my AUSome birthday!

Get it?! Because I celebrated my birthday in Australia?! I know, I know..bad joke. It's not my fault the boys are the only funny ones in my family. A few days ago I celebrated my first winter birthday. Not only that, but it was my 25th birthday--I can't believe it either! My birthday is never a holiday that I go all out for, but the people in my life made me feel so loved!

My birthday 'celebration' started over a week ago, when we all went to the bean bag theater! Abby and I have been wanting to go since we first got to Australia, and it has always been on our splurge list. With our time running down, our splurge list turned into a basket list (right, maz?!) so we went to see What To Expect When You're Expecting. It was the perfect girly movie, and laying in these giant bean bags was so comfortable! 

Seriously, such a great idea! 

Fast forward to my actual birthday. I have been craving coffee cake since we got to Australia. None of the cafes sell it here, and they don't have the boxed mix like they do at wal-mart. And of course I've been too lazy to actually make one myself. Weeellll, the day before my birthday, Abby shunned me to my room for the afternoon so she could freely use the kitchen. She let me lick the spoon of the batter, and that was a giveaway! I woke up to this beautiful coffee cake! Excuse the excessively large piece that is missing, I got to excited about eating it before I remember to take a picture!

 I went to work and had to deal with little pills all day. Thankfully only 5 more potential days of work here! I came home and opened the cards I had from my family. Yes, I get cards from my pets. Haters gonna hate. 

Abby wanted to make me dinner, so she made me cornflake chicken! Seriously, this girl did good! Our friend Em came over, and we got to spend time hanging out and chatting over dinner. 

THEN, we met up with my favourite girls in this country! I have been hearing about this place called KoKo Black for quite some time, and all things I heard were true! They use genuine Belgian chocolate and it is delicious! I think I'm going to make a trip back there before we leave (;

I got this chocolate affogato. Some say it is too sweet, but it was just right for me! 

It was like a root beer float, but with hot chocolate! GENIUS!! 

The plantation girls gave me these pretty flowers! KIM AND KELLI I FINALLY GOT MY OWN FRESH FLOWERS!!! 

While we were at the restaurant, Abby handed me all of these letters from important people back home (I told you she was good!). It was so fun to read all of the sweet words from yall!

So between the letters, facebook, twitter, and text messages I felt really loved on my two-day birthday! One of the perks of being overseas for my birthday is that it was dragged out for two days! Thanks so much to everyone who made me feel so special!

And then tonight, something incredible happened. It was my first official day as a 25 year old, and I LIVED THROUGH AN EARTHQUAKE! It has always been a dream of mine to live through a natural disaster. I was watching a movie at a friends 2nd story apartment with a group of 15 or so people and all the sudden, the ground started shaking. It wasn't a violent shake, it was more soothing. One girl thought it was just a train, and one thought the apartment building had been hit. Obviously neither of them were right. We sat around for about 20 seconds kind of in shock, kind of trying to figure it out, and then someone opened the door and saw other people running downstairs. None of us were sure what to do, because it wasn't so bad that we all had to run under door frames, but we also weren't sure how sturdy the apartment building was, so we followed them. After standing outside for a few minutes, we realized there would be no immediate aftershocks. We headed back up stairs and everyone immediately checked all social media outlets, and sure enough, within seconds everyone else in the Melbourne-area was talking about it as well. It was a 5.2 earthquake that lasted for 40 seconds-and it was so cool!!!

16 SLEEPS TILL I GET ON AN AIRPLANE TO COME BACK TO THE HOME OF THE BRAVE!