Happy Birthday and brunching at The Ivy

That’s another year in the books! Yes, last week I turned TWENTY SIX.

I’m pretty proud of my age. I think that getting old means gaining wisdom. If you asked me at 21 who I’d be today… well, I’m a completely different person.

With age I’ve become: bolder, more intelligent, confident, learned how to dress myself better (sometimes). Truth be told, I didn’t start darkening my brows until I was 23. Eek!

So, this year I’ve turned 26. I’ve been at my “new” job for over a year now. I’ve lived in London for a year and a half. I’ve been married for nearly two years. I’ve made new friends in London, gotten back into blogging and really started to flourish in my life. It’s cheesy, a little bit cliché but completely true.

The day before my birthday Joe had something special planned.

All I knew was that we were going for lunch. That’s it. But Joe kept advising me that my outfits weren’t good enough, so after SEVERAL outfit changes, I settled on this one. Apparently my FAV new Banana Republic dress was acceptable for where we were off to. Paired with the classic Louis Vuitton Neverfull, Vince Camuto sandals, and a Ted Baker jacket.

Naturally, we took photos along the way.

After my series of outfit photos and dancing around as petals FELL FROM THE TREES AROUND ME. Like a photoshoot, except the photos don’t really show it, so did it really even happen?

Anyways, we walked towards Kensington High Street and then straight into my favourite, The Ivy. We were seated at a table for two, and then Joe looked highly concerned and dashed off.

Then we moved because he had a ‘special table’ for us.

Well SURPRISE. The table was filled with my fabulous friends!

Yes, we got the obligatory group photo outside as you do.

We then ordered way too many bottles of Prosecco and ALL THE BRUNCH. We basically all went for eggs.

Except for Lauren and Adam who went TOTALLY ROUGE. Lauren got some yummy looking pancakes and Adam ordered the chicken. But sadly, you don’t get photos of these because I got too excited about food.

After we brunched to our heart’s desires, we decided we weren’t sick of each other yet, and moved onto the next one! It was decided on a short walk up to The Churchill Arms.

It was such a nice day that we decided we weren’t really feeling like being inside at The Churchill Arms, so we finished our drinks outside and then ventured up to The Windsor Castle because they have a ~beer garden~.

Gin was on the menu in a BIG way. So we ordered a round and relaxed outside.

I seriously love these outdoor beer gardens, and I can’t believe we’d never been outside at The Windsor Castle before. It’s fast becoming one of my favourite London pubs, so I would absolutely suggest that you check it out this summer.