The Mamaaaa!!! THE MAMA!

Well, my mom's birthday was Oct. 30th, but I am such a winner that I'm just posting about it now. :) Because that's how I roll.

Mom and Dad very generously treated us all to dinner at The New Hong Kong. It's totally Americanized Chinese food, but it's yummy. Mmm. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water a little. Here is the birthday girl:

Then we went to my parents' house for pie. My mom is like me - she prefers pie over cake, any day of the week. Mom turned 54, and Dad had a "5" candle and a "4" candle, but he couldn't find the "4" candle. So he put in the "5" and then put four matches all around it:

My mom is so cool. I cannot remember why, but she busted out into the Thriller dance:

The girls and I all pitched in and got Mom a gift - she has all of these old, old photographs that she inherited when my grandma died, and they were, like, scotch-taped into an old, cracked, dollar-store frame. So I scanned and printed the pictures and put them into a nicer frame:

These pictures are incredible. I have a few more to scan, and then I'm going to throw some up on my blog for you to see. These are pictures from the early, early 1900's. In one, my great-grandma's brother is on one of those old-fashioned bicycles, with the big wheel in the front and the small one in the back. And there are some pictures from the depression, when my great-grandma taught in a one-room schoolhouse on Antelope Flats. So cool. So I'll put them up soon. Christmastime eats up all my free time, I swear. There are always so many things to do! When the season winds down, hopefully I'll have more time and energy to get things done that I want to.

My mom is the best mom I could have ever asked for. All she does is help her kids out, I swear. Completely selfless. She called me the other night to ask me if I needed her to baby-sit sometime this week. I'm sure she doesn't feel like hanging out with my three extremely high-maintenance kids, but she does it for me. My mom is one of my best friends, and it's such a blessing. I honestly think that we probably were best friends in the pre-earth life, and we were both giggling spazzes up there, like we are down here. Mom is a lot of fun and extremely creative. And very loving. Love you, Marmie!!

Here's a slideshow of everyone that was at the restaurant and then at the little soiree at my folks':