The Fun Jar

Adventure Science Center Friday, July 27

2012-07-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

Looking back at our schedule for the summer, you can see we haven't managed to stick to our original plans. I guess that's the beauty of planning something like Fun Jar - you just change the plans to suit your needs!

I have a stress fracture in my ankle that makes walking difficult, so this week's choice was limited by walkability. Kate's first suggestion of Cheekwood was quickly dismissed. Her sisters joked that I would have to say, "OK. I'll be by the lake if you need me." I replied that it would probably take me an hour to hobble TO the lake from the parking lot. Anna and Bekah responded by doing a mommy dance where they hobbled around our living room. Sadly, I did not get it on video for you.

If you are so inclined, we are going to the Adventure Science Center this Friday. While it does require walking, I often pick a spot to sit and read while my children play. I equip them with watches and have them check in with me periodically so that I can keep track of them. The selection of the Science Center has the added benefit of being air-conditioned, which is helpful given the heat and humidity outside.

Here are the details for Friday, July 27:

Place: Adventure Science Center (click here for directions)
Time: 10ish to 1ish (we will probably buy lunch at the Subway onsite)
Who: All ages - just know that you may need to hustle to keep up with younger children here

While MNPS schools start up next Wednesday, I hope to do a few more Fun Jar events throughout August. If you start school later, homeschool or have preschool children, feel free to join us!

The Lake this Friday

2012-07-04T16:39:00.003-07:00

A 2001 summer day at Percy Priest Lake

We've had a busy summer, so this will be our first Fun Jar trip to one of our favorite places: the Anderson Road beach area at Percy Priest lake. In my opinion, it's as close as you can get to the beach when you're 400 miles inland. There's sand, there's shade, there's water. And this Friday, there will be friends. So mark your calendar and join us!

Here are the details:

Driving directions can be found here or by mapping directions to 4010 Anderson Road, Nashville
Friday, July 6, we'll arrive between 9:30 and 10:30 and will stay until 2ish
Pack a lunch - there are no concession stands (but there are restrooms!)
Bring $4 cash for parking
Bring a blanket and/or chair for sitting, along with any sand or water toys (shovels, pails, floats, etc.)
Bring lots of sunscreen and reapply often. My daughters invariably come home with red faces after having the water reflect the sun back onto their cheeks all day long!

If you have any questions, leave me a comment or e-mail me directly. Hope you can join us for some post-4th of July fun.

Friday, June 22

2012-06-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I bought a Groupon for Blue Heron Cruises. Now it's time to use it and we'd love for you to join us. We're doing a 90 minute nature cruise through the Cheatham Wildlife Natural Area. Here are the details:

Friday, June 22
Depart at 1 pm
$11/Adult
$9/Children 2 - 12
Children under 2 are free

There is space on this boat for 14 more passengers, so we'd love for some of you to join us! Let me know if you're interested or call Blue Heron directly and give them the date and time of the cruise. You can reach them at 385-7007.

This Week's Fun

2012-06-11T16:36:00.001-07:00

Sweet Treat Tuesdays
Join us tomorrow around 4:15 at Pinkberry. It's our favorite frozen yogurt place in town (and we've sampled nearly all of them).

Friday Fun Jar
Anna will be dancing. Kate will be in Alabama. So join Bekah and I at Cumberland Park for the morning. There are fountains to play in, a sandbox to get messy in and other assorted kid things. We'll arrive between 9:30 and 10:00 and will pack a lunch to eat there.

Click the links above for locations and directions. And e-mail me if you have any questions! Hope you can join us for one or both of these outings...

Zoo Tomorrow

2012-06-07T05:53:00.001-07:00

While I still have a few arrangements to finalize, here's the tentative plan for tomorrow:

Meet at the zoo at 9:00
Pack a lunch for picnicking
Hang out until between noon and 1:00 (or whenever the girls or I get tired)

Let me know via a comment here or on Facebook if you're planning to join us so that I can wait for you. By shortly after 9, we'll go into the zoo and wait for others who might be a little late near the monkeys.

In case you're new to Nashville or aren't regulars at the zoo, here are directions and admission info.

If you don't have my cell number, let me know and I'll get it to you before tomorrow morning.

Hope to see you soon!

This Summer's Schedule

2012-06-03T14:24:00.003-07:00

Much to my daughters' collective chagrin, we made lists today and drew one per week of summer to determine our Fun Jar activities for upcoming Fridays. While they far prefer the old school method of drawing an activity at the beginning of each week, summer feels so short this year that I insisted we plan ahead.

