter Up!

Karl has been pretty baseball obsessed since spring. We’ve been practicing throwing, hitting, and pitching since the ground thawed. He met Twins Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven. He follows the Twins closely, catching games with Opa or Grandpa. We’re even watching Baseball, Ken Burns’s 20-hour documentary on the history of the game (not exactly the kind of summer movie I figured we’d be seeing together, but we both like it). So last week when Karl’s T-Ball coaches asked if he’d rather move up to Pee-Wees, Karl was thrilled.



His first practice was rained out last Thursday, so today was an extra-big day: first practice and first game. Deborah took him to practice and reported that he did just fine with the older boys, but I think he was still a little apprehensive about the game tonight. Laura had piano and swimming lessons tonight, so they couldn’t attend but I had a blast watching the game.

Defensively, Karl played first base in two innings and outfield in two others. He made some great plays at first, and had a monster throw from deep right field into the shortstop to hold a runner at third.



He had a great night at bat too going four for four and making a big impression with his speedy base running.



Though the coaches and parents insist that we don’t keep score at these games, the players have other ideas. Karl reported that Rush City beat North Branch 26-19!



Nice work, Karl, you’ve given me an excellent reason to enjoy baseball.

Summer Catch-up

School has been out for just over two weeks and we’re all fully into summer activities. Laura has started Project SEEK (she’s taking an acting class called “Shakespeare’s Kids”), Karl has started summer rec and soccer, and they’ve both started swimming lessons. Deborah has been shuttling them around and working on her tan while the three of them hang out at the pool on free afternoons.

Karl has only had two soccer games so far—two others have been canceled due to storms. But as usual he’s making the best of the games he does get to play.


It was Father’s Day on Sunday—don’t we all look happy?



And keeping with Deborah’s habit of sneaking cat pictures at the end of posts, we recently learned that Pippa likes climbing…

Laura ❤ Turtles

Laura's class this year kept a batch of variously-sized painted turtles, and at the end of the school year last week, some of the students got to take one home. Laura was the lucky recipient of the smallest one, "Ping." (Ping had a brother named Pong. Yes, Laura named them.) Luckily, Laura brought him home on a day that Pam and Fred watched them, because it turns out that Fred loves turtles too! Little Ping is just adorable, and seems to love his new home.

Ping joins Penelope, Pippa, and Karl's fish Freddy into the Meissner Managerie. One boy, one girl, one dog, one cat, one fish, one turtle. We just like to have one of everything. And no, Ping did not chew on that plastic plant. It was already like that.

Special note: the colorful rocks are Laura's rock collection. She figured Ping would really appreciated them, and that having them in his house would be a great way to display them. I think she's right.

Now I'm just going to sneak this little picture in right here.