And I'm the mother of a 20 year old

 Today is M.'s 20th birthday. Twenty! How did that happen? Her spring break also started yesterday, so we celebrated last night. We had bun cha for dinner (our very favorite Vietnamese dish, though it somehow seems wrong to eat it when you're not hot and sweaty). And then we sang and M. blew out her candles. She chose pie, so we were back to the hold-the-candle-thing. She didn't want to be 16 again, so A. held four candles. I don't know why four except that it seemed a good number.

And then because A. and M. are like that, there was a brief moment when A. wouldn't get close enough for M. to blow out the candles and M. started to chase her down.

P20 came to help celebrate.

It was cherry pie because that was the fruit which was on top when I went down to the freezer. (Interestingly, H. decided that she REALLY  didn't like cherries. P. happily volunteered to eat hers for her.) See what the pies say? M. is 20.

And then there were presents.

I have to say, when your child lives in an apartment, it is much easier to buy gifts because there is always something they need. Like a little mini food processor. We all commented on its tiny-ness. Tiny and kitchen equipment don't often go hand in hand around here. (That's M.'s friend, J., in the background. I'll have to come up with some other way to name him because two 'J.'s' is too confusing.)

A design book and a Vietnamese cookbook were also wrapped up.

So Happy Birthday to my lovely and intelligent daughter. I love to see what you will bring into my life next and couldn't be prouder of you. I love you very much!