Here's the tentative schedule:

June 8 - Nashville Zoo
June 15 - Adventure Science Center
June 22 - Percy Priest Lake
June 29 - Dragon Park or Beaman Park
July 5 or 6 - Berry Picking
July 13 - Cheekwood
July 27 - Brushfire Pottery
August 3 - Frist Center
August 10 - Percy Priest Lake

For each of these activities, I'll post details including a time to meet as the date approaches. (This Friday, we'll meet at the Zoo at 9ish. More to follow in a post later this week.)
Mark your calendars and join us when you can!

Family Trip Tips

2012-06-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

As you may have read on my other blog, we've been on a family vacation to Philadelphia this last week. There are a few things we did that worked... and a few things that didn't. For the sake of future family trips (both yours and mine), I thought a quick recap might be in order.

Things that worked:

Play License Plate Bingo
The night before we left, I created three license plate bingo sheets for our daughters. Each was different, with some states that overlapped and some that were unique to their sheet. The rules were similar to traditional bingo - when they saw the license plate from one of their states, they marked it off on their sheet. When they got a bingo, they got a prize (in our case, one piece of Rollo candy). A super bingo (all 25 squares) yielded a bigger prize (which I never had to decide since no one achieved it).

The girls loved this game. It made them engaged instead of bored, helped them see and enjoy the scenery instead of staying stuck in a book and made the time pass quickly. Even after days of travel, they were still looking for that elusive Washington, DC plate. For another trip, I might do a Car Make and Model Bingo or a Businesses Bingo.

Pack Snack Bags
I packed each girl's lunch box with a variety of snacks and treats before we left Nashville. If your children are like mine, they require regular snacks and there's no way we're pulling over every time they get a hunger pain. So I filled their bags with granola bars, baggies of dried fruit, peanut butter crackers, fruit strips, jolly ranchers and sprees. When they asked for a snack, I almost always said yes, unless we were stopping imminently for a meal.

Limit Electronics
Each girl was allowed to bring their iPod and we gave about an hour of iPad time to each girl over the course of the drive up and back. But there were no movies, no DSIs. Just License Plate Bingo, books, music, Mad Libs, graphic novels, taking photos of the scenery and talking. Since we limit electronics at home, this method works much better for our children than spending a long ride watching movies. TV tends to wind them up and make them restless, whereas these activities engage their minds.

Do What Your Kids Love
Before we left home, I checked reciprocity with some of our favorite Nashville memberships. Cheekwod's website listed botanical gardens by state that offered reciprocity and when I went to the Morris Arboretum website, I knew it was a place we would love to visit. I also checked for what our zoo membership and museum membership offered, but I think it works well to prioritize. My girls would choose Cheekwood over the Nashville Zoo or the Frist Center most days, so it seemed right to me to make a comparable place a top priority. This is not only good financial sense (since reciprocity normally offers a discount or free entrance), it's a wise use of your time.

Be Flexible
Philadelphia is a long way from Nashville. Had we pressed on, packed lunches and driven through the night, we might have taken an hour or more off our drive. But I don't think it would have been worth it in the long run. Instead, we stopped for lunch and ate at a hole-in-the wall local place, picnicked at a rest area, took a driving tour of a college campus and visited a Tractor Supply Co. store or two (for Jason, of course). These stops made Virginia more than just a state we drove through to get to Pennsylvania, let the girls burn a bit of energy and kept everyone relatively interested and engaged on the ride. As someone who grew up in a family that stopped only for fuel and restroom breaks, this is something I've had to learn works best for my family. The quickest drive is not always the best one for us.

What Didn't Work:

Stacking Activities
I have a tendency when traveling to want to be efficient in our sightseeing. We'll be downtown? Let's see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the Betsy Ross House before we go to dinner with friends and after we've attended service at Christ Church. This does. not. work. Children get tired. They get cranky. Then everyone is unhappy. I needed to remember that vacations are not about efficiency so much as enjoying yourself. For the record, we never did make it to the Betsy Ross House...

Eating Out Three Meals Per Day
Thankfully we rented a town home via VRBO, so once we got to Philadelphia we were able to have breakfast and some dinners at home - and even pack our lunch a few times. This certainly helps your vacation budget, but it's also simply what our family prefers. We don't eat out a lot, so by the time we were on day 2 on the way up to Philadelphia, we ate a picnic of hummus, carrots, apples, etc. instead of having sandwiches or burgers. This may not work for the drive home since a week of vacation left me tired and not in the mood to pack a lunch for the drive back.

