It was a good day.

It was my late mother-in-law’s birthday and we spent our day on things that were her favorites.

Making sweets.

Spending time together.

Frosted angel food cake.

Old-fashioned Frosted Butter cookies.

They were supposed to be shamrocks.

Apparently I don’t have a shamrock cutter.

I do happen to have a set of card suit cutters.

Clubs are not great shamrock substitutes.

Oops.

But I let Grace frost a bunch by herself!

That counts for something, right?

My sister-in-law thought they were cactus cookies.

Yeah.

St. Patty’s Day cookie fail.

Cactus cookies would have been clever though, my mother-in-law loved a good margarita and for whatever reason, cacti are associated with margaritas.

In any case, the cookies tasted delicious and that’s all that matters!

Jeanne loved these cookies…I wish she could have eaten a bunch at her birthday party last night.  I know she would have gotten a kick out of the non-shamrock shamrocks.  She also would have done her best to make me feel better about them not being perfect.

She was such an encourager.

Tulips were her favorite.

When I saw these gorgeous orange ones, I had to get them for the party.

I wish she could have taken them home with her at the end of the night.

Instead, we will look at them every day and think of her.

See their beauty and think of hers.

Someone woke up from her nap in a grouchy mood.

Maybe it was the fresh boo-boo on her forehead.  Or the chapped cheeks.

Noshing on an unfrosted butter cookie made her feel better

But she wasn’t quite ready to give up the grouch face.

Another little girl was all too happy to ham it up for the camera.

I had fun practicing with my new 50mm lens.

Andy is too good to me.

Way too good.

I’m loving this new lens.

I know Jeanne would have been excited about it for me.  She was an avid picture taker for many many years.

I hope to carry that tradition on for years to come and leave my family with a legacy of great photos the way Jeanne did.

Happy birthday, Jeanne.

Birthdays in heaven are undoubtably amazing.

I hope you partied like it was 1999 :)