LC got a set of new wheels and we’ve been having so much fun biking all around our neighborhood! We are also looking forward to trying out some of Nashville’s favorite bike trails soon.
Shop our bikes
Where to ride in Nashville
Nashville Bike Trails
Easter Lunch To-Go
Easter will look different this year as we aren’t able to gather with family and friends, attend church or participate in large egg hunts but we can still make a sweet celebration.
The following restaurants are providing Easter meals to go.
- Firebirds
- Loveless Café offering 10% off Easter Hams + Sides through Wed. 4/8
- Martin’s BBQ
- J Alexanders
- Stoney River
- Barbara’s Home Cooking
- Greer’s Tennessee Country Ham
- Puffy Muffin
- Pork Belly Farmhouse
- Circa
- Del Friscos
- Frankie’s (Spring Hill)
- Char
- Morton’s
- Granite City
- Easter Bundle from Southern Baked Pie and Callie’s Biscuits
- Fresh Market
- Honey Baked Ham
- Bishop’s
- Tennessweet Food Company Offering a Bunny Brunch
- Arnold’s Country Kitchen
- Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen
- Cracker Barrel
- Merridees
- Tazikis
- O’Charleys
- Ruby Sunshine Offering Family Pancake Kits and more
If you’re looking for items for Easter baskets, here is my Shop Small for Easter Guide.
I grabbed some cute Easter paper plates and napkins from Hot Pink Gifts in Brentwood. Rock Paper Scissors, Sugar Drop and Tin Cottage also fun Easter goodies and home décor.
Hope that you all have a wonderful Easter celebration. Please tag me on social media with your Easter festivities and I’ll share.
How to Celebrate a Birthday Party during Covid-19
My son had a milestone birthday recently, turning double digits! I was so disappointed that his birthday party was cancelled but we made the most of it making special memories at home. Here are a few ways to celebrate birthdays at home during the quarantine.
Sign Gypsies added a fun birthday message to our front yard! It was so fun to have and all the cars who passed by honked!
Balloons
We filled the house with balloons! The kids played so many games (balloon baseball, balloon volleyball, drew faces on them) and were entertained! Luckily, we had a few packs of Dollar Store balloons on hand and our balloon pump. Rock Paper Scissors and Vroom Vroom Balloon will also deliver balloons.
AR Workshop Franklin have DIY make and take kits for kids and adults. These kits come with all the needed materials and instructions. We loved making the Easter signs and tote bag! Check out their website with all the details.
Simple Games
We played limbo, soccer in the front yard and balloon toss. If it’s warm, you could also do a “Pool Party” with a blow up pool, popsicles and water balloons.
Cake and Ice Cream
Grab a pre-made cake and ice cream cups at the grocery store or have the kids help you make your own. We grabbed this springy bowls, a carton of ice cream and our favorite toppings to make ice cream sundaes.
Fill Up The Mailbox
I asked friends and family from all over to send a note to Owen in the mail. He loved receiving handmade cards from friends! It was so fun to have a big stack of notes to open!
Sign up for a virtual painting class with Brooke Ring. She will lead you through what materials you’ll need and step by step through the instructions.
Even though his birthday party was cancelled, I think Owen had a memorable birthday and enjoyed the simple things! Happy Birthday to everyone out there celebrating during this quarantine.
Nashville at Home Weekend Happenings
Join Dolly weekly starting Thursday, April 2nd at 6 p.m. central time on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram for a 10 week series as she reads one story from Imagination Library. You can also find free printable activities on the website to coordinate with the story. This week’s is The Little Engine That Could. Dolly’s hope is to provide comfort and reassurance to children and families during the shelter-in-place mandates.
Children can create Easter craft projects with A.R. Workshop’s to-go kits including wooden blocks, a tote bag and a wooden sign. There are additional printables for your celebration that can be purchased as well. Brushes, materials, paint and instructions included.
Driving through the Tennessee Safari Park has been the highlight of our “quarantine”. We wore pjs, packed lunches and snacks, turned on The Lion King soundtrack and drove through miles of safari roads. Read about our trip here.
Our family had a tie dye t-shirt party! We took our mess outside and made some cute t-shirts to wear! We found this kit on Amazon and it comes with easy DIY instructions and materials for 36 projects.
Pull out the baby pools, turn on the water hose and sprinklers on a sunny day for a fun outdoor “pool party”. And if you want to make the celebration even sweeter, grab a carton of ice cream and favorite topping on your next grocery run. These spring tulip shaped bowls inspired our ice cream party.