For Next Time:

Candy Money
Our girls don't get a lot of junk food, so when we stop at gas stations on road trips, they are in awe of the assortment of candy available. This time around, Jason and I made a stop-by-stop decision about whether to let them each select something. Next time, I'd like to give them each $5 at the start of the trip and let them decide how and when to spend it. This gives them more control while simultaneously limiting the amount of junk food they can consume to $5 worth of gas station items.

Summer is Coming

2012-05-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

We're in the final countdown. School is on the way out. Summer on its way here. Around here, that means good things. Things like sleeping in. Reading a book in bed when you wake up. Sunshine on your face. And, of course, The Fun Jar.

I've lost track of how many years we've done the Fun Jar in our family. Suffice it to say that 12 year old Anna can't remember a summer without it and I'm fairly certain 7 year old Kate has never lived a summer without it.

If you're new here, the premise is this: each summer, we make a list of all of the activities we want to do over the summer. Then we set about doing them. That first summer long ago, we drew slips of paper out of the jar on Monday and e-mailed our friends to invite them to join us for Wednesday Fun. The days, methodology and technology for sharing our plans have changed over the years. This summer, our Fun will be on Fridays. (Anna is dancing Monday through Thursday, so that effectively started and ended discussion of which day to do Fun Jar.)

I'll be honest and say our methodology is open for discussion at this point. I would personally like to fill the jar with our ideas and then draw them out, one for each week and plan ahead. But the Fun Jar long ago ceased to be about me. My daughters will undoubtedly have an opinion about my blasphemous idea to PLAN. I think for them part of the fun is the spontaneity. So while the technique remains to be determined, you can be sure of this: summer fun is waiting and we want to share it with you.

In addition to our traditional Fun Jar activities, we'll be doing Sweet Treat Tuesdays. Anna will be dancing at Centennial Park on those days, so we'll use that as our central location. As you can imagine, that will mean trips to Bobby's Dairy Dip, Pinkberry, Elliston Place Soda Shop and more. These days are as much for me as the girls: when they're begging for one more Sonic run, I'll remind them that Tuesdays are never very far away. And each Tuesday, we'll have some kind of frozen treat to celebrate summer. These locations will certainly be announced weekly - as much to pacify my daughters as anything else. (And it's just as easy for us to determine these weekly as it is to plan in advance for them.)

Want to get in on the Fun? Please do! Sign up to receive e-mails from this blog. Or subscribe to it via Google reader. Or just pop over when you're having a slow week and want inspiration or community.

Advent Week 3

2011-12-12T19:46:00.000-08:00

These posts just keep getting written later and later in the week, don't they? This time around I'll attribute that to a crazy weekend packed with Nutcracker performances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for Anna, with our family attending on Saturday. Sunday brought not only more Nutcracker, but Kate singing at church. Last week was busy, followed by a just as busy weekend. So I'm looking forward to this week, which offers more time for us to control our schedule instead of letting our schedule control us.

Day 1
Think: Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Read about today's saint and make Mexican Hot Chocolate to celebrate.
Read: The legend of the poinsettia and write in your Advent journal about what you can give Jesus when you feel you have nothing to give.
Do: Make hot chocolate mix (yes, this was on our plan for Week 1, but we never did it).

Day 2
Think: Today is the Feast of Saint Lucia. The name Lucia comes from lux, which means light. Look up what time the sun came up today and what time it will set. Take time tonight to look at the stars lighting our sky. Think about the fact that the stars you see tonight are the same ones that were seen centuries ago when Christ was born.
Read: John 8:12.
Do: Make Saint Lucia bread or rolls.

Day 3
Think: Away in the Manger. Silent Night. Joy to the World. O Come All Ye Faithful. What is your favorite Christmas Carol and why?
Read: About the origin of Christmas Carols here.
Do: Write a stanza from your favorite Christmas Carol in your Advent Journal.

Day 4
Think: Tomorrow is Las Posadas day. What must it have been like to go from place to place asking for somewhere to sleep? How much more stressful would it have been to be very pregnant and have nowhere to go? Think about the people in our country, in our state, in our very neighborhood who have nowhere to sleep.
Read: A book about Joseph and Mary's journey to Bethlehem.
Do: Make a gingerbread house or manger.

