Austin the birthday day girl

Samuel and Betsy with their bags of candy from the pinata

Some of the kids eating dinner

Austin getting ready to blow out her heart cake

Yummy dinner, heart shaped sandwhiches, and fruit kabobs

picking up candy after the pinata finally broke

Austin standing in front of her big pinata, with her bag of treats

Samuel was a good helper washing grapes

Austin, Betsy, and Joseph loved making fruit kabobs, with strawberries, pink marshmallow, and grapes on them.

My beautiful Austin with her birthday dress on

So, today was a really busy day. But the most important thing, was that my little girl turned 7 years old today. 7 years ago at 2:54 am Austin Jolynn Kirkman was born at 5 lb 9 oz and 19 inches long. She was whisked away and put on oxygen for a few hours after she was born, because she was a little eary and had a little trouble breathing. After a few hours she was good as new, and we were able to take her home with us that night, to our brand new house (I think I went into labor due to all the packing and moving from our apartment to our new house). Anyway, I can't believe how much my Austin has grown. She is a wonderful girl, she is sweet, kind, giving, and helpful. She always has a flair for the dramatics to keep life exciting, she loves to sing, draw/color, dance, bake, help me clean, read, and play games. She also can do the most push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups out of all the kids and me. I love my Austin, I don't know what I would do without her.

So today we had Austin's birthday party. Kids started arriving at 5:30pm, and we ended up having about 17 kids. We did the pinata first, since we were running out of sunlight. It was a huge pinata that I got on clearance from Wal-mart for $8. I filled it full of all my leftover halloween, christmas, and valentines candy. I also put in fruit snacks, and prizes, and bubbles. It was heavy. The kids each had a turn hitting the pinata, but nobody was making a dent in it. So, finally Joseph was last, so I gave him this pole we have, and he started hitting it over and over again as hard as he could. It wasn't making a dent, and the top 1/3 of the pole broke off. Joseph kept hitting it, and the next 1/3 piece of the pole broke off, so he took the stubby end and started poking holes into the pinata with it, finally I came and stuck my hand in one of the holes, and ripped it open, and with help tipped it over, and dumped out the candy. The kids went wild, and ended up with tons of candy and prizes. Next we had some dinner, we had mini corn dogs, heart-shaped ham/turkey and cheese sandwhiches, fruit and marshmallow kebobs, chips, and carrots. After dinner, we played pin the tail on the donkey, and musical chairs. Then we had cake and ice cream, and Austin opened her presents. By the time everyone left, I could barely see the floor, there was so much trash all over. But, Austin had a great birthday, and I think everyone had a good time. Samuel also had to have his moment of fame. It seems like everytime I have people over, Samuel ends up coming out naked, after going to the bathroom. Well he had wet his pants a little and had gone to change out of his wet pants. I had pushed the couch in front of the hallway to contain all the partiers, so Samuel climbed over and went to go change. I noticed when he came back,that as he climbed over the couch, the bottom half of him was naked. I grabbed him and took him into his room and was pulling out his pants, when I turned around and he was gone. I raced back down the hallway, and Samuel was again climbing over the couch, I dove over the couch and caught him and pulled him back to his room and got him dressed. My crazy little boy. Anyway Austin had a great party, and a great birthday. Thankyou to everyone who came to her party and made her day special. I love you Austin!