The Festival of Casey

Rather than have one great big party to celebrate the big 4-0, I decided to spread the celebrations out. Paul called it the Festival of Casey, I call it genius!

And gosh was it fun! Here's a run-down on the fun:

27 June: Vietnamese food and Karaoke with my work friends. Too much to eat. Too much to drink. Never enough karaoke (especially when we have a private room at the karaoke brothel).

6 July: Family brunch at the Naked Fig. Sure we got caught in a torrential downpour trying to get into the restaurant which really wasn't conducive to cricket on the beach, but we sure did have a lovely time!

7 July: A day of wine tasting and noshing around the Swan Valley with Paul, his dad and Liz.

9/10 July: Paul and I had our very very first overnighter together without the boys at the schmancy Crown Metropol at Burswood. We watched Grease the Musical, ate pulled pork quesadillas and smashed potatoes and mojitos at the Merrywell, played a few hands on the poker machines, and had one hell of a buffet breakfast.

11 July: Dinner out with the book club girls at Jamie's Italian. Yes, we had to wait over two hours for a table, but dang, the food was good. The popcorn salted caramel brownie for desert wasn't half bad either!

12 July: Teeny little party at Deville's Pad where I drank my weight in sangria (with a little absynthe cocktail thrown in) and danced the night away. Loved this place so much and can't wait to come back for some more much-needed dance therapy.

And because the boys didn't actually have the chance to sing me Happy Birthday and blow out some candles we did a little family dinner thingie at the piggy restaurant on 14 July.

And I didn't even mention all the lovely gifts and treats that I was spoiled with or that the Festival was capped off by a surprise bouquet of flowers and decorated desk at work when I returned from my week off.

It was a fantastic week (or more) full of so much love and fun. I am so so grateful for the friends and family that I've made in Australia. It's taken time to find my place here, but like all things that take time, it was definitely worth it!

And if turning 40 means getting to celebrate like this, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.