Our weekly tutorial commitments are done, but we're using our extra day this week for a field trip. We'll either visit the zoo (if it warms up) or go to the Frist Center and view the Northern Renaissance exhibit, focusing on the Madonna and Child images.

May your week give you the opportunity to play and listen as you wait this Advent season.

Advent Week 2

2011-12-04T02:06:00.001-08:00

I'll admit the first week of Advent didn't go exactly as I had planned. We did most of our scheduled activities, but my mind was preoccupied - with hard things going on in my family and with planning for a party we hosted this weekend. I'm not giving up. I know there is space in this season for me to sit and enjoy just being with God.

This Advent, my church is focusing on listening to God. I've thus far incorporated this into our Advent plan by encouraging the girls to journal their responses to a reflection question. This week, we'll celebrate Thomas Merton's feast day with a bit of intentional silence and try to give ourselves room to listen to what God is saying.

Day 1
Think: Tomorrow is the feast day of St. Nicholas. How did a real man inspire Santa Claus? Many Christians are opposed to Santa Claus as an image of Christmas. Can you see why? Do you agree or disagree? Think about where you see God in St. Nicholas and in Santa Claus.
Read: About the real St. Nicholas here.
Do: Choose someone to bless with a stocking. Fill it with homemade cookies, a handmade Christmas card, candy canes, etc. Deliver it anonymously in honor of St. Nicholas.

Day 2
Think: What do you think of when you hear the word saint? Does it call up a certain mental image? Do you know the difference between a saint and a Saint?
Read: About the difference between a saint and a Saint here. (We will focus on the introduction and Anglican sections.)
Do: Look at several icons, especially ones of saints with scenes from their life surrounding them. (You can find online examples here and here.) Create your own icon style image of you as a saint with scenes from your life surrounding you.

Day 3
Think: About what it would have been like to be Mary. Can you imagine being 14 years old and having an angel appear to you with such shocking news?
Read: Mary's Magnificat in Luke.
Do: Visit the zoo (weather permitting) or make haystacks cookies (we add a mini marshmallow to represent the baby Jesus). Think about what it would have been like to travel on a donkey while pregnant and give birth surrounded by animals. Imagine how it felt, sounded and smelled.

Day 4
Think: About what it would be like to be a monk or a nun. Why do you think people choose this path for their life? What appeals to you about it? What doesn't
Read: About Thomas Merton, whose feast day is today.
Do: Spend 15 minutes alone in your room in silence. Light a candle. Pray for a little while and then just be quiet and listen. Ask God to give you a heart to hear him and see whether anything happens. This is not about you getting it right, but about you giving God space to talk to you.

Advent Week 1

2011-11-25T17:22:00.000-08:00

I think it's lovely that our country celebrates Thanksgiving right before Advent. While I doubt this was an intentional tie-in to the liturgical calendar when the holiday was established, I think it may be God's provision for a country whose material blessings stand firmly in the way of seeing our need for God. For this reason, we're going to start our Advent with a natural segue from Thanksgiving.

Day 1

Think: How does Thanksgiving prepare our hearts for Christmas?
Read: The Glorious Impossible by Madeline L'Engle
Do: Make a care package for someone you are thankful for. Include a Bible verse or other words of encouragement, something you have made (art or a baked good) and anything else you want. This hits all five love languages: you are serving the person by making them a care package, satisfying their need for touch by sending them a physical package (and hand delivering it when possible), encouraging them with words, spending your time on them and giving them a gift.

Day 2

Think: Why does Christmas come during the winter? What can we learn from this?
Read: In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti (we will read this aloud together). After reading the poem, we'll listen to the Shawn Colvin version of the song.
Do: Psalm 119:76 tells us that God's unfailing love will be our comfort. Bleak days make us long for comfort. Make hot chocolate mix to give to others for comfort on a day when they need it.

Day 3

Think: How does God use us to give his gifts to others?
Read: The story behind the creation of Silent Night and The Legend of the Fourth King. I read The Legend of the Fourth King for the first time yesterday and loved it. I'm not sure how I've gone this many years without reading this lovely book, but it was touching, thought-provoking and a great story of what it might have been like to have been one of the Magi.
Do: Silent Night was a gift not just to one congregation on one night, but to many people for years to come. The magi brought gifts to the baby Jesus. Make homemade marshmallows to go with the hot chocolate mix you made yesterday.

