Back To School...

I have to say it seems like the summer absolutely flew by this year and now we are suddenly back at school again. We have been back for just about two weeks now and James has been enjoying getting to know his new class and I have been testing our new kindergartners all week. We got our class lists today so I am excited to get things going with them all next week!

Before we headed back to school "the boys" came in to visit and check out our new house. We had a great time when Michael, Sidney, and David were here and hope they will be able to visit more often! James and I spent more time downtown while they were here then we have in a long time. Here is a picture of the guys before we were getting ready to head out on the town for the night to a piano bar downtown.

Once we got there Michael, David, and I all had a drink to start off the night!

We even got David called up on stage for his 30th birthday...I have to say this was DEFINITELY the highlight of the evening!

The next day we went back uptown and were going to head to the imax theatre but when we got there found out it was all sold out. We ended up going to a farmers market downtown instead and got to hear a band playing and look at some yummy fruits and vegetables that were being sold.

After that we took our guests to a downtown favorite, the penguin. It's just a tiny hamburger joint but it is always packed and known for its great food...we all definitely enjoyed it!

Here we all are at our booth at the penguin!

What have we been doing since Bonaire?

I have realized the last few times that I got online that it has been quite a while since we updated the blog. We have definitely been busy since our trip to Bonaire...we spent a week in Tennessee visiting family and have been back in NC for a little over a week now getting settled and unpacked into our new home!

While we were in Tennessee we celebrated our one year anniversary and since we didn't have much money to spend on a big date after the trip, James decided to plan a picnic that he took me on instead! First, he showed up at the house with two boquets of beautiful flowers...one for me and one for my Mom (way to earn extra points!)

He also packed us a picnic basket

We drove to a nice spot overlooking the lake (a spot where we used to visit when we were dating in Knoxville)

We also ate some of our anniversary wedding cake that his cousin Tammy had been keeping in her freezer for us this year...it was surprisingly good!

We definitely had a good time spending the day together!

We came back to NC on the 6th of July and have been working hard to unpack the house and get it back in order before we go back to school this coming Monday. I don't have a whole bunch of pictures of the house inside yet but we will hopefully get some soon. We have been trying to get some cool things to decorate on a budget and one of my favorite projects so far has been some candle holders that we found on sale at Hobby Lobby that I spray painted to match our living room...here is the before and after!

I think they turned out pretty great if I do say so myself!

Last but not least these past few weeks we have been trying to get in a little rest and relaxation as well...here is a picture of James and AJ doing just that after a hard days work!