The Meldahl Kids Christmas Party

Yesterday was the Meldahl Kids Christmas Party, held at my brother John's house in south Minneapolis. The party was set to start at 5pm, but seeing as we were in the midst of a winter storm warning, we packed up and set off for the cities just after 3pm. It was a bit dicey driving down to Minneapolis, so I was thrilled when we pulled up to the house just before 6pm. The boys were sick of the drive at that point, so they were also very happy to arrive!!

The party was in full swing when we arrived. Debby had commissioned her daughter-in-law Terri's brother to provide the food (he has a restaurant in St. Paul) so we had an unbelievable feast of Cambodian food. It was absolutely delicious. Of course, Hans kept asking me, "when is the kids food going to arrive?" I finally just directed him to the corner of the kitchen where there were loads of fresh Christmas cookies of all sorts. You would have thought that I had just said Santa was there, waiting to take their order! What was really funny was the number of adults who asked both boys if their mom was aware that they were eating cookies for dinner...they gleefully replied that their MOM was the one who had told them to have at the cookies!

After our meal, we did the traditional gift war (woops, I mean gift exchange). This years theme was "going green." As has also become tradition, someone managed to include a 6 pack of beer into a gift as part of the theme (it was Heineken - green beer...get it?) so of course that gift became the sought after gift. Debby had planned ahead and had John marking the gifts with a Sharpe pen for the number of times that the gift had been 'stolen.' That alleviated some of the typical fighting and debate over the rules that typically occur. Fa la la la la and all that. The gifts were all very creative and really a lot of fun this year. Orn came home with a compost keeper and I managed to snag a bag filled with tea towels and dish clothes and air freshener stuff. All very fun.

After the gift exchange we played a game with lottery tickets. You can't get that many Meldahl's involved in a competition and walk away unscathed. However, nobody ended up worse for the wear and it was truly a ton of fun! My nephew Travis was sitting to my left and Hans and Gunnar were on my right, so we Bodvarssons were desperately trying to win out over the Meldahl on my left. We did not. Travis won the whole deal! He was very gracious though and tossed some tickets to the boys who very much enjoyed scratching off the tickets...until they lost again. The school of hard knocks arrives early when around the Meldahls.

The other Travis of the evening is a soon to be new member of the family, Chloe's fiance, Travis Hanson from Mankato. Chloe and Travis drove up from Mankato in the wee hours of the morning as Chloe was bound and determined that they would not miss this party.

Jim and Kathleen came to the rescue and wrote the poem for Steve and Claudia who could not be at the party this year. That was a lot of fun and well written considering the short notice. All in all, it was a wonderful evening filled with a lot of good fun and cheer on a very cold evening!

Classic Minnesota Winter Scene

This afternoon both boys have friends over to play after school. See the photo's for the view of the typical Minnesota winter play from our cats favorite position to view the outside from upstairs! Both cats were enjoying watching the boys slide and snowboard down the driveway...that is until they heard the telltale sound of the camera clicking behind them!

Putting up the Christmas Tree!!

As has become tradition in the Bodvarsson household, the Friday after Thanksgiving is set aside for putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house! This is partly because we're all home, but also because we host Orn's department holiday party the following weekend! This year is no exception.

We had a ball putting up the tree and decorating it. Some humorous aspects of the activity included Hans asking, "is it a REAL tree?" numerous times as we pulled limb after limb of our tree out of the box. I looked at Gunnar and said, "your brother is not the brightest bulb on the tree," keeping in the holiday spirit. Of course the cognitive psychologist in me can come up with a pretty good explanation for Hans's question, but it is not nearly as humorous as interpreting it that Hans is not aware that a tree that comes out of a box piecemeal cannot possibly be real. The boys enjoyed putting all the ornaments on the tree...almost as much as the cats have had taking them off!

Thanksgiving - a day of FEASTING and FUN!!

We were invited to my sister Caroline's house back in my home town (right in back of my parents house) for Thanksgiving this year. What a wonderful day it was. Of course, we could not head down to the Cities early in the day as we had to start the day of thankfulness and feasting here at home with a huge breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls and cheesy egg bake (both recipe's compliments of Gunnar's Godmother Lisa).