Day 4

Think: December 2 is the feast day of Isaiah.
Read: Isaiah 43. Then re-read 43:1. Make a list of the names God has for you. On a separate page, list the names of your family members. List a few other names you have for each of your family members.
Do: Cut strips of construction paper or craft paper. Put some of the names of God on the strips and make a paper chain. Keep the extra strips and add to the chain as you go through Advent and learn about other names of God.

My daughters have a Tuesday tutorial that will meet the first two Tuesdays of Advent, so we'll start with four day weeks on our Advent plan. I offer this as both explanation and encouragement. If you're like me, I'm trying desperately to make Advent a spiritual, not commercial, journey for my family. But we still have other obligations (and lots of them). My hope is that by starting small, we can carve out just parts of our days to really focus on what matters. Because my hope is that if we take just nuggets of time, God will call those lessons to our minds and the minds of our children.

I want to encourage you to do only the portions of this Advent plan that sound fun to you. If it feels like a burden, it will be a burden. If your children are young, pick pictures books to read instead of a 19th century poem and a 20th century folk tale. Do what works for your family. (And be sure to let me know what works because I might want to borrow your idea!)

May you have a Blessed Advent!

Advent Journal

2011-11-16T08:11:00.001-08:00

Celtic Advent starts today - allowing a full 40 days of preparation, just as Lent gives us 40 days to fast, pray and await the celebration of Easter. Here's what Celtic Daily Prayer says about Advent:

Advent is traditionally a time of preparation for Christmas. It is said that the door to the stable where the Christ-child has been born is very low - and only those who kneel find access. Being ready for Christmas should mean that our thoughts are focused not just on letters, cards and presents, but on repentance, humbling and interior housecleaning... This involves removing any boulders that stand in the way, and filling in any potholes. The boulders are the things we have done that we should not have done; the potholes are the things we have failed to do which we obviously should have done. The more, as individuals, family or congregation, we are focused in this way, the less we will be overwhelmed by the commercialization of Christmas.

I spent some time yesterday purchasing and preparing Advent Journals for myself and my daughters. Maybe you think journals are for writing your thoughts or feelings. Maybe you read "journal" and think "a book that will lay beside my bed and convict me when I don't write in it every day." While I've found in recent years that I love to write, I've never been a big journal-keeper. I think one reason for this is that I felt like a failure if I didn't journal every day. I'd like to encourage you to throw that concept of journaling into your mental trash can.

A journal can be so much more. Let it be a place to:

Record the ways you are preparing your heart, your home, your community for Advent
Keep your favorite Christmas cards of the year
Remind yourself of the little gifts that come your way every day of Advent
Look for the joy, peace and hope that Advent is about
Transcribe sweet or funny sayings from your children
Draw
Sketch
Paint
Write
Collage
Pray

I'll be encouraging my daughters to keep a record of our Advent in their Advent journals. I'll sometimes ask them to write an essay or personal response to something we've studied together. I'll have them record the recipe for St. Lucia bread, who St. Nicholas really was and when The Nutcracker was first performed. Their first assignment for their journals will be to write about how Thanksgiving helps to prepare our hearts for Christmas.

I wanted my journal to be all mine - not just an off the shelf purchase. So I bought a composition notebook and covered it front and back in Christmas colors. My daughters weren't interested in doing this, so they have comp books with graphics and words about peace and love. I'm slowly learning to let my children take the lead in their own creating. If they want to collage, great. If not, that's fine, too. That doesn't mean I shouldn't do what my heart is telling me to do. It just means I don't have to put my own desires onto them.

Whether you're crafty or not, a fan of journaling or hate to hold a pen, think about giving an Advent journal a try.

Advent Series

2011-11-12T18:23:00.001-08:00

How intentional are you about Advent? Do you take time to stop, breathe and pray during a season when the world tells you to go, buy, do? As a mom of three whose birthday falls in December, I'll be the first to admit that Advent can be crazy. But I'm convinced it doesn't have to be that way.

