Surprise Party on the Big Love Bus!!!

Its not every day that you turn...38??? Every birthday should be celebrated. At our house, we tend toward birthday week and sometimes even birthday month. Why not do it up Big Love Bus style?  

I was contacted by the best friend of a Nashville gal to set up a surprise 38th birthday party. She had he inside track on the Big Love Bus because she happens to be the fantastically beautiful and smart Renee Sprouse, the driving force behind Big Love Bus Knoxville. Obviously I wanted to help her out and make this surprise party great. Anyway, her friend's husband wanted a hand in putting together something special for his gal, and I was glad to oblige. I was able to put together a list of suggestions for stops and after a few emails back and forth a plan was formulated. 

Renee and her super sweet familly.

The plan was fairly simple. Gather a bunch of friends at someone's house for birthday snacks and drinks under the guise of a fairly simple party, then BAM...hit em with the Big Love Bus pulling up to the curb- music blaring, lights flashing, beads swinging, and load everyone on board for a night of fun. Surprise party awesomeness!!!

The bus was set to arrive at the house at 8:00 p.m.  When it arrived we built in time for the obligatory photo session and loading of all the party goodies and drinks on to the bus.  I'm pretty sure there were shots involved as I found quite a few leftover tiny plastic cups when I cleaned the bus.  If that isn't the case, then this group of folks really had some fresh breath and spent most of their time on the bus swishing mouthwash.  

From the pickup location, the bus travelled up to Love Circle for cupcakes and a view of the city.Side note from Glenn, the bus will not travel to Love Circle again any time soon...at least at dark...seems that the road is a bit, well, tight, for the bus...ahem.). The view of our Nashville, however, is stunning.

After slowly and somewhat painfully manuevering down from Love Circle, the bus meandered through the city streets of Nashville, taking in some of the sights before making several pit stops (read bushes) and eventually hitting up Rumours East.  

The carefully crafted itinerary went out the window from there as the party goers made some changes.  All in the name of fun, of course. After cruising around some more, visiting Sambuca, The 404, making a few more bathroom stops, the party goers were having a blast. In fact, the bus actually loved Rumours so much, they went twice! Can't say I blame them, it is really a neat spot and is beautiful this time of year when the trees are getting their new pretty, green leaves.


At that point, I think everyone at the party had enjoyed a few special drinks from small plastic cups like the ones pictured.  There was also a pink boa involved.  A month later, we might still be findin' pink boa feathers on the bus. Luckily, with a safe driver in charge, everyone was delivered home safely, happy from a night of celebrating a good friend on a cool bus.  Great memories!  Happy birthday Ree!

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!