Gunnar felt that before we ate we should say what we were thankful for. Hans, in a truly desperate hurry to get at the food, said that he was thankful for his parents, his cat, and CINNAMON ROLLS, and then promptly went face first into his plate. Gunnar, the calmer one about food, very sweetly described many aspects of his life that he is thankful for and then peacefully went about eating his breakfast. Orn and I attempted to follow Gunnar's lead. :)

We had a nice visit with Caroline, Gary, Nathel, and Chene (Chloe and Travis were spending Thanksgiving with Travis's family). It's fun to hear about Nathel's experiences at Cordon Bleu and Chene's experiences as a PSEO student at the University of Minnesota. When Mom and Dad showed up for dinner we all sat down to eat. Gunnar and Hans were pretty obsessed with an opportunity to pull a wishbone (as illustrated in the pictures), so they were thrilled when we finished feasting (and what a feast it was!) and they could set about wishing and yanking. Hans won. :)

After dinner we all relaxed in the living room and listened to Gunnar play the piano. Orn accompanied Gunnar on a couple pieces and soon Chene retrieved her flute and joined in for family music time. The boys were thrilled when Nathel took them upstairs to show them her electric guitar. Life is good when you've got that many instruments to choose from. We had a wonderful time visiting with the Andersons and Meldahls late into the evening before making the trek back to St. Cloud. What a wonderful day and evening!

Gunnar's 1st Piano Recital

At the end of the summer Gunnar began studying piano with an accomplished piano teacher here in St. Cloud. We have been thrilled to watch his progress as he has become rather accomplished very quickly (or so we think anyway! ;0)).

Gunnar participated in his first piano recital this afternoon as part of the Ensemble Festival (Central District) of the Minnesota Music Teachers Association. He performed a duet (all the kids did duets) along side of his extremely proud father. The recital was held at the Performing Arts Center in the middle of the St. Cloud State University campus. When we walked in I looked down and saw the two baby grands down on the stage, let me tell you, as his mother I became nervous for him. But Gunnar?? Nope, not one bit of nerves. Kathleen came over from Wisconsin to see the performance, so even with family and many friends there (many of the older sisters of Gunnar's friends from school study with the same piano teacher) Gunnar was not nervous. Hans was thrilled to see some of the other brothers there because that meant he could sit way up in the back with them and look cool. We heard about a dozen students perform a variety of pieces. Many truly wonderful performances were heard!

After the recital, Gunnar was informed by one of the other mom's that ice cream was a necessity after a recital so Orn took Gunnar and Hans over to Cold Stone for a treat. Meanwhile Kathleen and I hit some stores to see about Christmas presents. After some failed searches, she came back home with me and we visited while I made pumpkin curry soup for dinner at a friend's house tonight. What a great day! :)

Halloween!!

What a glorious weekend for Halloween here in Minnesota! We've had unseasonably warm weather of late. It allowed for the boys and I to carve our pumpkins outside on the back patio yesterday. That was a lot of fun as the boys designed their pumpkins, got all the goop out, and then had me carve out the faces. They were both very proud of their end products!

Halloween has been a FABULOUS day and evening weather-wise! Both boys came home from school very ready to trick or treat. Unfortunately, Hans had woken up this morning with a bit of an issue...he couldn't walk! His left leg was really hurting him to the point that he couldn't even move to roll out of bed. It was a bit disconcerting for Orn and myself as we attempted to determine what was wrong with the poor little guy. Eventually I got him down to the living room where he rested on the couch and took in some Motrin. Orn stayed home with him in the morning and then once the Motrin kicked in Hans announced that he was ready to go to school. He managed at school just fine, but was still limping quite a bit when he came home. I loaded him up with more Motrin so that he could manage trick or treating.

To a six-year-old, NOT trick or treating on Halloween is NOT an option, so as soon as we were done with our pumpkin shaped pizza for dinner, Gunnar and Hans and I took off to canvase the neighborhood. What fun! I must admit, since I had not finished my T&T with my dinner I brought it along in a water bottle. That certainly upped the enjoyment of trick or treating for me! :) We did all of our immediate neighborhood in about an hour and a half. Hans was quite the trooper limping most of the way, but refusing to stop. Stick-to-it-all-the-way should be his middle name. We got home about 8pm in time to help hand out candy to the last round of trick or treaters. Gunnar went next door and helped with the neighbor's Haunted House while Hans relaxed upstairs in our room. A great Halloween had by all!

Fall Break in Maple Grove!

At SCSU we had our first Fall Break this past week, so we had Thursday and Friday off from teaching. It timed out perfectly for Orn in that he had a conference all day Friday in Minneapolis, so he would have been gone anyway. As for me, I worked on the bathroom on Thursday (see post below), and then worked at the university all day on Friday. I couldn't really afford to take both days off.

However, on Friday after the boys came home from school I surprised them with the news that we were going to meet Dad at a hotel in Maple Grove that had an indoor waterpark. They were excited...we could not get out the door fast enough!