So I've started planning early this year:

Instead of a Christmas card, we'll continue a tradition started a few years ago and mail a Thanksgiving card and letter.
My semi-annual birthday party will be held the weekend before my birthday, when we have fewer Nutcracker conflicts.
The homeschool schedule will be cleared of history, science and grammar. We'll carry on with math and learn about the feast day of Isaiah and saints like Thomas Merton, St. Nicholas, St. Lucia and Our Lady of Guadalupe. We'll wrap up auto-biographies and biographies for literature, and spend time reading The Gift of the Magi, Kringle, The Glorious Impossible and other words that help focus our thoughts and minds on Advent.
Catalogs are pouring into our home. Many of them go straight into the recycling, but this year I'm holding on to ones from Soles 4 Souls, The Heifer Project and Samaritan's Purse. My daughters will get a gift allotment each week of Advent and then they'll choose an organization (or two) to bless.

I'm hopeful that advance planning and a willing heart will make this an Advent to remember. Even more importantly, I hope this will be an Advent that lays a foundation for building future Decembers and everyday faith. I hope this Advent will be one that keeps us focused on others and eagerly anticipating not just the celebration of Christ's birth, but his return.

Would you like to join us? Many of the activities we're doing are easily adaptable for your homeschooled children, your preschoolers or as after school activities for school aged children. In the past Fun Jar has been largely about getting your children out of the house during the heat of summer. For Advent, it will be about using the time you have with your children during this season to turn their hearts (and your own) toward Christ. You can join us if you live in Nashville. Or anywhere else. For families that are local, we may have an opportunity or two to get together. Stay tuned. And let me know if you're interested.

Here's my plan: I'll post our Advent plan the Friday before each week of Advent. Use what you want. Add your own twists. Participate only on the days that work for you. Do Tuesday's activity on Thursday. This experiment is not about following the rules. It's about listening to your heart.

Tuesday, July 26 Trip to the Lake

2011-07-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

This week's fun is a study in probability. All four of the Truss girls put the lake into the Fun Jar, so the odds of going there is double that of some of our other options. Yet when I asked the girls if they wanted to go back to the lake or do something new, the response was unanimous, "The lake!" So off we go. If you're interested in meeting us, here are the details:

Driving directions can be found here or by mapping directions to 4010 Anderson Road, Nashville
Tuesday, July 26, we'll arrive between 10 and 11 and stay until 2 or 3
Pack a lunch - there are no concession stands (but there are restrooms!)
Bring $4 cash for parking
Bring a blanket and/or chair for sitting, along with any sand or water toys (shovels, pails, floats, etc.)

We're nearing the end of this summer's adventures, so I hope you'll join us if you're free tomorrow. Next week, Jason and I will be out of town, but I'll post if my girls and their grandparents want to meet up anywhere.

Fun for this Week

2011-07-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

This week is going to be hot (again!), so we had a Truss girl meeting and came up with the following plan for fun this week:

Tuesday, 10:00
Regal Summer Movie Express at Green Hills Theater
Kit Kittredge or Despicable Me
Followed by lunch in Green Hills (place TBD)

Wednesday, 12:00 - 1:30
Parthenon Visit

Anna and Bekah have been here on school visits, but Kate wants to see the inside and it's air-conditioned, so it seems like a good way to spend the hour and a half that Anna will spend dancing

Thursday, 1:30
Frist Center
We'll check out the exhibits and then head to ArtQuest - the best place for parents of crafty kids. It's all of the art with none of the clean-up or planning.

I'll be out of town on Friday, so I'm not scheduling a Sweet Treats Friday this week. Next Friday we'll get back on track.

As always, you and your family are welcome to join us for any and all of these activities. Just let me know if you plan to meet us, so that we can look for you!

Tuesday, July 12: Adventure Science Center

2011-07-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

After much debate and drawing several slips of paper from the Fun Jar, we have a destination for Tuesday: Adventure Science Center. I'll be honest and say this is not my favorite of Nashville's museums. This is largely because it's three levels and my three children invariably seem to head in three different directions (and because I'm an art geek and will always choose art over science). In regard to the former, this is the perfect week to visit because Anna will be away at camp, so I'll only have two Truss girls to keep tabs on. In regard to the latter, I may squeeze a trip to the Frist Center in soon. For now, would you care to join us Tuesday? It will be hot outside, but cool inside...

Where: Adventure Science Center (click for directions)
When: Tuesday, July 12, 10:00
How Much: This one's not cheap, friends; $12 adults, $10 for each child over the age of 2
Extras Include: Planetarium ($6 for each for all over the age of 2); there are shows at 11:30 and 1:30 that we can discuss as a group once we're there
Lunch: Pack your own and bring it with you; we can picnic together and then continue exploring or head home for nap time

Hope you can join us!

