Weekend Fun

This summer has been intense.  Like, I-need-a-vacation-from-my-summer-vacation intense.  Now, with the start of school for Sarah, and Will's and my return to school looming, 

weekdays are full of go-go-go and checking things off the to-do lists.  

So, this past weekend we decided to take it easy and let the kids decide what to do. 

 First up on Saturday: the Tomato Art Fest in East Nashville. 

This little festival, held in the dog days of summer over in the heart of  Five Points (I think that's what it's called), celebrates the tomato as "a uniter, not a divider", according to the slogan.  There's a 5K (totally skipped that), a parade, street vendors, and tons of *free* stuff for the kids to do.  Yay, free!

We started out by going all Jackson Pollock on a 

collaborative painting project with other pre-schoolers and barely-schoolers.

Then it was off to a local churchyard to get our bounce on and our hair did.

This is how Sarah rolls, tomato-style.

See the green stem?

                                                On a day like this, forget the pearls. 
                               A tomato-beaded necklace completes the look of any outfit.

Where was Will during all of this painting, hair-dying, and bedazzling? 

Conducting a Zagat survey of the bathrooms and scouting the free food. 

I'm telling you, the man doesn't play around when it comes to eating

After we got tired of the crafting and bouncing, we headed off to see what else there was to see and ended up following the fresh trail of Sno-Kones to the Y.  

Those clever people had games and activities inside, so we cooled off and one of us got a butterfly painted on her cheek, while a certain young man won an Angry Birds pencil by knocking some tomatoes off their stands.

Sno-Kones were had by all.  

And they were glorious.

This girl scored a whole lotta loot.

But, even at the laid-back Tomato Fest, we had appointments to keep.

Namely, with the World's Biggest Ice Cream Sundae.

At high noon, the good folks from one of the local ice cream parlors dished out about a zillion scoops of plain vanilla into two rain gutters.  

Kids lined the sides, armed with sprinkles, whipped cream, and syrups, and, 

at the Ice Cream Marshal's signal, started pouring on the toppings.

Sarah and Will chose not to contribute to the actual making of the sundae, 

but they were wholeheartedly involved in the eating of it.

The Fest was timed perfectly, since all other 

outdoor fun has been rained out for the past 3 weeks.

Seriously.  

Saturday was the one day that we actually saw the sun for more than 30 minutes.

On Sunday, Mike had to work and I had to meal-plan (ugh) and drag the kids to the grocery.  But, we threw in a little kid-driven fun by playing hooky from Sunday school 

and going to see Planes.

This was Will's first-ever trip to the movie theater, so it was kind of a big deal, 

and, to be honest, I was a little nervous.  The good thing was, we met up with some 

church-hooky-playing friends, so I had some mom-backup if I needed it.

I mean, the kid doesn't stay put during an episode of Ninjago, how was he going to do in a theater with other people around for over 90 minutes?   

 Thanks to a bucket of popcorn and some Capri Suns, he did great.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of everybody flying around, arms outstretched afterwards, but that photo is going to have to stay loaded in my mental camera.

Our friend snapped this shot of my country girl playing

 "Buck Shot Masters" or something, though, so enjoy.