Nashville's Tomato Art Festival

As we planned our trip up to Nashville, my mom mentioned that we would be in town for the annual Tomato Art Festival. Yep, they have an entire day and an entire festival dedicated to the tomato. I knew it was bound to be tons of fun. We woke up Saturday morning and walked the couple of blocks over to the festival, of course in proper shirts that would pay homage to the tomato.

I will say that my mom had the material in her grand arsenal of fabric. How handy!

Off we go~

The festival was lots of fun. It kicked off with a "parade" that was lead by a New Orleans-type jazz band. For this event, "parade" is defined as a group of people who follow behind the band walking down the street. We jumped right in as it passed by. We took some time to enjoy the wonderful music as the band hit the main stage.

The streets were filled with vendors of all kinds. It was amazing to see the creativity! There was one corner that was dedicated to kid activities.

There was an inflatable jumpy house which our kids greatly enjoyed.

They had a spot to spray paint the kids' hair (red and green only of course).

There was even a cute craft section where the kids could make tomato puppets.

We grabbed a popsicle and headed back to the main stage. My sister had a good friend performing and we didn't want to miss it. Her band, Coal Train Railroad, was amazing. It is a great mix of kid music in jazz form. It's one of those kid CDs that I wouldn't mind listening to over and over. Their songs included titles like My Bellybutton Stays the Same, What's Mine is Yours and Just the Juice, Jack. So fun to listen to and dance to.

The only bad thing was the heat. After being out in it for a few hours, we needed a break. We headed back to my parents' home for some lunch and much appreciated air conditioning. A couple hours later, we all headed back out to the festival. We couldn't pass up this photo opportunity~

We also couldn't pass up enjoying a huge snowball. Shaved and flavored ice on a hot day was a necessity.

The kids even were given a special tomato treat - yummy sugar cookies in the shape of (of course) tomatoes.

What a great (and interesting) way to spend a Saturday.