Surprise!!

Campbelle's party was a surprise.  I thought of the idea after she asked me if we could have a surprise party for her.  After explaining to her that it wouldn't really be a surprise if she already knew about it, I thought to myself - why not.  I'll just lie to her and tell her that the friends we already invited over could not make it - and then it would be a really big surprise.  So that's just what I did!  She got over the sadness of all her friends being busy that day amazingly quickly - but that maybe had something to do with the Waterpark bribe that was to come the day after her birthday.  But that's coming in another post.

Leif and the kids were at swimming lessons in the morning and around 12:00 all our friends gathered at the house.  All the kids were really excited to surprise her and waited so patiently for her to arrive home.

When she came in the front door, her reaction was a bit mixed.  She looked happy, scared and about to cry all in the same breath. 

It didn't take long for her to relax and let the goodness of the surprise kick in.  The weather was fantastic, so we spent most of the day (and mess :) ) outside.  BBQing, playing, eating cake and opening presents.

  After all that, we headed down the street to our park for some kite flying and more play.

Leif was liked the Pied Piper.... there wasn't much wind, so he had to run with the kite to keep it up in the air, and he had a trail of kids running behind him.

After the party, we had one more surprise in store for Campbelle.

She got a really big girl bike - which means no training wheels and best of all a kick stand (very important feature for her).  

It really was such a great day.  Beautiful weather, great friends and a little girl so grown up.  She was so sweet when she went to bed last night and thanked us for " the most amazing day of her life."