The Lake this Friday

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.

Tuesday, July 26 Trip to the Lake

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

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

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

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

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

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.

This Week's Fun

Sorry I've been remiss in posting activities.  I've had the energy to do fun things with my girls, but haven't had the energy to plan in advance!  I'll try to turn that around in the limited time we have available before school starts.

Today:
I know it's short notice, but if you have no plans, we're taking a picnic lunch and heading to Sevier Park.  Kate desperately wants to have a picnic lunch and I figure following up lunch with Las Paletas is never a bad thing... So join us if you see this post in time.

Wednesday:
We'll head to the zoo tomorrow.  We missed the African animals last time we were there, so we'll start there and then meander our way around.  My girls have been sleeping in this summer, so I think we'll arrive around 9:30ish.  Anything else is just a pipe dream... and I may have to push to make it out the door by 9:00!

Friday:
Friday is the only day this week that doesn't call for rain in the forecast, so we'll head to the lake again.  My daughters have been addicted to the lake this summer and want to spend as much time there as possible before school starts back up.  E-mail me if you need directions or more info.

A Different Kind of Fun

The Chihuly exhibit at Cheekwood was beautiful.  It was lovely to see glass art that mimics nature installed at a botanical garden.  It enhanced both the gardens and the glass to see them together.  My girls had so much fun - fun playing with friends, fun taking pictures of the glass art, fun running around the gardens.  I had fun, too - hanging out with women that I don't always get to see and seeing my favorite Cheekwood installation so far (even better than the fairy tale houses).

I also realized that coming to Cheekwood with a larger group is a different experience than bringing just my daughters or my daughters plus a friend or two.  Walking through the gardens with a larger group requires more coordination, more patience, a slower pace and more compromise.  All of this is fine with me, but was challenging for my 8 year old, B.  The very things that I love most about her - her bold spirit, her curiosity, her independence - make it difficult for her to navigate group dynamics. 

Actually, it makes it difficult for me to navigate group dynamics with her along.  She just does things the way she always does them, regardless of who is with her.  Therein lies the problem.  While I don't mind letting B walk along the edge of the pond, leap from one side to the other or dip her fingers and toes into to water, she's not the ideal role model for a two year old.  When we're at Cheekwood with a smaller group, it's easier to manage B's desire to leap from one thing to the next.  But with a larger group, it's tough to keep up with her.  She's not being bad.  She's not being disobedient.  She's just curious at a faster pace than most of us.

As I decompressed from a fun, but tiring day, it occurred to me that learning to navigate group dynamics is yet another benefit of the Fun Jar.  It helps a strong and curious child like B begin to understand that sometimes in order to be around others, you have to let someone else lead once in a while.  B would tell you that she doesn't want to be a leader and I've told her that's too bad because she is one anyway.  The difference is that she leads because she knows exactly what she wants, not because she cares whether anyone else follows.  There's value in that, without a doubt.  I love that she knows her heart and follows it.  But I want her to be comfortable in a group.  I want those in a group with her to be comfortable.  So it's wise to spend part of our summer with new and old friends learning the art of compromise while admiring the art around us.

Chihuly at Cheekwood on Friday, July 9

I must admit I was all set to draft a different post.  One of our favorite Fun Jar activities for several years has been berry picking.  For the first time this year, we picked strawberries in late May and it made me excited to pick blackberries and blueberries in July, as we have for the last four or five years. And then I remembered that I have no kitchen.  No kitchen sink to wash berries in.  No countertops to hold a blender for whipping up some blackberry lemonade.  My heart sank.  I paused mid-post and took a bit of a breather.

Should we pick berries anyway?  How important is it to the girls?  I checked the weather.  Friday's forecast calls for a high of 86 (relatively mild this time of year) with a chance of thunderstorms.  We could go to Cheekwood instead to see the Chihuly installation...  that's been high on my priority list, but the weather and our availability haven't worked together.  But again I asked myself what the girls would prefer.  I was an art history major in college - I can't wait to see this exhibit - but is it how they would choose to spend Friday?

Apparently it is. I checked with Anna and Bekah about berry picking versus Chihuly and they chose Chihuly.  I'm both relieved and sad.  I do want fresh berries, even if I have no idea what I'll do with them once I have them...  Instead, we'll spend Friday doing something equally fun - seeing fabulous glass art by the man who is the most talented glass artist alive.  Here are the details:

What: Chihuly at Cheekwood

When: 10 - mid afternoon (we'll bring a picnic lunch)

Where: Park in the first lot on your left or in the top lot by the Frist Learning Center, where you can grab a Backpack Adventure kid that up to three kids can use. E-mail me at shannontruss@yahoo.com for my cell number if you don't have it because it will probably be easiest to find each other if you call when you arrive.

Cost: $15 adults, $8/child ages 6 - 17; memberships are $75 and the CitiPass book has a coupon ($10 off?  $20 off?  I can't remember) that can be used for new members

If you aren't familiar with Cheekwood, I can tell you that it's a place I love because it's not a "stay on the path" kind of botanical gardens.  My girls get to really explore while they're there and I don't feel like I have to constantly tell them to stop touching.  We all tend to leave tired but in a "we had a great time" kind of way, not a "wow - that was no fun for anyone" kind of way.

If you aren't familiar with Dale Chihuly and his art, check out the Cheekwood link or go to this site that has some great images of the art you'll see.  I also recommend the artist's site, which has great images of his art.

And if you're more interested in picking berries than seeing glass art (no hard feelings), here's a berry farm that looks great. If you go on a day other than Friday, let us know.  Maybe I'll just wash berries in the bathroom sink or something...

Railpark and Train Museum Groupon

Today's Nashville Groupon is for the Historic Railpark and Train Museum in Bowling Green. For just $5, I can take all three of my daughters (since they're all under 12). It's worth the gas to BG to spend a hot day inside seeing trains.

Want to join us? Get your Groupon and we'll hit the road sometime in July.