(Springfield, MO) -- What parent would allow their child to have a party on a weeknight?
A party with music and dancing, junk food, and all the sweets they can eat.

But Steve and Heather Munhollon aren't just any parents and their daughter Kaitlynn could really use a party.

"If this really is her last days, we want her to have as much fun as she can," says Vicki Jones, Kaitlynn's grandmother, as she watches Kaitlynn and her friends dance and sing to Hannah Montana.

Only hours after her party, Kaitlynn is sipping a 'cocktail' of another kind. Not punch, but chemotherapy.

"Makes me want to puke, but I won't," Kaitlynn says, as she drinks the powerful medicine followed by a shot of soda pop to clear the bitter taste.

"Chemo's really not so bad, at least not for me," she adds, as she gets ready for another day of first grade.

In October 2006, doctors diagnosed Kaitlynn with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a cancer that most often strikes children under the age of ten.  With their children away at school, Steve and Heather explain how the cancer came on without warning.

"She had just started kindergarten and was complaining of a stomach ache," Heather says. "The teachers wondered if she was just coming up with excuses not to go to school, but I knew something was wrong."

After several nights of being unable to sleep, Kaitlynn saw a doctor. An ultrasound revealed something the family never expected.

"It was the size of a grapefruit," Heather says, "It was starting to grow around her organs. We started chemotherapy within two weeks."

Since that time, Kaitlynn has had several rounds of chemo, a stem cell transplant and radiation. For a while her cancer was in remission, but doctors recently found another tumor in her neck and on her spine, skull, hip and leg.  They confirmed the worst, the treatment wasn't working.

"We told her we didn't think we could make it go away this time," Heather says. "We both cried and we explained that God needs her in Heaven."

"Not a day goes by that I don't thank somebody that she's here with me," says Steve Munhollon, who's only working part time odd jobs so he can spend as much time as possible with his daughter.

In her classroom at Springfield's Sunshine Elementary, Kaitlynn is eager to learn.

"She always has her hand up," says teacher Bobbi Margason.

"At first, she was concerned that people would tease her because she's losing her hair," Marguson says. "But the kids are very sweet to her, and we're trying to keep her up to speed so she can continue with her class and not have to repeat first grade."

After school, over her favorite snack of slightly burned popcorn, Kaitlynn talks candidly about her cancer.

"When we found out the cancer was back, after I was cancer-free, me and mommy cried. Just me and Mommy," Kaitlynn says. "Daddy never, ever cries. Well, he did once."

"I felt a tumor in my neck and it went from the size of a gumball to the size of a golf ball," Kaitlynn says, frankly discussing her day-to-day challenges. "The worst part of cancer was the catheter and I couldn't walk. The best part is that I haven't gotten an infection."

Just ask this 7-year-old, she'll tell you about chemo, never-ending road trips to St. Louis for treatment, long hospital stays and dwindling energy. She says she's not scared, but ready to keep fighting cancer. After all she has big plans for her future.

"I'd like to be a "vegetarian", so I can help dogs and cats," she says, between bites of burned popcorn. "Or a doctor or a nurse. So I can make people better too."

Click here to read more about Kaitlynn's battle with cancer.