Michelle Obama: Fabulous at 50
Michelle Obama turned 50 last Friday and marked the event with a lavish event at the White House which reportedly featured a bill-topping performance from Beyonce.
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Celebrations to mark the First Lady of the United State's(FLOTUS) birthday included an extended holiday in Hawaii with her friends last week, topped off by a party thrown in her honour by Oprah Winfrey.
White House aides kept a tight lid on details of the Saturday bash to maintain an element of surprise but guests were told to come prepared to dance and eat before they come to the event, which is being referred to as "Snacks & Sips & Dancing & Dessert".
The event, expected to last from 9pm until midnight had the invitation reportedly prohibiting the use of cameras during the celebrations.
President Barack Obama, who turned 50 in 2011, made reference to the birthday celebrations in a recent press conference.
"I've got to get back because somebody is having a birthday today," he said. "I've got to make sure I pay them some attention."
The First Lady who has been in a festive mood for a while now told Parade recently. “I have never felt more confident in myself, more clear on who I am as a woman”.
“But I am constantly thinking about my own health and making sure that I’m eating right and getting exercise and watching the aches and pains. I want to be this really fly 80-, 90-year-old.”
Seems like a pretty likely scenario for the energetic, “mom in chief.” But let’s not rush it. Instead, here’s a look back at the life and rise of Mrs. Obama, née Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, who once noted, “There’s nothing magical about my background.” Plenty that’s inspiring, though.
Michelle Obama was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up on the city’s South Side in a one-bedroom apartment, where she and older brother Craig slept in the living room, a hanging sheet dividing their quarters.
Michelle Obama, tells People that, despite feeling nonchalant about the big 5-0, some reminders can still make her cringe.
"Well, there are those times when your staff tell you they were born the year you were graduating from college. It’s like, really? Really? That hurts,” she said, laughing.
“But I don’t feel that much differently than I did when I was younger.”
Michelle Obama graduated in 1981 from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School as class salutatorian, and went on to attend Princeton University and Harvard Law School.
The first lady's first job out of law school was at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she would soon be assigned to mentor summer associate and Harvard prodigy Barack Obama.
"I figured he was one of these smooth brothers who could talk straight and impress people," she told David Mendell, author of Obama: From Promise to Power.
"So we had lunch, and he had this bad sport jacket and a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and I thought 'Oh, here you go. Here's this good-looking, smooth-talking guy. I've been down this road before.'"
Their first date was over ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. "I kissed her, and it tasted like chocolate," the president recounted for Oprah.
The young couple married at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago on October 3, 1992, and had their first dance to Stevie Wonder's You and I.
Michelle Obama told ABC, "Barack didn't pledge riches, only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he delivered."
The Obamas' daughters, Malia and Sasha, were born in 1998 and 2001, respectively.
Credit: shine.yahoo.com/ibtimes