Celebration and The Perfect Birthday Present.

Last night, the whole family got together to celebrate the most adorable birthday girl ever!

We started by picking Amanda up at the airport - part of her present was to spend the weekend at a huge horse show in southern Sweden. When I started taking photos, of course she was complaining about not having been able to wash her hair or change her clothes before going to the restaurant. Ah, youth sure is wasted on the young! I could wash my hair ten thousand times and not get hair like hers.

We went to this great place right by the water.

I only brought my 50mm lens and couldn't take very good photos of the view, but you get the point - it was pretty!

So, well, this is what happens every time I try to get a decent photo of my family. What's wrong with the traditional stiff smiles and polite posing, huh? ;)

Hey, look! They're almost normal looking! Thanks, guys. Sorry, Mom and Axel - didn't mean to leave you out of focus... but the birthday girl was the most important, I promise you guys will be in focus next time and Amanda and Micke will be all blurry.

Cheers, Beautiful! My goodness, this girl is so stunning. It's an honor to share your dna, sis!

I let Amanda have my glass of Kir Royal, too (well deserved - you only turn 18 once!) - I was driving home later that night and my conscience wouldn't even let me have a celebratory sip. (Please promise me you'll never drink and drive. Or, rather, promise yourself. Please.)

We had a shellfish plateau, to a large part consisting of oysters - which is strange, since it was Amanda's birthday dinner and my stepfather Micke (Axel and Amanda's dad) is the only one in the family who likes them. And he was the one who ordered that particular plateau. Hmmm... I see a pattern here. Busted!

Then we went back to my family's house, to have my mom's delicious chocolate mint cake for dessert.

And mostly because it was time for Amanda's birthday present!

Her smile when she realized what was in the package: PRICELESS!

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOOOOOU!!!!!!!!!"

Yeah, my mom and stepdad were pretty popular at that very moment...

To be completely honest, I know absolutely nothing about bags (except if I think they're cute or not). But apparently this is a Mulberry Alexa and my sister has been dreaming about it for quite some time now. (I thought I recognized it, though, and on my way home I realized that it's because my sensational blogger colleague Sandra of Niotillfem has the same one, but in navy.) And I'll admit, it is absolutely incredibly beautiful.

The most beautiful thing of all, though, was how excited Amanda got! I'm sure she'll hate this photo, but I love it so much when you can see that someone has the biggest smile on her face - not because she wants to look pretty for the camera, but because she's genuinely happy.