Olivia turns nine!

This year Olivia Sue turned 9 years old! She had the usual birthday pancakes on the "you are special plate"  and lately, for some reason, any song Olivia hears is an invitation to dance...so here is Olivia dancing to "happy birthday" before she blows out the candles! :-)

This year for Olivia's birthday we had a fantastic opportunity to pull off a surprise party. Here in Australia, the school year goes from the end of January until mid December. The year is broken into four quarters and after each quarter the children get two week off for a school holiday.

Olivia's birthday was during the school holiday which meant I was able to text all the parents about the party and not have any of the kids leak the secret before the special day. We invited everyone from Olivia's  class and hired a DJ to run a "disco party"

Because Stan was overseas in America, I had a friend invite Olivia over for a play and then I was able to decorate the house and get the food set up. 

Stan and I were first introduced to "disco's" while the girls were in Kindergarten (or prep as they call it out here). The school would host a Christmas disco and all the kids would dress up and have a huge dance party. When I say dress up I am talking about glitter, glow sticks and dresses....something I wouldn't have seen until the 8th grade in America!

Anyway, in order to get Olivia in a dress we told her she was going out to dinner with Maddy's family. I purposely forgot to pack her shoes and then they had to swing by to pick them up. That way Olivia wouldn't be suspicious when maddy was putting on a dress :-)

Here is a video clip of me answering the door and Olivia asking me "how on earth I could forget to pack her shoes!" I think she was surprised!

I love her rock star pose when she gets picked up by her classmate! Hilarious!! 

The DJ was great, she did the usual, limbo, macarena, karaoke, train etc.... The party was two hours and after sticker tattoo's and breaking for birthday cake the party was over. 

Olivia was drooling over her gifts while at the same time was so grateful and happy. She even shared with Mary & Thomas!

The day before was her actual birthday. Olivia was SO EXCITED and it was just a regular day (with the exception of pancakes in the morning). At bed time she was sad and I told her we would make invitations for her birthday party and have the party once school was back in session.  She was completely set up for a surprise...which was fantastic! Who doesn't love a good surprise? 

Happy Birthday OLIVIA!