Surprise! 

Anna’s arrival was no surprise to us when she came just before Christmas in 2001.  (According to her due date she was late!  According to her she was right on time…)

Today we threw her a SURPRISE PARTY for her 5th birthday.  Her birthday isn’t technically until December 13th, but today was Saturday so it seemed more convenient for the birthday shindig.  (Part of the reason we, as parents, wanted it to be a surprise was completely selfish.  We knew she would nag and hound us for weeks if she knew approximately when the party would take place.  So we just kept her in the dark–WE did let her know, via a paper chain, how many days it would be till her actual birthday…)

Anna is pretty sharp girl so it was pretty amazing how oblivious she was to the whole affair.  Even when her classmate, whom we invited to her party, spilled the beans yesterday (Quote:  Anna, you’re birthday is tomorrow!  You’re having a party…) we were able to re-direct and convince Anna otherwise (Anna, your birthday isn’t till next week.  Your friend doesn’t know what she is talking about…)

She was truly shocked by it all.  She didn’t know what to think when I brought her and Sarah back to our apartment and all her local friends were in our living room shouting, "Surprise!"

Thanks to Christa’s excellent planning and crafts-wo-manship everything went very well.  I think Anna was very pleased.  At her request we’ll ALSO be going to the new pizza restaurant in town, Origamus (an all you can eat buffet) on her actual birthday.  Plus, more presents to come…oh, yes.  The joys of having a birthday right around Christmas.  There are endless gifts to be opened.

Check out the photo album here:  Surprise Party!  (I blogged a little more info about the party activities within the captions…Enjoy.)