Last year in single digits for my baby girl!

The day started with squeals of delight when Olivia and Dexter woke up and saw the balloons and banners - they loved our deco! Then the two of them went off to the little bakery approximately 100m away, as per usual, and chose and bought some breakfast delights for us all. We ate out on the deck whilst opening presents. There were a lot of Harry Potter gifts this year much to her delight. Our kids get to be the boss for the day on their Birthdays so we headed to the beach and sea, as instructed! We went on a pedalo with a slide for an hour and even Dex went off the slide which was great fun! Then we all went on the large inflatables in the sea which was even more fun. We were all very brave - me and Dex plucked up the courage to climb to the top of the gigantic slide and slide into the sea. I think Dexter's favourite bit was when we were all swimming in the sea at the same time. Olivia is amazing on the inflatables - she is very athletic and daring and made things look easy when everyone else was struggling.
We headed home for left over pizza for lunch and a rest before heading for a family game of petanque, which Dex won! Later, whilst Neil was preparing a party dinner, I took the kids to the swimming pool for more slide fun. Showered and changed we then ate a lovely dinner on the deck and had ice cream birthday cake! Olivia has had her eye on the cliff all week but wanted to save it until her birthday until she tackled it. It was her first time climbing outside and she was AWESOME. She took our breath away as she was so determined to get to the top. She had three climbs (one was given to her for free when the instructor found out it was her birthday) and got to the top of each one. She had cuts and grazes on her knees and it really hurt her hands, but when I suggested that she didn't have to go all the way to the top she looked at me as if I was mad (I suppose I'll have to get used to that look!). We were all so so impressed with her determination and success. The sun set as she was climbing which was lovely and made it feel a little bit more special. She then got it into her head that she wanted us all to sit on our deck at 9.11pm to watch the sun go down as that is when she officially turned nine! 

Such a wonderful child and a ray of sunshine in all our lives.
Happy 9th birthday, my darling. Enjoy your last year in single digits!

Eight
Seven
Six
Five
Four
Three
Two
One
Birth!