Thursday, August 27, 2020

Happy 9th Birthday, Olivia!

This morning our girl woke up as a NINE year old! How did that happen so quickly?! She woke up with her alarm, as she's been doing for most mornings lately at 6:30am, so she could walk Buddy and Skipper with me. When she came out of her room, the dining room table had several sweet homemade birthday cards from her friends.  Normally she would be in school and we would likely be doing a birthday party with her friends.  Since we are remote learning due to COVID, I texted her friends' moms and asked if they could have their kids make a birthday card so I could surprise Olivia on her birthday.  They were ALL so cute and creative and there is nothing that compares to a homemade birthday card!  She was very surprised and loved them, of course!

I love that she has been getting up and walking the dogs with me in the mornings.  It's so sweet and a fun way to spend the morning together. She got dressed and we headed out to the soccer fields. Over the past week of dog walks, I've been asking her what she wants for her birthday and she's been really uncertain. She always says she likes Star Wars (but not Legos necessarily), horses, and reading. So, she didn't really have any good ideas for gifts and I sort of feel like she's outgrowing "toys" that she would have normally played with even a year ago. The only thing she was certain of was her birthday dinner. She specifically asked for quiche and steamed green beans for her birthday dinner, which is one of our favorite meals. She also wanted a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting from Blue Bonnet Bakery in Ft Worth. Such great taste!

After our dog walk, Mindy and Marisa delivered a box of donuts that had "HAPPY BDAY OLIVIA" donuts inside! What a terrific surprise and so delicious! CK and I had appointments together at the DMV to renew our drivers licenses and left the house at 8am for our 8:30am appointment. It was pretty amazing how quickly we were in and out of there and just how easy it was! We got home around 9:30 and the "virtual school day" went smoothly. Just after lunch of a taco casserole I made from leftovers from taco night, I went to the airport to pick up the girls' cousin Sammy! Sam flew in to surprise Olivia and also to spend the weekend with some college buddies. It was so great to see him and have him visit for her big day. I'd meant to keep it a secret, but I unfortunately let the cat out of the bag when I asked if she could go with me! Oops!

We returned home and Olivia was happy to see Sam, but also upset because she had trouble getting on her WebEx meeting. We figured it out and she spend her "brain breaks" jumping on the trampoline with Sam. They are so cute together. We had dinner around 6:30pm so we wouldn't be up half the night with cake and opening presents. Grandpa and Grandma called to talk to Olivia just before dinner and then we sat down to a yummy birthday dinner. After eating, we asked Olivia if she wanted to open presents or have birthday cake/ice cream first and she chose presents!

Along with the donuts from Marisa and Mindy, Olivia also received Tiff's Treats cookies for her big day from Holly and family!  They were so delicious.  She opened her gift from Aunt and Uncle first which was a diamond tiara and two very beautiful Mexican dragons that are serious art pieces!  They are amazing and very unique!  Hannah, her best friend, gave her the game Otrio, which is like a complex tic-tac-toe game.  Sian and family send her a TON of stuff, as usual.  She got a cute coffee mug, an "S" mug, gummy bears, face paint, a journal, a cute purse, a necklace and luggage tags.  Sian ALWAYS remembers our girls' birthdays and always sends a mishmash of gifts. It is so fun to open her gifts!!  CK also got her French lemonade, candy, relaxing tea and gummy bears.  All of her favorites!  As far as gifts from us, I'd already found three interesting books that I thought she might enjoy, but really had no other good ideas. Finally I decided to get her a few cute Star Wars shirts, which Sofia gave to her. Skipper and Buddy gave Olivia some cute giraffe socks as well as a few kinds of gum.  CK and I also wanted to offer her and Sofia weekly horse lessons, since they both love riding so much.  So, we wrote horse lessons in a card, which would be the final present of the night.   Such a great birthday and what a fun day!
















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