Friday Favorites: Spring Break 2015

Linking up with Andrea and Erika today for Friday Favorites! 

The joys of working in the education world is that you get SPRING BREAK! This year due to Tommy not getting much vacation with his new job and a new nephew I was in Atlanta the whole time. I started off my week with a bang. 

Monday: Went to the dentist which was painful fine then went to my mom's house to hang out with my sister, Collier and my grandma. We were there for one of my sister's friends to meet Collier then headed to our favorite place, Oak Street Cafe, for lunch. It's nice having my sister on maternity leave because she can join for these lunches for the time being too. I came home from lunch and did some things around the house before leaving for Roswell again to meet up with Tommy's family at Moxie Burger for dinner before his sister left town to head back to Charleston. 

Tuesday: I woke up early, ran to Starbucks to grab coffee for Bonnie and myself, then headed to hang out with Bonnie and Collier for the morning. I took Cooper with me to meet Collier for the first time. He was keeping guard and was very sweet with Collier. He gave him a nice big kiss on his ear. Cooper and Henley (Bonnie's Dog) always love playing together too. They love each other so much!

After I left Bonnie's I came home and took a quick nap with Cooper before getting right into the thick of my endorsement classwork. I am getting my leadership endorsement this year and am almost done! My portfolio is due at the end of April and I will be DONE! It was a beautiful afternoon so I sat on the porch and worked while Cooper played in the back yard. I ended my night at my weekly tennis clinic. Oh how much I love having tennis back into my routine. I have been playing with the same team now for two years and I love it. The team is made up of a bunch of my sister's friends from college and then Ansley and myself. 

Wednesday: I went to Catch Air (this indoor play place) with my friends Lindsey and Catherine. Lindsey has two boys, Woody and Gaines, and Catherine has a daughter, Gracelyn. The kids had a great time going from place to place. Around 11 there was a dance party with Mickey Mouse which was too funny. 

After playtime, we headed across the street to El Azteca for lunch and my friends Sarah joined us. It was great getting to catch up with the girls and hear about everything going on with them. The little are getting so big. It's been so much fun seeing them grow and seeing their families expand. Excited for one day joining them for play dates with my own kid. 

Wednesday night, I hosted dinner for my college friends. We try to every few weeks have dinner at one of our houses and drink a lot of wine. Life has been so hectic lately with so many bachelorette parties and weddings it hasn't happened in awhile. Since it was my spring break I figured this was the best time for me to cook a nice dinner. I made a Skinny Taste cookbook recipe for pasta with Italian sausage, kale and red peppers. It was a big hit and everyone got seconds! Enjoyed a girls night of wine and catching up. Excited to spend the weekend together for our friend's wedding as well!

Thursday: I took my time getting up and went for a morning walk with my across the street neighbor. They just moved in three months ago and had a baby the week after moving in so we haven't really gotten to know them well yet so what better way than to go for a walk with the baby and the dog. After my walk, I showered and met Tommy at BarTaco in Buckhead for lunch. I've been wanting to try this place out. The house margarita was so refreshing and the guacamole was delicious! Such a neat atmosphere inside too. After lunch I popped in at my sisters to get my Collier fill for the day and to see both my mom and Bonnie. The rest of the day consisted of grocery shopping, cleaning the house and filing our taxes (nothing quite like waiting until the last minute). This week I've gotten hooked on "Parenthood" on Netflix too.  Enjoyed my somewhat relaxing day of spring break. 

Friday: I met my mom at Goldbranch park for a walk with the dogs and for them to go swimming. It was quite eventful! We got rained on, walked with thunder and we came across two copperheads going across our walking path. Anything but relaxing! Brought the dogs back to my moms house so we could go to lunch. 

 This is my dog, Cooper, and my sisters dog, Henley, after getting soaked on our walk. 

Mom and I went to Chicken Salad Chick for lunch and then I drove Henley back to my sister's and came home for the afternoon. Just got back from grabbing a drink with one of my best friends, Kristen, and her husband, Fred, who are visiting from France for the weddings we have coming up. They are going to stay with us tonight and we are all gonna go to the wedding together tomorrow. We are finishing cleaning up the house for a cookout at our house tonight with a few couples for the Braves game. I will blog about the wedding and the rest of our weekend later. 

This Spring Break was definitely a favorite of mine because I got to spend a lot of quality time with family and friends!

Easter Weekend Recap

We had a very busy weekend (I was not very good at picture documenting this weekend unfortunately) this weekend that started with me finally being able to officially announce my promotion! Friday afternoon, my principal announced the placements for next year and everyone found out I'm the new Adminstrative Assistant. I realize that sounds like I'm a secretary but in a school it's different. I'll be overseeing all the RTI, response to intervention, program and running those meetings, discipline and our k-9 kids program. I'll be a part of Administration and it'll be a great opportunity for me. I'm so excited to be in the same school next year but doing something different. It'll definitely be a huge change not being in the classroom but I was ready for a change. I can always go back in the classroom. These opportunities don't present themselves everyday! 

