McLoughlin Family Christmas Letter in July Written by Samuel!

It’s hard to cram the events of a year into one letter in December, and I think that’s why a lot of people don’t even attempt it. Since retail stores are having Christmas in July sales, I think it’s time to write a Christmas Letter in July. This one is written from the perspective of our own Samta Claus, Samuel Scott McLoughlin, aged to perfection at a mere 21 months.

What’s going on, family, friends, coworkers (fellow mess-making babies) and neighbors?

I’m gonna start this letter talking about my idol, my Da. As I write this he’s lying on the couch scratching his belly and reading Cook’s Illustrated magazine. He might switch it out later for a Woodworker's Journal. He likes to cook us yummy meals when he has time. He still works as an engineer and is a Scout leader. He built us a new swingset and fills our sambox (sandbox) with sand on a regular basis. He’s a good Da.

Ma got a laptop after she turned 40 and danged if she isn’t on it all the time writing down every move we kids make. She says it’s her 6^th child and she puts a little blanket on it when we watch DVDs on it so we don’t get crumbs on the keyboard. I think I saw her nursing it one time, and I got mad because I still own those boobs. For fun and challenge, she gets her writing in more magazines every month, and still scrapbooks sometimes. She’s found a rockin’ local homeschool group on Facebook and is making friends. Here's a picture of her driving in her rental Mustang convertible that Da got her for her birthday weekend:

Dole (Joel) just finished a week of half-day gymnastics camp. He’s a swimming guru who goes off the high dive all the time. He and Da did a whole week of Cub Scout camp in June and enjoy shooting off their homemade water rocket. He turned 10 in June and got 2 hermit crabs from Jordan to put next to his hamster Daisy.

Bubby (Michael) did gymnastics camp with Joel. Otherwise I see him sitting at the dining room table a lot building new Lego creations. I like to climb up and mess up his Legos when he’s playing somewhere else in the house. He recently learned how to make cool shapes out of Legos, and loves his Betta fish Henry. In the spring he was in a Lego Robotics competition and rocked!

LaLa (Callie) can swim like a pro and was so pretty at her dance recital in June. She is headed for Broadway for sure. She sleeps in her own bedroom and makes it messy a lot, which takes some of the heat offa me. Da calls her Princess, which she digs.

E.P. (Eva Peeva) is off the glump-glump bottle and would sit around watching Barbie and Dora and Princess movies all day long if Ma would let her. She is a sweet pea most of the time, but sometimes she likes to mess with me just because can. She and I are in a daily Naughty Competition, and we like to make art on the walls.

As for me, well, I just kinda go around making messes all day. My proudest accomplishment to date is getting into the pantry (why don’t they lock it up?) DAILY and dumping out some sort of cereal or oatmeal or noodles or beans. I like to help Ma vacuum, so I have to help make messes, right?! Oh, and I also like music a lot.

My kinda sister and ex-neighbor AliAl (Alex) has been spending the night a lot and lately is over every day while her mom works, and I LOVE it because she is so sweet to me and likes to change my diaper and play with me. She’ll be in 4^th grade in about a month. We like to have picnics.

Jor (Jordan) will be 14 in September and is getting tall and very pretty. She is also smart and funny and kind, so Ma tells her to wait a long time before choosing a boyfriend. Jordan is also my kinda sister and watches us when Ma goes to the dentist or the library or to the clubs (just kidding; making sure you’re paying attention). Jor’s gonna get something called an Escalade and drive us kids around someday. She buys me onesies sometimes because she's my sugar mama.

As a family, we like to go to the swimming pool. We went blueberry picking in June. We went to Crown Center a couple of times for kid exhibits, Sheridan’s and fountain-playing. We go to nature centers and visit Poppy, Nana, Tutu and Dave. Grandma Mac comes over every other week to clean our kitchen and play with us. Ma had a big 40^th birthday party courtesy of Da, and LaLa, Bubby and Dole also had parties this year so far. Mine is in October and I will be 2!!!

Gotta go … time to go put some peanut butter in my hair! Write us soon!

Deanna Rose Farmstead in Kansas City

Another reason I like blogging is that when my husband leaves town (for work, not because he's simply had enough of us), he can still check in and see what's going on around here. Although I'm not usually posting up-to-the-minute breaking news posts, he can still see photos from our past exploits. Lately we don't spend much time going over digital photos taken every day like we used to when we first got the camera back in 2006.

