Annie's 5th Birthday

Oh, forget it! I tried to give my kids codes instead of using their real names. I can't keep up with the codes, so why should my readers be able to. I'm not going through all these posts to try to edit their names. I'm leaving it as it is. K2 is Annie. I'm leaving the rest of this post as is in order to let my readers know how nutty I really am. HAHA! I apologize to you all for my moment of insanity. Just love me for who I am.

K2's birthday is a few days after Christmas. That timing isn't really good for a Sweeney style birthday party, so we waited until a couple weeks into January. I must admit I LOVE birthday parties. I feel that when you grow up with a thousand (or four) siblings, you deserve a day to call your own. We have big parties! Anyway, K2 decided that she wanted to have a sleepover. My first slumber party was my 5th birthday, so it was fitting that my daughter have her first slumber party at 5, as well. We had a great time.

My neighbor, Amy, helped me with the cake. Isn't it cute. Each head represents one of the guests. The two girls in the middle are my daughters, K2 and K4. :) This may be my favorite cake, yet. It even tasted pretty good.
We had a fashion show. As you can see, we are growing lots of potential runway stars here in KY! Check out the before and after shots.

KID Codes

So I said I was going to attempt to be better at updating my blog. C1 has a birthday party coming up and I haven't blogged about A1's or L1's parties, yet. I still blame C2 for stalling my blogging this time around. I'm sure the next time I stall, it will be because I'm too confused about the kids' new blog names, L1, A2, L2, C1, and C2. Maybe I should just assign numbers: K (for kid)--K1, K2, K3, K4, K5. The numbers go in order from oldest to youngest. 1 being oldest, 5 being youngest. Make sense? That's the new code. Thanks.

I still haven't had the chance to go through the blog and edit the kids' names, so if you're new and you want to know the real names, you have a little time to blog stalk. I've never been concerned about privacy, but I'm feeling uncomfortable about my children's real names being in cyberworld. :(

OK, I'm really bad at this stuff.

I claim to be supermom. I gave myself the name on Halloween. I made myself a superhero costume. I also made my girls' costumes. I'm a full-time, working mommy of five. I managed to handmake costumes. Supermom sounds fitting, right? However, I was really a supermom, I probably would have updated this blog WAY before now.

To be honest, we've been adjusting. I think it may have taken longer to adjust to being a family of seven this time around than it was the first time. It might have been because the first time we became, SEVEN it was the beginning of summer break. I wasn't working. This time, it was the beginning of the school year. Yup, I'm sure that was the difference.

I am making a promise to myself to be better at this blog stuff. My family seems to interest tons of people. HAHAHAHA. If only they really could be flies on the wall. We've been blessed so much, so why not share the joy? I do have to be careful. I tend to be a VERY open person. The internet is not the safest place for people like me. However, I do feel that God gave us our family and it is part of our job to share our story with the world. Therefore, I do not wish to make it private. I will be editing my post soon to remove my childrens' first names. They will be referred to as L1, L2, A1, C1, and C2 for now on....

Seven Again!

We are once again THE SWEENEY SEVEN!!!!!!! I was at my daughter's psychiatrist appointment and my cell phone kept ringing. I kept pushing silent and never paid attention to the "private" number that popped up. Well, "private" number was social services, and they finally got a hold of my husband. He called the psychiatrist's office and told the receptionist that he needed to talk to me. SO, I got off the phone and told the doc that we needed to get her prescriction and go. I told Annie and Landon that we needed to get to daycare and get the little ones and then go get a new sister. Then, I looked at doc again and asked if he had any samples of Lexapro. :-) He did.

Anyway, we have a month old little girl that happens to be the half sister to both Chloe and Luke. More to come later......

Update

Yes, I know that I need to take time and update on my family. We are so busy right now and I'm just plain exhausted. Today was the first day of school. The week before school starts always wears me out. Though I do have a lot of family/kiddo updates, that's not the purpose of this post. I just want to update on my last post. The other blogger found her friend. I don't know if anyone ended up reading her blog as a result of my post, but I'm very happy for her.

I found this blog last night: http://growinguplost.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/ive-made-a-deal-with-claudia/ I'm not sure how I stumbled upon it, but my sleep was greatly effected. This girl has led a life of living HELL on Earth. She has suffered abuse that most of us can't even grasp. She is an adult living with RAD. This blog is serving as a bit of therapy for her as she lets out some horrible memories and she tries to process her life. She had a childhood friend that shared many of her experiences. They haven't seen each other in 12 years. She wants anyone who reads her blog to link it on theirs. She is hoping that someone will know him. She has actually had a few leads, but they all stop. DO YOU KNOW CLAY O'CONNOR?

She has a friend that has helped her. Her friend is a Christian and has been trying to witness to her. She is open to learning more about Christianity. They have prayed about finding Clay and have a timeline. Regardless of how you feel about making deals with God, we know that HE can move mountains. If she finds him by Aug. 1, she will know without a doubt that God not only exists, but cares about her personally. Let's help her!!!

This is the describing information that she has provided:

*His name is obviously Richard Clay O’Connor, but he usually goes by Clay.
*He’s about 5′8″-5′10″ tall and between 25 and 30 years old.
*He had long blond hair that was shaved underneath as was the style back then.
*His dad, or the man he called dad owned a tattoo shop in Augusta.
*He had a foster mother he kept in touch with who was a cop for a very large teaching hospital
*He lived in Florida for a while (post foster care) with a family member that I think was his brother
*He also lived in Oklahoma for a while (post foster care)
*Worked at a KFC or Wendy's (cant remember which) way back when.

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Though Luke won't actually turn three until Aug. 1st, we had his birthday party on July 23. The pool that we belong to only does private parties on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We chose to to have it before his birthday instead of after because we wanted to do it before school started.

We had a lot of fun. We had a great turn out and all of my kids had friends at the party. Luke totally knew how to play the role. He sang right along with us during the "Happy Birthday" song. He told everyone else to close their eyes when he opened his presents. He wanted them to be surprised to. Luke's DI (Developmental Interventionist), Krista, knows him well. She brought the favorite gift -- a Black and Decker Leaf Blower. Luke will transition out of First Steps on Aug. 1st. We sure will miss Miss Krista.

My neighbor, Amy, took charge of my Cannon Rebel. My 6 year-old, Landon, took over my old Kodak Easy Share. Between the two of them, I had over 200 pictures of Luke's party. Below is a musical slide show of the night. Please watch to see how much fun we really had!!