Happy 7th Birthday, Aislin!!

Wow, this kid is 7! That means 2nd grade and one year away from being baptized (which she eagerly reminds anyone who asks about her age).

7 also means losing your two front teeth (the dangly one was extracted by string just a few days later)
August 3, 2015

Aislin has been asking for a birthday party since she could speak...but as you all know by now, I don't do birthday parties. Maybe when she and her brothers hit those milestone birthdays, but for now, we try to make their birthdays special in other ways. We decorate the dining room the night before since it's the first area they see coming down the hallway in the morning, and we set their gifts on the table. And this year for Aislin's birthday, we made it a day of experiences. Basically, I indulged her in the things I never wanted to pay for her to do before.

She got to bounce on this thing at the mall...

...and ride this thing at the mall too.

I finally let her get something from Build-a-Bear...






...and Tim bought her a gun. Thus begins the Sweet family tradition: each child gets a rifle on his/her 7th birthday. On the following day, Tim took her to a gun safety class with his Scout troop where she answered questions faster than most of the teenagers!

At the end of the night, we all had dinner at Peter Piper Pizza (which is like Chuck-E-Cheese). The kids got tokens for games and prizes, and they had the place mostly to themselves since it was a weeknight!

Before bed, Aislin said to me, Thank you, mom, for the best birthday ever. 


Dear Aislin,
We love you so much, and we are grateful for your strength, wit, helpfulness, and kindness. We are grateful for the example that you set for your brothers - most of the time- and how you naturally take on that role of big sister, leader, and protector. We're even grateful for your unabashed voice, your strong will, and how you come up with your own ideas...even when they're sometimes contrary to the directions given to you. We're proud of you for your many achievements in these seven years, but most of all, we're proud of you for trying your best every day to choose the right, for already living true to the gospel, and for being the loving person that you are. 

xoxo,
Mom, Dad, Des, Linc, Paisley, and Baby Brother #4