Partying with the Queen

Our citizenship ceremony just happened to be a few days before Phil's 40th birthday so it seemed like a good excuse to have a party.  We even had a very distinguished guest in attendance - the Queen!
Her Majesty
Besides Her Majesty, lots of friends and adopted family joined us in the celebration.  We announced our footy teams - I picked the Geelong Cats because, well, cats and Phil picked the St Kilda Saints because we went to a lot of their matches for work when we first moved here.  We toasted, had cake, a few drinks, and lots of laughs.
Toasting our friends
Footy scarves
Don't drop the cake!
When you move to the other side of the world, you're forced to start from scratch meeting new people.  We were lucky, when we moved over we knew 3 people.  Looking around that day, it was neat to see how far we've come in just a few years.  One friend we met at an American Expat meet up group dinner that no one else showed up to.  She invited us to her running group, and from there we met a great group of people that we wouldn't have crossed paths with otherwise.  Phil joined the local triathlon group, and we've become good friends with a few of those crazy people.  I joined the local quilt guild and was fortunate to be invited to join a smaller sewing group.  Then there are our Aussie family and coworkers from each of our jobs.  All of them together help us feel at home here, and we are truly grateful for the new friendships.  
My Irish brother and gangster husband
Coworkers
Quilting friends
These two...
How nice of her to come all this way for our party
Divya & Rohan
Running group friends
Triathlon friends
Our favourite Aussies Karen and Gail
Aussie family Karen and Harry
Coworkers





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