Video of B.C. woman's unique birthday surprise receives millions of views

Victoria woman Annie Kearns will never forget the night before her Grade Three picture day, when she decided to do something different with her bangs.

"I didn’t want them anymore," Annie recalls. "So I just started cutting."

And she never stopped to think about consulting a grown-up first.

"My mom walked in," Annie smiles. "She saw it and was like, 'Oh no!'"

Ever since, Annie’s friends have said "Oh yes!" to the resulting photo, which they all have copies of.

It shows seven-year-old Annie’s smiling face framed by a jagged line of hair crossing the top of her head, and no hair around her seemingly protruding ears.

"Whenever anyone brings up an embarrassing childhood photo, they’re like, 'You got to see this one!'" says Annie's friend, Emily Thwaites.

So, Emily and another friend, Jenn Dodsworth, decided to somehow include the picture during Annie’s upcoming surprise 30th birthday party.

"We wanted to do some sort of dress-up theme night," Jenn says.

So they rented a house for the weekend and surprised Annie by inviting friends she hadn’t seen in ages.

But that was just the beginning.

"After dinner," Emily explains. "I just said, 'Everyone, off you go.'"

She asked Annie to remain, sit on the couch, and tie a blindfold across her eyes.

"I literally had no idea what was happening," Annie says.

After her eyes were covered, Emily got Annie to put on a custom t-shirt emblazoned with that Grade Three photo.

By then, the friends who had left the room returned.

"We all kind of gathered around her," Emily says. "And then said, 'Take the blindfold off.'"

What happened next was caught on camera from multiple angles.

The videos show Annie taking off the blindfold, looking down at the t-shirt and laughing, before looking out to her friends in disbelief and laughing so hard she rolled over sideways on the couch.

Being surprised to see a picture of yourself on a shirt is one thing, being surprised by 18 of your friends dressed up identically as yourself in that photo is something entirely different.

Annie was surrounded by people wearing Grade Three Annie costumes — including matching shirts and bang-less wigs.

"I died laughing," Annie smiles. "I was crying laughing!"

Emily and Jenn say their plan couldn’t have gone better, until an unplanned viral video from that night did.

"It just makes it much more hilarious," Jenn smiles.

One of the videos of the surprise has been watched by almost eight million people, and counting, on social media and has been broadcast across the U.S. on The Today Show.

Annie says her Grade Three self couldn’t find it more fun.

"She would love it," Annie smiles. "She would say, 'That’s a great haircut!'"

And her 30-year-old self couldn’t be more grateful to have friends like these.