Change of Plans

2011-07-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

After a fun-filled but busy day yesterday with friends, we are not going to make it to Charlotte's Web today at Green Hills Regal.

Instead, we'll do a Fun Jar on Thursday since Bekah will be away at camp and there will be no piano lessons mid-day. Details to follow on what we'll do that day.

Tuesday, July 5 Fun & A Few Berry Recipes

2011-07-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Bekah is leaving for camp Tuesday mid-day, so we're going to keep Tuesday's fun short and sweet.

Regal Cinemas offers $1 movies every Tuesday and Wednesday. This week's showing at the Green Hills Cinema is Charlotte's Web (and Percy Jackson, but I hated that movie, so we won't be watching it!). The movie starts at 10:00 and should wrap up by noon or a bit earlier.

You can check out Regal's site for more information and to see the list for movies other weeks this summer.

Have a great 4th of July!

And if you went berry picking with us last Friday (or some other time on your own), here's a great recipe for blueberry salsa. I added one minced clove of garlic and used a mixture of blueberries and blackberries. I also made a blueberry, blackberry and (frozen) raspberry fruit crisp. Here's the recipe for that:

5+ cups of fruit, sweetened to taste
1 cup flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp baking soda
dash or two of cinnamon
dash nutmeg
dash ground ginger
1/2 cup butter, melted

Place berries in a greased 9 x 13 dish. Mix all remaining ingredients, adding melted butter last. Add to the top of berries. Bake at 400 for 40 minutes.

I also made Blackberry Lemonade and Blackberry Sweet Tea by pureeing the berries in the food processor and putting them through a strainer before adding them to fresh lemonade and iced tea.

Have a sweet 4th of July!

Blueberry Picking Friday, July 1

2011-06-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Berry Picking Two Years Ago

Want some fresh blueberries for those red, white and blue desserts on the 4th of July? Join us Friday to pick your own blueberries and/or blackberries at Bottom View Farm. For the past few years, my girls and I have enjoyed picking fresh berries. It's fun - and educational - for my city girls to spend a bit of time gathering their own berries for us to eat fresh, in blueberry salsa or as blackberry lemonade.

We have ballet at noon, so we're hoping to leave home by 8:30 to head to the farm. That should give us nearly two hours, which is, quite frankly, more time than my girls will spend picking berries. The farm opens at 7:00, so you are welcome to go earlier if that works better for your schedule.

Here are the details:

Where: Bottom View Farm
When: Friday, July 1, 9ish
Why: Food, Fun, Friends
How Long...
will the drive take: Google says 45 minutes from my house
will we pick berries: Until we need to leave at 11:00 for ballet

Questions? Leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.

Percy Priest Lake and Blueberry Picking

2011-06-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer at Percy Priest Lake

If you haven't been to Percy Priest Lake's beach area, you're missing out. This is one of our favorite Nashville summer spots. In my opinion, it's as close as you can get to the beach when you're 400 miles inland. There's sand, there's shade, there's water. And this Tuesday, there will be friends. So mark your calendar and join us!

Here are the details:

Driving directions can be found here or by mapping directions to 4010 Anderson Road, Nashville
Tuesday, June 28, we'll arrive between 10 and 11 and will stay until 3ish
Pack a lunch - there are no concession stands (but there are restrooms!)
Bring $4 cash for parking
Bring a blanket and/or chair for sitting, along with any sand or water toys (shovels, pails, floats, etc.)

Leave a comment if you need my cell number to find us when you arrive.

BLUEBERRY PICKING
Weather permitting, we'll go blueberry picking later in the week. Mornings are always best for this since we can pick before the mid-day heat arrives. Let me know if you have a preference for Thursday or Friday morning and I'll post in a few days with details and directions to a farm.

Extra Fun This Week

2011-06-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

In addition to this Tuesday's Fun Jar trip to the State Capitol (there's still room if you want to join us), we're doing some other fun things. You're welcome to join us on any or all of the following adventures:

Wednesday: Percy Priest Lake (Anderson Road Recreation Area)
$4 for parking, cash only
We'll arrive 2ish because of ballet beforehand, but feel free to get there early and picnic!
Click for directions

Thursday: A Child's Life in Japan at the Downtown Library
10:30 in the Craft Room
My 7, 9 and 11 year old children have (sadly) outgrown storytime, but this description sounds right up their alley: Experience a child’s life in Japan through slides, toys, school and sports equipment, origami, dress-up and a Japanese folktale.

