Today is my 45th birthday! I have to admit, I’m not liking 45 too much, if only because it rounds up to 50, and that makes me feel a little old. But, old or not, I had a fantastic day with my family!

I decided that today I wanted to go to Ste. Genevieve, MO, a town I’ve been meaning to visit for years. It was founded as a village in 1735, and was the first organized European settlement in what is now Missouri. It was transferred to Spain following the French and Indian War, but eventually the Louisiana Purchase made it part of the new United States.

We saw several old buildings, such as the Louis Bolduc House, which was built in the French Creole-style in the 1780s:

Even thought it was hot, we had a nice time walking around this historic district and stopping in some of the shops. Sadly, the Christmas store wasn’t open, but the sweet shop was, and Ladybug bought me a pineapple rock candy stick! We also stopped in the tea and spice shop, which smelled absolutely amazing. While we were in town, we stopped for ice cream at Sara’s Ice Cream as well….I had a strawberry cone, and it was really delicious!

I did try to give myself a heart attack on my birthday, though, because we had to drive across the Mississippi River at Chester, IL, on a bridge I really hate!

While we were in Chester, we saw the Popeye statue:

On the way home, we stopped at Starbucks so I could get my free birthday coffee…I love that they wrote a little note on the cup!

I celebrated my birthday in Animal Crossing, too…I was very sad that Roald didn’t come to my party, though.

Bunny, Ladybug, and Chickadee teamed up to make me a chocolate malt cake, and it was outstanding (we were all a little worried the candles were going to burn the house down, though…even though there were only 39 of them)!

It was a lovely day celebrating with my family!