... and then she was SIX!

Six, really?! WOW! I think she's catching up to me, however that would work, I'm not sure, but my goodness. Olivia really had a fun birthday. This year her birthday fell on a Thursday which meant she was able to experience something I never had the luxury of, cupcakes at school, ON HER BIRTHDAY! I felt awful about it though.

Livi was insistent that she wanted chocolate cupcakes and her teacher, Ms. Lee is so

good to Olivia and, bless her heart wouldn't say no, but chocolate and Kindergartners don't mix.

(Oh, the stresses of being a teacher, I remember them all too well.) We were extra meticulous with clean up.

This picture is one of the new outfits Grandma sent, that Livi HAD to wear to school the next day. You can tell how much she loves it. The jeans, so Olivia. She started doing that a while back, on her own, and now the thought of putting leggings or tights on just seems strange. I love it. She totally pulls it off and makes it cute! I just want to know where she gets the idea of a pose like that? (I suppose it's Vegas culture seeping in!!!)

We were all happy that our company had arrived, but Aaron was ecstatic!

Dad and Sue (dad's significant other) got in late that night so we opened up family gifts and had cake and ice cream with them. The next night they took us out to dinner at Famous Dave's, it's a BBQ place, only after the Roadrunner roadhouse we had raved about had apparently gone out of business sometime in the previous 1 1/2 weeks?! Olivia made sure to wear her gold medal birthday medallion that Dad had cut out and we had painted, to dinner so that the servers would be sure to recognize her as the birthday girl. The waiter was so nice about it he brought a sundae for the whole table to share!

Loved this picture. There was one "good" picture but this one is great. The kids personalities show through so much. Aaron, all about the food (like his mom), and Livi, so in to her poses that she knocked me out! Bill's always looking suave.

The next day, Saturday was the much anticipated birthday party.

We had made invitations and sent them to her friends and were planning an Olympic themed party with olympic games to play.

I wanted this picture because it catches Livi in her "shy" moment. It's very subtle and watching her no one would even know that she's embarrassed about what's going on around her. She could be talking to you just fine but, there she goes with her left hand, to tuck her hair behind her ear, and she'll do it again and again. LOVE IT! (Also, notice the purse on her right

shoulder. A new birthday present that she had just opened from Ellie Gardner, a jean skirt purse. She wore it every where the next few days, even to church.) The picture on the right, yep there goes the left ear tuck, just as we're starting to sing "Happy Birthday" on her birthday night.

Olivia's choice for cake was my mom's recipe for a quick cherry cheesecake. I tried to convince her for a long time to let me make a cake for her, but she wanted the cherry cheese

cake that we had made for Valentine's Day. So, that's what we did. By far the easiest birthday dessert ever. I did make the graham cracker crust from scratch, and we made it "American-ish" by adding blueberries. In the end, Olivia and our family loved it, the girls, not so much. Oh well.

She had 8 girlfriends that came (2 weren't in time for this cute photo op.) and they all had a fun time. The games we played were, speed skating, long jump, javelin throw, shot put, and bob sled.

Natalya, spinning on the left, and Brea on the right, are doing the shot put, with a cotton ball. Megan, in pink, just threw her javelin, a toothpick.

Ashlyn, on the right,
and Zoey on the left

are bobsledding down the stairs in a mummy bag. (Zoey went too fast for me to hold on to). And Aaron was thrilled to show all the girls how to do our version of speed skating, running and sliding. I fortunately am spry enough to have

demonstrated all the sports as well. This is my speed skating and bobsled run. Although, I wasn't quite prepared for how fast the bobsled would actually go. WHOA!

Every olympian needs a gold medal, so as the girls came to the party Olivia draped around their necks gold medals that said, "Olivia's Gold Medal Friend". After each even the girls got gold, silver and bronze hershey kisses and at the end they all stood with their dum-dum bouquets lifted high in the air, for one final pose. (Once again, what's with that pose?!)

What can I say about Olivia that I haven't already said. She amazes us all the time. She started playing the violin in January and actually made me cry while I listened to her do a duet of Twinkle with her teacher on the piano. She's doing Suzuki method, so those who are familiar with it know that Twinkle isn't your average Twinkle. Practices are sometimes a struggle but I remind her that it is her choice to be playing and that if she doesn't want to practice she needs to go call her teacher and tell her she won't be in for lessons the following week. This gets her every time. Sad, but true, when she's really in trouble, I threaten taking away her violin and she cracks. I did take it away once and one would think the world was going to end.

She is dramatic but with that drama comes intense emotion. Emotion for good, for bad, and for the spiritual things in life. I took her to an photo gallery at the new City Center down on the strip and showed her a photo of where we go camping. I said, "Oh, look. There's where we

camping every year. That's where we would go camping with Granma. (Appropriately it's called "God's Garden" by Robert Lough Jr.) I kid you not. She cried for the next 10 minutes over that photo. She had even found it in the book that was on display for sale and sat there and sobbed. I had to keep wiping the tears away so they wouldn't spot the page in the book. I was finally able to tear her away, but as soon as we got home she drew the picture. Which leads to another thing about her... so very ARTSY CRAFTSY! She loves making little art projects. Our recycling bins are her treasure boxes. She made these robots completely unassisted after watching a Curious George episode about robots. So fun! (There's the hip.) The strings are to control the robot's arms. And to tell you the truth, I'm a little concerned, I said she made these completely unassisted... how the heck did she cut out the eye holes??? Let's just say, for good parenting sake, Yeah, I did that part. ?!?

Olivia has really been enjoying reading Judy Blume lately. She's into the series, "The Pain and the Great One". It makes her laugh so hard she's cried. I love that.

Her love for her family is great but she needs to be reminded often to love her brother. She is already a teenager when it comes to sleep. We know not to wake her unless it is imperative. Aaron is so excited in the mornings and doesn't want to wait. When Livi is screaming with a raspy throat, "Aaron, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" we know he wasn't as patient as he should've been.

Livi, (which she told me that she wants to go by now), we love you and everything you give to our family. Happy 6th Birthday princess.