The Obama family celebrated their firstborn child recent Harvard graduate Malia‘s 23rd birthday.
Former President Barack and former First Lady Michelle Obama shared sweet messages along with nostalgic photos of their daughter throughout the years on their Instagram to honor Malia.
Barack posted a photo laughing as he held his then-toddler daughter. “Happy Fourth of July, and Happy Birthday, Malia!” the former president wrote. “It’s been such a joy to watch you begin to make your own way in the world with poise, grace, and humor. I miss the days when you thought the fireworks were for you.”
The former first lady shared another throwback photo of Malia embracing her. “Happy Fourth of July, everybody— and also, happy 23rd birthday to our dear Malia!” Michelle shared. “It’s been a few years since we took this photo, but I know that she’ll always be my sweet little girl whose big hugs and big heart always lift up my day. Malia, we love you, and are so excited to see what this year will bring for you!”
The family recently celebrated their youngest daughter Sasha, a current student at the University of Michigan, turning 20 on June 10. Michelle praised her daughter on Instagram writing, “I couldn’t be prouder of the woman you are becoming. Love you so much!”
Obama has expressed how proud he was of his two daughters developing their own political voices and activism involvement with the Black Lives Matter protests in a recent CNN interview in April with Anderson Cooper. “What I find interesting is they’re also starting to be very strategic about how to engage the system and change it,” Obama shared. “They’re not just interested in making noise, they’re interested in what works.”
Earlier this year in March, the former First Lady released a children’s cooking show on Netflix, Waffles + Mochi, and revealed how even during the midst of the pandemic her family’s White House ritual of eating dinner together was still enforced.
“That’s an important time for us to catch up. Even in quarantine, when we would be apart all day in separate rooms, it was just a good way to check-in, to see each other, to ask how our days were going even though nothing was going on,” she told ET. “We’ve had that ritual for our entire lives. Even in the White House, I read about how the president, no matter how busy he was, he would stop his day and make sure we could have dinner together as a family.”