So recently we went to Deanna Rose Farmstead in Kansas City just for fun. It was a pretty day, and apparently the rest of the city had the same plan as we did because it was cuh-razee there!

Okay, so here is Callie doing something I am totally opposed to: bottle-feeding an animal just so it will be kept tame for the kids to handle. I want them to show nursing animals at Deanna Rose, too! I'm such a big baby; I could never work on a farm because I'd be trying to milk a dairy cow while it's baby nursed on it at the same time. It would be like tandem milking. I couldn't stomach weaning an animal from its mom.

Thanks, Joel, for taking this picture of the rest of us.

My sweet babies at the waterfall at what used to be the entrance. Do you know how hard it was to get them all to face the same way?!

Little Sam is not afraid of anything, least of all a little goatie. I'm not sure what's up with Callie here ... crying because she wants a turn or yawning?

I love getting out of the house with my kids. Why have kids if you're going to sit around on your butt all day at home? I'm reading a book called The Idle Parent and the author suggests rarely going anyplace and just playing with your kids at home. That's cool, and we do that ... I let them have a lot of playtime together and I play with them, too, but getting out into the world is nice, too. We just normally try to pick days when most other kids are in school (another reason why I lightly homeschool in the summer is so we can get out and have some fun in the fall!).

My Name is Kerrie, and I'm a Bravo-holic

I think I’m watching too much TV, which is like 7-10 hours a week, mostly while Sam sleeps on me early in the morning or while he sleeps on me for his naps and the kids run amok in the house. Specifically, I'm watching shows my mom tapes for me from http://bravotv.comBravo Channel. It’s no secret I love all the Real Housewives (although I’m falling out of love with the New Jersey one), much to my husband’s disappointment. It's not exactly uplifting television, I know.

Lately I’ve been watching something I never thought I would like called Million Dollar Decorators. The other day I said something to my husband like, “Hmmm, the pea green chair next to the pea green glider with the pea green drapes as a backdrop and the rose-colored carpet is not the aesthetic I’m aiming for in our living room.” Yeah, he looked at me like I'm crazy because it generally takes an army to get me to wash a dish, and why the H would I care what the "decorating" looks like?

Watching this show makes me want to rip out my dark wood cabinets with gold pulls in my kitchen and put in something a little more "fresh." It makes me want to touch up the paint on the baseboards. It makes me get more mad than usual when Eva covers her body with hot pink lipstick and then rolls around on the light gray carpet. [Aron, "Who would give a 3-year-old this color of lipstick? Who in their right mind?!" And I have to sheepishly reply, "Oops, uhm, me."]

I also love Flipping Out because Jeff Lewis makes me laugh my butt off when I can't figure out if he's being funny or a serious jerk. I love everyone who works for him and dig his design aesthetic. Specifically, I love wallpaper like this? You?

Kansas City Children's Museum: Kidscape

Back in May we hit a cool place called Kidscape at the Johnson County Museum in Shawnee, Kansas. It's FREE (donations gladly accepted), and is small. My only beef with it is that there are two ways out of it that lead into the main museum, so you can't relax if you have a kid like Sam who will keep trying to run out of one side or the other. Then again, the benefit is that you will lose some weight. Unless you use chocolate to medicate any mommy problems you may have.

The first room has a Wii, which we don't own and I had never played. I dug bowling! The big boys played it while Callie taught Sam how to fish.

Eva had a blast in the medical room caring for her 7 babies of all nationalities.

Michael found a cool box of connecting tile thingamajigs.

This is the front of the dress shop, where you can work on your fashion creation skills. Boys love it.

There's also a theatre where the kid can play dress-up and put on a play while you sit in cushy red velvet seats. Did somebody say red velvet cake? Gotta go.

Blueberry Picking at The Berry Patch in Cleveland, MO

 This summer we took 6 kids (our ex-neighbor and friend is with us a lot, and we love it!) to The Berry Patch in Kansas City. We went at night so Aron could come with us, and also it was a little cooler and a LOT less crowded. I like to stay on the down-low like that a lot ... go places when they are less crowded. I figure I bring enough of a crowd of my own!

 Sam and I dressed in blue for our blueberry pickin'.

After we were done we rode on the blueberry train ... plastic barrels connected together. We rode all over the patch, and it rocked.