Breakout Games have virtual offerings including some free games
I’m sharing this post with some of my favorite Easter and spring goodies from local shops
If you’re looking for an online community, great book recommendations and fun meet ups (when we are able to), come join us!
Get Outside
- There’s never been a better time to get outside and enjoy fresh air and any sunshine that we can. Here a few ideas on places around Middle Tennessee for hikes, nature walks and explorations.
- Radnor Lake
- Edwin Warner
- Timberland Park
- Natchez Trace-Jackson Falls, Garrison Creek
- Percy Warner
- Falls Creek Falls
- Cummins Falls
- Stillhouse Falls
- Harpeth River State Park
- *Tennessee State Parks are open are free of charge
Find some of Nashville’s best fishing holes here
Check out ways to workout out virtually from home
Support Small Businesses and Restaurants: How to help our local businesses, shops and restaurants
Making The Most of the Quarantine: Resources for “Homeschool”, Kid-friendly activities and ideas for self-care
Making Quarantine Sweeter Survival Kit
The past month or so has been quite the whirlwind. We’ve gone from living our normal day to day routines to being quarantined at home, working and homeschooling our children and if we see people, we must remain 6 feet away from them. While it has been overwhelming and very difficult, the slower, quieter days with our families have been a nice change. We are trying to enjoy these days at home and make the most of them. Here are a few ways we are surviving.
Making the Days Sweeter
My kids have always begged me to homeschool them. Well, now’s their chance and they aren’t so sure about mom being their teacher! While I’m a former teacher, I don’t remember having to bribe my former students. However, I’m all about rewarding my kids with sweet treats like Tastykake for doing their best on school work. Our favorites are the powdered sugar mini donuts but we’ve been inspired by the Tastykake Kitchen and diy recipes like Spring Mini Donut Bouquet.
Getting Creative and Crafty
We have set up a creative corner with construction paper, stickers, coloring sheets and our favorite pens, erasable markers and juice paint markers.
The kids and I are obsessed with the vibrant Frixion Color Marker Pens and the fact they are erasable! We are journaling each day with our favorite pens to capture the memories from this unique time in our lives. I’m trying to plan a few fun crafts throughout the week, including painting kindness rocks with our juice paint markers to add to our garden.
Kids in the Kitchen
There are so many life lessons to be learned in the kitchen. Children can practice their reading, math and science skills all while mixing and measuring ingredients in recipes.
This girl has a huge sweet tooth and is always a willing chef’s assistant! Our afternoons baking together have been a highlight of the past few weeks. We used Domino Golden Sugar, which is a less-processed sugar with a hint of molasses to make chocolate chunk cookies.
These chocolate chunk cookies were some of the best we have ever made! Domino Sugar also has some great diy sugar scrub recipes to add to your self-care routine.
What’s in your survival kit?
Tennessee Safari Park
We took a “Quarantine” Field Trip to Alamo, Tennessee to explore the Tennessee Safari Park, which about 2 hours from Nashville. We packed lunches, snacks, Clorox wipes and wore our pajamas since we would be staying in the car. Of course, we did have to stop for the restroom but went in the great outdoors!
The Safari Park features 5.5 miles of Safari Roads which you stay in your own car to interact and feed animals. You can purchase feed buckets (or cups) with admission.
We saw camels, buffalo, ostrich, zebra, llamas, hogs, a variety of deer and antelope and a giraffe. It was so much fun getting up close and personal with these creatures.
These camels were a sight to see! They came right up to the car for a snack! However, they did like to stand in front of cars creating a traffic jam!
The squeals, smiles and laughter were much needed! My kids were a little afraid of the large animals coming to their windows but quickly warmed up.
“Oh hello, big guy!” It’s just not everyday that you have one of these looking for a take out treat!
This pretty guy was one of our favorites! We named him “Oreo”. He was very soft!
We drove through the park for about 2 hours with no complaints from our kids! We turned on the Lion King soundtrack and it felt like we were transported out of Tennessee into a safari in Africa! The park also has a walk through zoo, playground and concessions area that would be fun to explore when social distancing is not an issue.
We drove through the tiny town of Alamo and found this cute mural!
If you’re interested in visiting the Tennessee Safari Park, here are a few tips.
- Take cash as they do not accept credit or debit cards
- Bring hand sanitizer
- Expect to be in your own for a while (it took us 2 hours to drive through) and have everyone use the bathroom before starting your journey into the safari drive. (You cannot get out of your cars)
- An ostrich accidentally nibbled on my daughter’s fingers so be careful when feeding them.
- The park is open 7 days a week with varying hours. Check their website for details. The park is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Check the website during increment weather.