What fun we had! Orn showed up at the hotel just after we got there so all 4 of us had our first taste of the waterpark at the same time. Gunnar and Hans immediately went down the huge slides! Orn and I decided to test them out as well, but after one time for Orn he was done with that! They were crazy fast and at times completely in the dark. It was very disconcerting for us adults. Not so for the boys! Over the course of that afternoon, evening, and next morning, we are estimating that Hans went down the slides at least 80 times!! Unbelievable. Considering he had to climb 4 flights of stairs to get up to the start of the slide, it was extremely impressive. Gunnar and I spent a lot of time playing basketball in the pool. What a hoot that was! At his age, he still throws out the compliments that just makes a mom melt, "Mom, how did you get to be SO GOOD at basketball??" What a doll! I think that stemmed from the shot I made while lying on my back in the water (we were playing HORSE). :)

Orn and I also enjoyed the hottub AND the fact that they had Stella Artois beer on Tap right in the waterpark. It's great when you find a place that caters to kids and parents alike!

A Bathroom Transformed!

I finally got around to painting and updating our main bathroom on the second floor (the one the boys share with guests when they visit ;>). It was a fun project in that it didn't really take that long AND I was able to take advantage of paint I already had on hand! I used some leftover paint from our guestroom for the area by the sinks and leftover paint from our entryway and hallway for the interior part of the bathroom. This all worked because I found a shower curtain (and matching rugs and nightlight) that worked with the towels the boys and our guests use. What a deal! I had always envisioned doing a lighthouse theme in that bathroom, so I was very happy when I found one that worked for the colors we already had on hand. Both boys were happy with the choice too as they thought I might go all 'girlie' in that room if given the chance. Gunnar helped me with some of the painting. What a trooper!

I also updated the hardware in the bathroom since the bars where the towels hung were about 10' off the ground and so a bit impractical (ya think?). The boys now love the hooks for their towels, and the rings out by the sinks don't seem to overwhelm the walls like the old bar towel racks used to. I must thank Jon, my neighbor, for coming over twice to help me install the new hardware. Jon's very helpful when there is a beer or two on the other end!

The only thing left to do is to blow up some pictures that I took this summer while we were out on the Oregon Coast. I've got some great lighthouse shots, so my plan is to frame them in an appropriately rustic manner and finish off the room with some artwork.

Fall in Minnesota

We've just finished a glorious fall weekend here in Minnesota! Both boys were occupied with friends this afternoon, so Orn and I took advantage of the freedom and went for a long walk. It was such a glorious afternoon that we ended up going a bit further than we had originally planned, so the last mile or so we were hoofing it as fast as we could! We had to get home in time to grab both vehicles to head in opposite directions to retrieve the boys! Too funny - we did about 7 miles in just less than 2 hours, so right now I am ready to hit the hay!

Before I sign off though, the pictures are from a couple days ago when I found Hans up in the tree in our front yard. Now that I'm "picture blogging" I ran in the house, grabbed the camera, got a couple shots of him, and THEN yelled at him to get down.

St. Olaf Homecoming 2008

Today was a truly glorious day to travel on down to Northfield to take in the St. Olaf Homecoming football game against Carleton. While we got away from St. Cloud late on account of the boys swimming lessons, we were still able to get to Northfield by about halftime of the game. The only bummer was that I got there too late to get the standard homecoming coffee mug - of course the good side of that was I didn't have a coffee mug with apple cider in it to attract any bees this year. That is always the bad side of the coffee mugs given away at homecoming.

The picture of the boys and I in front of the harvest display was taken when we first got to campus inside the student center. Gunnar was very cute as he and I walked inside (to find a bathroom of course)...he looked up at me and said, "Mom, I'd better start getting to know my way around here so that I don't get lost when I come here." He is bound and determined to be an Ole down the road. We're quite happy with his aspirations.

Both boys LOVE watching the football game since all the kids are allowed to watch the game right from the sidelines. They even brought along their football for some postgame action with Mom on the field. I ran into Gina, my friend DeAnn's daughter, who was at Olaf to watch her boyfriend play for the Ole's. Gina is a freshman this year up at UMD so it was a lot of fun to get caught up with her regarding her experiences as a freshman Bulldog! She's a great kid and is going to go far in life! :)

After the game, Gunnar, Hans, and I threw the football a bit out on the field. Just as I attempted to launch my first throw to them I heard a rather sarcastic remark regarding my ability from right behind me...of course it was Bob Klefsaas, my softball coach from when I was an Ole. He was going to hear the postgame wrap-up as his youngest is a Freshman on the team this year. The Oles are having a good season so far, but somehow they managed to lose (to Carleton!) yesterday! Oh well, it was still a wondeful day to spend wandering around the campus taking in the sights and the fall colors.

We checked out the new Science Center! It is truly amazing! The views from the top floor were rather spectacular. It is located right next to Old Main (which I believe is the original building of the college from back in 1874). Gunnar and Hans always enjoy hearing the story of how their Grandpa John brought a donkey up to the top floor of Old Main when he was a student there. The obvious question I get each time is "Why would Grandpa John do that?" Ours is not to question why! ;) I love the picture of Gunnar in front of Old Main...when he heads down there as a student 10 years from now, I'll have to drag that one out of the archives!