Friday: Sweet Treats at Pinkberry
If you've never been, this is some of the best frozen yogurt in town.
We'll be heading there after ballet ends at 1:30 at Centennial Park.

Speaking of Centennial Park, Anna will have dance there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12:00 to 1:30. Let me know if you ever want to meet to play on their (nicely shaded) playground.

Tuesday, June 21: TN State Capitol Tour

2011-06-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

Kate is desperate to visit the Tennessee State Capitol, so we're heading there for our next Fun Jar event. Here are the details if you'd like to join us:

When: Tuesday, June 21:
10 AM State Capitol Tour
11 AM Hearth and Home Hands On Activity at TN State Museum
11:30 AM TN State Museum Scavenger Hunt

Cost: Free (unless you pay to park)

Optional: Pack a lunch to eat at Bicentennial Mall after the visit

A friend suggested we park at Bicentennial Mall (for free) and walk up the stairs to the capitol. This sounds like a great plan to me and we can cool off in the fountains if they're turned on that day.

If combining the museum with the capitol sounds like too much, just let me know. We were just there yesterday for the Egyptian Exhibit, so I'm on the fence as to whether I'd like to do both or just see the capitol and then head to the Farmer's Market and play at Bicentennial Mall. Your thoughts are welcome!

Hope you can join us!

Next Tuesday's Fun: Tennessee State Museum

2011-06-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

Today's Fun Jar selection was one of my entries for this summer: a trip to the Tennessee State Museum. Non-art museums aren't generally my favorite, but the current exhibit of Egyptian Relics looks fabulous. I think it will be great fun and great learning. (Plus we're studying Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece next year, so it ties in so very nicely.)

Even if you and your children aren't history buffs, the descriptions of mummification should be enough to get any boys in your family interested! I'll be creating a scavenger hunt for my children to do while we're at the museum and I'm happy to print extra copies if your child and/or family wants to complete one while we're there. The scavenger hunt will not be elaborate, but will hopefully help my children focus on some of the key things I want to be sure they notice.

Admission is free, but parking downtown can be expensive. My solution? We'll arrive early enough to park in the library parking lot and walk the three or four blocks to the museum. That way, we can piggy-back a library trip onto our museum visit. If you'd like to meet in the library lobby and walk over together, just let me know. Here are the details:

Where: Tennessee State Museum
When: Tuesday, June 14, 10 AM (or meet in downtown library lobby at 9:45)
How Much: Parking in a lot near the museum will probably run you $10; parking in the library lot with validation will be about $5
If you are so inclined: Pack lunch and we can picnic in the library courtyard before heading home

Let me know if you have any questions. Hope you can join us!

Friday's Sweet Treats: Marble Slab Creamery

2011-06-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

This week's sweet treats trip is a purely practical choice. I have a Groupon that's about to expire and want to use it! So we'll spend the morning at the pool and head to Marble Slab Creamery for an afternoon treat. Want to join us?

Friday, June 10, 3ish
Marble Slab Creamery, Hendersonville's Indian Lakes Shopping Center

If you're book fiends like we are in this family, you might want to stop in at Barnes and Noble post-ice cream... that's what we'll be doing.

Next Tuesday's Fun: Nashville Zoo

2011-06-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

Waiting to be filled with fun

During the last week of school, the girls and I made our lists of Fun Jar activities for the summer. We each got about 8 slips of paper to complete with our favorite summer destinations. Some places were listed by all four of us (the lake), some by only one (the State Capitol). But before we could put them in the bowl serving as our "jar" this year, we had to reassemble the paintings that were on the reverse side of our slips:

This morning we made our first drawing and we're heading to the zoo next Tuesday. Kate has a doctor's appointment that morning, so we'll arrive 11ish with lunch packed. We'll head straight to the playground to eat, play and meet up with anyone who can join us. If your morning is free, some of you may want to meet earlier and be near the end of your trip when you join us at the playground. Just leave a comment if you're coming and let me know in the comment if you don't have my cell number and need it. If you have a membership that includes a free pass you'd be willing to share, please indicate that. Our membership doesn't have any of the bells and whistles.

Here are the details summarized:

Where: Nashville Zoo, meet at playground
When: Tuesday, June 7, 11:00
Who: You, your friends, your family, anyone you want to invite
Other Info: Click here for directions, admissions and parking costs

Hope to see you soon!