Friday night, we had a cookout at Tommy's parents house because his sister Beth came in town for the weekend.  It was great to see her and her cute puppy, Cody. We had a delicious dinner with great company. 

Saturday morning Tommy headed out golfing early with his high school buddies and I got ready for my hectic day. I started my day off with a nice luncheon shower for my friend, Caroline, at the Swan Coach House. She and I met through our sorority in college and now she is marrying one of Tommy's oldest friends, Drew. They are wonderful friends who we are so excited to see getting married after dating for seven years! Their wedding is August 8, 2015. 

From the shower, I drove to McDonough for my tennis match. The traffic was awful and it took me over an hour to get there. I won thankfully in three sets. I wasn't about to drive all that way, make it to a third set and not win! From Mcdonough I headed back and straight to my in-laws for Easter dinner with Tommy's family. 

We had Tommy's parents, sister, cousin and Aunt for dinner. I made spinach dip for an appetizer and potato salad for dinner. The menu was: ham, potato salad, bread rolls, spring salad, deviled eggs and Lemon cake for dessert. It was all delicious! 

Here's the only picture I took that day of the adorable cake Aunt Marsha made. 

After handing out for awhile, we stopped by the Maxey's house on our way home to say hi to the twins who were in town from Florida. They were Tommy's best men in our wedding. It was great to see them and their parents for a little bit. It was a long day filled with family and friends. 

Easter Sunday, we got up early and went to the early service with my sister, Brett and Collier. Collier did great at his first church service! The sermon from our new pastor was great. I really like him and look forward to the sermons to come. 

After church we stopped by mynsister's on the way home to give Collier his Easter gift. Shocking, I only took pictures of Collier that day! 

Here is collier pre-peeing on me in his cute easter outfit my sister bought him. 

Here is the one she took to show his bum. 

My gift to him was the duck hat and duck socks. I just couldn't resist! 

We then went to my parents for Easter lunch with my whole family. The twins came home from UGa for the weekend and my Aunt Margot joined as well. I again made spinach dip to start with. Our menu at my parents was: coronation chicken salad, cheese rolls, rice with chopped bell peppers, spring salad, and deviled eggs. I made a brownie trifle for dessert and nana made a carrot cake. Again it was all delicious! 

We had a great day celebrating our Lord with my family. I always love when we can get everyone together. 

We had a fantastically busy weekend (per usual) and I'm excited to have a relaxing week of spring break. Day one has been a success! Went to the dentist followed by lunch with my mom, Nana, Bonnie and Collier at our favorite place Oak Street Cafe in Roswell. I am going to be well rested and my house will be clean by the end of this week. 

Happy easter and happy spring! 

Random other note is I finally embroidered something for myself. I bought this runner at Tuesday Morning because it matched my dining room perfectly!

Audrey's Bach in Nashville

One of my best friends, Audrey, is getting married on April 25th and so we went to Nashville this weekend to celebrate her bachelorette party. I took Friday off so I headed up Thursday night to start the festivities. Thursday night it was just three of us so we got to enjoy a catch up session over Newks takeout and wine at our hotel. It was just what I needed! I miss Audrey so much now that she lives in Kansas City! 

Friday morning, we just got up and took our time getting ready because there was a car load of girls arriving around lunch time. We dropped off all our stuff at the house before heading to Tavern for lunch. It was a great spot because we got to sit on their covered porch and enjoy great food and great drinks. After a long lunch and a few more girls arriving, we headed back to the house to hang out and get ready for the night. The last car load arrived around 8:30 and then we headed to dinner at The Local Taco! After some yummy tacos we went out to South for drinks and dancing (it's owned by the same owner as The Ivy in Buckhead). The DJ played great music and we had the best time!! 

Saturday was such a fun day filled with lots of Nashville exploring and as usual eating. We started our day off at Urban Grub for brunch. It was such a cool place where we got our own private room that was a round table with a fire out in the middle. Such a great idea and awesome way for all 13 of us to talk to each other. 

After brunch we headed to Tootsies on Broadway for an afternoon on the rooftop listening to live music. Tootsies is awesome with live bands on all four floors. It was a beautiful day outside so we headed to the top. 

We spent the whole afternoon here enjoying the live country music and beautiful weather before heading back to the house for the lingerie shower and to get ready for another night out on the town. 

We had some fun at the house before heading to Sambuca for dinner. I am so thankful for whoever recommended this place for dinner. It was a tapas restaurant with a live band. Such a cool atmosphere with delicious food and drinks and such a fun place for a dinner with a bunch of girls. I wish we had a place like this in Atlanta. I highly recommend you go whenever in Nashville! 

From dinner we headed to Acme then Paradise Park. We had a great night filled with lots of laughs, dancing and love. It was so wonderful getting to see so much of Audrey and spend time with my friends from college. I can't wait for the wedding! Nashville was good to us and can't wait to go back!!