The 22nd on the 31st....

The last day of January marked the first day Mia being 22 (can't say 22nd year as, technically, it's the first day of the commencement of her 23rd year). It was an unusual birthday weekend - new home (still settling in), new life (Grammy here - though at that time she was visiting Italian relatives).

As always, we had great deals of fun...

Earlier in the week, Mia and Kate made over 70 chocolate chip cookie dough truffles... Yum (the mocha ones are still my favorite, though)...

Over the weekend, we spent several hours showing our family thousands (literally - I believe we covered over 3,000) photos of our trip with Grandfather and Grandmother (my, how I miss them!).

On Sunday, a dear friend of ours (who's nearly Mia's age and whose birthday is the same as Mia's) had little celebration at lunch - complete with presents and cake! How I wish I'd brought my camera...


Monday afternoon (the OFFICIAL day) found us with another precious friend - Joy.

Before we started out, Joy treated us to lovely hot chocolate (Mia) and coffee (me). YUM!!! 

We had lunch (thank you again, Joy!)...

Then the adventure began....

 


Mia LOVES antiques (some of us maintain she runs an orphanage). What could be better way to celebrate for her than scouring (you guessed it) an antique mall!

 

This place must have operated with transcendental dimensionalization (bigger on the inside than it was on the outside). It just didn't end!!!!
 

 

 'twas true...

 

 

We all made lovely purchases (mostly presents for family not present), and generally had a glorious time of feminine Christian fellowship!




We returned home later than intended (but still light), and commenced the BIRTHDAY PARTY.

Mia and I (Lynne), enjoy artistic style blogs (usually from Europe), so Mia decided to experiment with one the ideas therefrom - cake bunting!

Father found it very funny...

Then, there were the presents - I didn't take pictures of that, but Mia had such fun. We finished up with Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon in The Cowboy and the Lady. Mia enjoyed it. :)

We are sooo very thankful for our MIA! <3