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By MAIA BRONFMAN

NATCHEZ — The Sugar and Spice Sparkle Bar on Wheels is meant to delight little girls.

Zadier Thomas, the owner and founder, with help from Natchez High School student Harmonie Washington, hosts workshops and parties for elementary and junior-high school aged girls in the converted bus.

Thomas said the business began forming in 2018, when she started a website and decided on a name. Sugar and Spice came from her nickname for her twin daughters, Madisyn and Harleigh Bassett.

David Vasquez of Climb Entertainment in Georgia, who Thomas found through the game buses he’d designed, designed the bus. Vasquez drew the designs and then built them out, and Thomas received the completed bus on June 15, 2021.

The opening was delayed until August because she had to go to Pearl to have the exterior of the bus wrapped. That meant missing the intended deadline, which was Harleigh and Madisyn’s birthday, June 16.

“Imagine my disappointment, but I had overcome the biggest challenge by getting the buildout completed and delivered to Natchez,” Thomas said.

Madisyn and Harleigh said their favorite parts of the bus are the makeup and nail stations.

The spa offers waffle knit or silk robes, non-alcoholic bubbly juice in champagne flutes, pedicures and foot soaks — supplied by an in-bus hot water heater and pump — facemasks, and a mini makeover station.

The bus is also equipped with a television and sound system, for video and audio entertainment.

“It is our practice to treat all guests as if they are royalty,” Thomas said.

Thomas has always hosted extravagant birthday parties for her kids while being a human resources director for Jefferson County Schools as a day job. For her son, Avery Fleming’s, 10^th birthday she said she hosted a nerf war.

“I enjoy being crafty. I get a thrill out of creating things, that’s my happy place,” Thomas said

In between party bookings, Thomas said she also offers self-care workshops. A few weeks ago she was in Jackson for a workshop with the SHE Project, intended to support girls’ leadership and empowerment.

She hosted her twins’ birthday celebration in the bus early this year, because she’s going to Washington, D.C., on July 16 for a One Million Black Woman Black in Business conference hosted by Goldman Sachs.

She said she would use the marketing and financial training she will get to expand to a franchise with bigger buses.

“The goal is to move from founder to CEO,” Thomas said.