Party till ya hang out the windows...an amazing 10th birthday!

I have always loved birthday parties.  Well, except the all-mighty, seemingly mandatory goody bag.  That's a topic for another day though.  The timing of the launch of big love bus happened to coincide with our oldest daughter's 10th birthday. Like most kids her age, she had talked about her birthday for what seemed like months.  First she wanted a skating party, then a cooking party, then a giant sleepover, then it was back to skating.  I would always just nod and smile and say, "ok sweetheart, let's just wait until we get closer to make a real decision."  Then it dawned on me.  We could use the bus for her party! It would be a great way to see if kids liked the bus, would give us an opportunity to drive it around town and really test it out, and it would be fun.  Seemed like a natural fit for a 10-year old who sings and dances ALL. THE. TIME.

She invited her entire basketball team along with a few other girls from school, her younger sister (and a friend), and her two young cousins (one of whom brought a friend).  I think in total we had 18 girls and 7 adults.  The birthday girls' Daddy and Uncle C were the only men involved.  

We met at a central location, loaded up the bus, and took off with the tunes pumping.  The birthday girl took the time to create her own party playlist with songs from One Direction, Katy Perry, Pharell, Lorde, and others.  

 

Daddy and Daughter stop for a squeeze.

We cruised around for a bit before heading into Green Hills to the Sugar Dive, literally a sweet little store smack dab in the middle of shopping central.  Before we just showed up with twenty or so guests, we called ahead and talked to one of the owners, Carissa Pereira.  She was MORE than happy to accomodate the Big Love Bus and even offered to put out cones to assure we had a place to land! 

Gift card "goody" bags.

Sugar Dive & Big Love Parking only!

Each party goer got a $5 gift card to get good and sugared up. This was plenty of money to spend...most girls actually walked away with money left on their cards!  (The staff was especially patient as nearly every girl calculated exactly how much they could buy with their money).  

Everybody all sugared up!

Once the girls were good and sugared up, most with ice cream and at least one other kind of candy, we hopped back into the bus for a short ride to Dragon Park near Vanderbilt.  The perfect spot for a lot of cute pictures and a great way to run off that sugar high...for free. Here, the girls donned fuzzy pink mustaches, supplied by always cool Aunt C, and spent some time running up and down a hill and climbing all over the cool dragon. 

After about thirty minutes of blowing off steam, and practicing "fierce" poses (I had no idea what this was and had to ask the kids), we rounded all the girls up for the ride back to the meeting spot.  

Once they boarded the bus, they helped themselves to fizzy lemonade, ate love-bus shaped sugar cookies, and took turns singing their favorite songs.  I was totally amazed at how they each took turns being the center of attention.  They really listened to each other sing.  It was a really sweet moment during the party.  



After wearing out their vocal chords they finally asked why there were several boxes of chalk on the bus.  The ENTIRE ceiling is covered with chalkboard paint! So, of course they broke out the sidewalk chalk to write all over the ceiling!  

As we rounded the corner into the parking lot, the girls were hanging out the window screaming about what fun they'd had to all the parents and siblings there to pick up their girls.  

According to the birthday girl, "This [was] the BEST DAY of my life!"  I said, "no, this was great fun, but the BEST is yet to come."  Happy birthday darling! 

"There's no where you can be that isn't where you're meant to be." - John Lennon

I mentioned before, and I'll probably mention it another hundred times, but we've been SO blessed in the short time we've been on this journey to build and launch the love bus business.

For almost 13 years, I've spent my days in a windowless office, pouring over the Tennessee Code Annotated and criminal trial transcripts.  A far cry from hawking a love bus.  Just when I wondered what I was going to be when I grew up, this opportunity came along and landed in my lap.  

I didn't know the first thing about buses, the transportation industry, or business.  Was I crazy? Probably.  But it sounded so fun, and frankly, so "me."

When we finally got ready to hire some drivers, I had no clue where to look.  One day, as I was pouring over a 3000+ page transcript, a coworker came into my office and asked me if I had a minute to chat.  I had casually mentioned the bus to him one day in the office kitchen as he heated his sandwich.  He proceeded to tell me about a friend of his, a local school bus driver, who just might be a natural fit for the big love bus.  I had no idea how right he was!

He contacted his friend, via facebook, and we were quickly connected in cyberspace.  Not only did this guy drive a school bus, but he was a city councilman, perpetual community volunteer, purveyor of natural health, beauty aid, herbal, and other alternative health products (Nature's Glen), and he was raised on The Farm.  He even writes a blog about his Buscapades...talk about fate!  I couldn't imagine a person more suited to drive this hippy dippy, funky love bus!

Well, if possible, he's even better in person.  He's knowledgeable, funny, can rock a tie dyed tshirt, knows a TON of friendly folks, and manuveres the bus throughout Nashville with ease. Meet Nashville's first driver - Glenn Remick!  

Big Love Manifesto

What is Big Love Bus all about? Take a gander at our Manifesto. Words to live by...and spread the love.

Designed by Bone Dust Designs

all you need is love...

Right?  Isn't that what we've heard? Love, love, love, da da duh duh duh....  I'd love to tell you it was just that easy! Have a neat idea, plant it in some soil like a plant, care for it, and watch it grow.  Truth is, big love bus has been cultivatin' for a few years.  I think we've actually gone pretty quickly from concept to reality but it has been much more a labor of love than any of us ever imagined.  

What did we have in mind? A platform for Sprouse and Neuhoff to expand their love of fun and great photography to Tennessee, a fun way to spend time with friends, a blank canvas for a young artist, a new way to see the great state of Tennessee, a vehicle, literally, that would allow us to give back to the community, oh, and a way to make a little spendin' money in the process.  Sounds great, right? Well, it is not quite as easy as getting a bunch 'o folks together, throwing them on a bus with a driver, and having a ball.  We've had to learn all about licensing and regulations and compliance, and...well, no reason to bore you with all the legal stuff....

What we never anticipated was the outpouring of support and love from nearly everyone we met along the way from concept to reality.  You see, its hard to talk to people about the big love bus without them gettin' a smile on their face.  It either totally takes them by surprise or slowly creeps across their face as they realize how cool this whole thing is going to be.  

What do we want out of this? We really do want to spread the love.  We want big love bus to be fun and funky, but we are super passionate about giving back to our communities and the people that have helped us along the way.  We're all in this great big world together, after all.  We will share more cool stories about the creation of the big love bus along the way.  Stay tuned, but in the mean time #spreadthelove.