Happy Birthday Mimi!!!

She's adorable!!!  She's also the sweetest most kind little lady that you will ever meet in your life!  We are so blessed to have her in our lives and love her so very much!!!  Happy Birthday Mimi!!!

Happy 88th Birthday Mimi!!!  She's probably going to give me a little spanking for posting her age.  But...man...that's something to be proud of!  Mimi was born in 1923 and has lived through so many things that have affected the way we live our lives.  It's amazing to think about how much of history she's been apart of.  What's even more amazing is that she looks and acts like she's in her 60's!  She is a major fashionista and still wears little kitten heel shoes.  I am proud to say that I take after her...completely!  Everyone loves this little lady so much.  She is a joy to be around and would give you the world if she could.  There is never a time when she doesn't put someone else before herself.  She is always thinking of things to do for other people.  Mimi will send "just because" cards and pick-up little knick knacks from various places that remind her of you.  It's always fun to get little cards or care packages from her in the mail.  You just never know what's going to be in them!

Mimi is also a very well traveled lady.  I mentioned in another post that she joined a travel club soon after my grandad passed away in 1989.  She has been all over the United States.  Some places she's even been multiple times!  In fact, I think she's been to New York three or four times...I'm so jealous!  I would love to take a girl's trip with her sometime to New York.  She could be our little tour guide!  I remember right after 9-11 happened, their travel club was taking a trip to New York that October.  They were supposed to eat in one of the restaurants in one of the Twin Towers.  So, she saw ground zero right after it happened.  It's a little eerie to think about.  Anyways, she loves to travel and collect dolls and antiques.  She's got some pretty cool stuff that she's accumulated over the years.  When I was little, I would go down to Hamilton to spend a week with her during the summer.  One day during the week we would go to a little town called Evant.  She had a little booth set up in an antique shop with things that she had bought and one day out of every week, she would work at the little shop.  It was fun to go with her and look at all the knick knacks and antiques in the store.  I also remember that there was a grocery store across the street from the little antique shop.  Mimi would always let me walk over there and get little goodies to snack on throughout the day.  I would always get Mrs. Baird's cherry fried pies...they were (and I'm sure still are) so yummy!  Those were Mimi's favorite too...which is why I'm sure I liked them so much!

One of Mimi's most favorite things to collect are dolls.  She has tons of them!  When she was a little girl, she started her doll collection.  Because she grew up during the great depression, they didn't have a whole lot of money.  So, they mainly played with paper dolls that they cut out of magazines.  I remember her telling me that their neighbors would give her their old magazines so that she could cut out the women on the pages.  Then, she would cut out clothes from other advertisements so that they ladies would have a change of clothes.  It's amazing to think of how easily accessible things like that are now.  We can just hop in our cars and drive down to the nearest store, grab the paper doll book off the shelf, and be back home within minutes.  We take so much for granted.  So, her love of dolls started when she was just a little girl and she has loved them ever since.  Mimi even has a doll room that is built into her garage.  My grandad built it himself and when my mom was a little girl, she helped him get it all set-up for her.  She goes in there and will just look at all the dolls and knick knacks she had in there.  There are small glass figurines, pin cushion dolls, barbies, and lots and lots of dolls!  She also has several dolls and the other little things displayed throughout her house.  They are in her china cabinet in the kitchen, the living room, and the two guest bedrooms.  Some are also displayed on top of her chest of drawers that are in all the bedrooms.  In fact, she started to "over collect" and has been trying to get rid of the ones that she just didn't have room for anymore and were stored in the garage or up in the attic.  But she's kept the ones that are her favorites or have some sentimental value.  The dolls look so pretty all displayed throughout her house and she gets to enjoy looking at them every single day!

Well, her birthday was getting closer and closer this year and we really hadn't talked about what we were going to do.  We knew we wanted to do something special for her, but we just didn't know what.  Mom has been talking about trying to get more involved again with the Madame Alexander stuff because Mimi just enjoys it and loves it so much.  Plus, it's a way for us to take her to things that she enjoys and get to spend even more time with her.  So, we started doing some research and mom found where they were having a luncheon on October 22nd.  It was perfect and the timing couldn't have been better!  Mimi's birthday is on October 19th, so the luncheon fell just a few days after her birthday.  Mom and I talked about taking her to the luncheon, which was in Weatherford, and having that be her birthday present from our family.  So, that's just what we did!

Because the luncheon was in October, it was a Halloween themed little party.  There were about 60 other ladies, and a few men, that were there.  Mimi drove into Abilene on Friday afternoon and stayed through Sunday.  The luncheon was on Saturday, so we woke up early and got on the road around 8:30.  The boys were at the deer lease...which is their second home these days!  So, it was just us girls!  We got to Weatherford about 11:00 and the sales room opened up around 11:30.  The luncheon was held at the Chandor Gardens, which is absolutely beautiful.  Since we got there a little early we just walked around for a bit and then sat down close to a fountain and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  Oh...and we took some pictures!  When it was time to go in, we registered, found a place to sit, and then the luncheon began.  Mom had called the hostess and asked if there would be any way that she could announce that it was Mimi's birthday and have everyone that was there sing to her.  The hostess was so precious and sweet and was more than happy to do that for her.  She also let us tell her a few things about Mimi so that everyone else would know just how precious she is and how much everyone just adores her.  So, right after we got our food, the hostess got up and mad the special announcement.  We all sang happy birthday to Mimi, and she just loved it!  It really was a good time, and it was priceless to see the joy and happiness that it brought to my sweet Mimi.  She is just such a special lady and so it's an honor when we can give back to her and do something that she just loves and enjoys so much!  We love you so much Mimi...you truly are a precious gift from God!!!

Me and my sweet Mimi!  Celebrating her birthday with a beautiful cake at our house on Friday night!

This was a picture at the Chandor Gardens before the luncheon got started

She's just so cute...and so fashionable!!!

My beautiful momma and her beautiful momma...so sweet!

Me and mom at the Chandor Gardens...I love her so much!

This was our table hostess at the luncheon.  Her name is Mary Berry and she is actually from Abilene...small world!  Mimi wanted to take a picture with her because she thought she was dressed so cute!

Celebrating Mimi's birthday at the doll friendship luncheon!  There are three generations in this picture...pretty neat and very special!

I got this picture of Mimi while everyone was singing happy birthday to her!  She was very surprised but loved it so much...look at that smile on her face!