She makes 50 look fabulous!!
Thank you Mrs. Obama. You are a wonderful First Lady and represent our country so well. You will never know how deep you are in our hearts, and how much they swell everytime you step into the spotlight. We are blessed to have you and for you to be the bedrock of our wonderful First Family.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dance with students during a celebration of Divali during a visit to the Holy Name High School in Mumbai, India, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama poses for a photo with young women leaders during a visit to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa June 21, 2011. REUTERS/Charles Dharapak/Pool (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: SOCIETY POLITICS)
First lady Michelle Obama tours the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)
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Happy Birthday, Mrs. Obama!!!
A First Lady at 50, Finding Her Own Path
By JENNIFER STEINHAUERJAN. 16, 2014
She has perfected a mean forehand, is working on her yoga poses, dishes with girlfriends over brussels sprouts and dirty martinis (one olive) at the Mediterranean hotspot Zaytinya, pushes her two daughters to play two sports — one of her choosing and one of theirs — and said this week that the wonders of modern dermatology, like Botox, are in the realm of possibility for her.
Michelle Obama is in many ways the embodiment of the contemporary, urban, well-heeled middle-aged American woman. She likes to take “me time,” as she did during an extra vacation week this month without family in Hawaii, setting off a tabloid furor over the state of her marriage. She frets that her older daughter, 15-year-old Malia, hangs out with the boys a grade above her. She gardens, although unlike the rest of us, she has significant weeding help.
She toys with false eyelashes.
On Saturday night, Mrs. Obama will celebrate her 50th birthday with dancing and sweets throughout the state floor of the White House, drawing the nation’s attention away from her husband, at least for an evening. Guests will sip fine American wines, consume delicate macarons and be entertained — the expectation is by Beyoncé.
The mix of Hollywood and quirky individualism (American caterers, ready yourself for the onslaught of dessert-and-cocktails-only party requests) underscores the conflicting diptych of glamorous mystery woman and regular PTA mother that defines America’s first lady. Five years in, she has cobbled together a full life in Washington.
Sometimes she moves so discreetly through the area that a customer at a local Target store, not recognizing her, asked the first lady to reach for some highly perched toilet paper. At other times, Mrs. Obama is on plain view around town as a parent on the sidelines of the soccer games of her daughter Sasha, 12.
Marc Howard, whose daughter Zoe once played on the soccer team with Sasha, recalled how his daughter drained the tiny water bottle he had brought for her one hot Washington day on the field. Mrs. Obama lightheartedly chided him. “She said, ‘What kind of water bottle is that?’ and gave Zoe hers,” Mr. Howard said. “Those are things far away from the cameras.”
For all of her complaints about the scrutiny and isolation that come with living in the White House, Mrs. Obama has created a vibrant life in Washington as well as a policy agenda that at times dovetails with her husband’s, particularly on education. But she maintains a powerful zone of privacy, aided by discreet friends and a controlling East Wing. Accounts of her life here are culled from interviews with staff members, friends and parents of Malia and Sasha’s schoolmates. The accounts also draw on Mrs. Obama’s public speeches and comments, including a recent interview with People magazine.
While Mrs. Obama has been careful not to define herself or her role strictly through race, she has paid steadfast attention to her role as a model and mentor to minority children from poor backgrounds like her own, and has built much of her policy agenda around them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/us/a-first-lady-at-50-finding-her-own-path.html?_r=2
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