Greetings from Omaha! We extended our 4th of July celebration into the weekend as some of my husband’s family was in town. We spent A LOT of time around the pool, soaking up the sun and swimming with the girls! We decorated our yard with Brittany’s fun yard stars, AND Lily lost her second front tooth! We’ve been keeping the Tooth Fairy busy!
My sister-in-law Lori and her husband celebrated their ten year wedding anniversary on Saturday evening. She planned a perfect beach theme party complete with a walking taco bar, and refreshing vodka + fruit lemonades. Maeve had three cupcakes!
Happy Anniversary!Cupcake monster
I made two recipes this weekend to share! I copied Emily and made her cold, delicious cucumber salad. So easy, fresh and colorful!
Fresh mozzarella, cucumber, tomato, your favorite Italian dressing, salt + pepper!
I also made pink champagne Jell-O shots for the anniversary party. I used a recipe I found on Pinterest and will post the link below. They were a hit! I found the star toothpicks and sprinkles on Amazon!
June is zipping by so quickly with the kids’ summer programs and lots of trips to the pool!
This week, my girlfriends and I celebrated our beautiful friend Michelle’s birthday with dinner and dessert at one of our favorite locally owned restaurants, Table 128, and another local fave, Trostel’s Dish, for a nightcap. Love these girls!
The next day, the girls and I got a good workout in at Lifetime, then had a pool date all day with allllllllll the kiddos! It was my favorite day of this summer so far! The kids all kept each other so busy and we enjoyed the beautiful weather with mimosas and plenty of good poolside snacks! I think we all felt like we were on vacation-mode for the day!
The kids and I have been spending a lot of time in the sun, so I restocked my favorite sunscreen for our beach bag. I keep Sun Bum shampoo and conditioner in our kids’ bathroom and in our beach bag and try to get them to rinse the chlorine off their hair shortly after swimming. Pro tip: apply conditioner to kids’ hair before playing in the pool, so their hair absorbs the conditioner and NOT the pool chemicals that end up making their silky hair turn crunchy or green. Sun Bum just smells like summer! I also added the Sun Bum Sunscreen Coconut Lip Balm to my Target store pick-up order this week and can’t wait to try it!
After a busy week of swimming and activities, we had a few cloudy hours and decided to make a little pillow and blanket fort for some downtime with movies and popcorn! We also put new batteries in our old friends, Violet and Scout, that the kids have had since they were babies. Teddy and Cate have been taking them everywhere again now–so cute!
On Saturday night, Tim and I had a surprise birthday party for his friend (and boss) Brent! My mom offered to have Clare, Cate and Teddy over for a slumber party at her house. She always makes even the smallest get together feel special and the kids were so excited. Mom always makes every detail so pretty.
After dropping the kids off, Tim and I headed over to the party and we had a blast! Brent was completely surprised and Esther had tons of delicious food and desserts for the celebration! I didn’t get a picture with the birthday boy, but lucky for Tim, I did have him take a picture of what I wore. Our husbands are all really enjoying their new jobs as photographers so we can share our outfits with you guys!
On Sunday, Tim and I enjoyed a relaxing Father’s Day morning by sleeping in and drinking our coffee before it got cold! Then we went to pick up the kiddos from Nanny’s house. They had made Daddy lots of homemade cards and wrapped his presents themselves!
Leftover piece of Casey’s cheese pizza for Daddy from Teddy
We also discovered a little family of cardinals living in our playset!
…and we got in a couple of hours at the pool!
That evening, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s to celebrate all of the great Heaston dads. My mother-in-law and niece had baked lots of homemade desserts and we brought over one of Tim’s favorites, a key lime pie! My mother-in-law, Ramona, is from Puerto Rico and she had made coquito using a recipe from one of her favorite cookbooks!
I’m thankful for a happy and sunny summer weekend with special girlfriends, healthy family, and a day dedicated to the best husband and daddy I know!
Thank you so much for joining us here on ClearLakeCousins.com. We are having so much fun doing this together and we’re learning so much along the way. Make sure to check out our new Shop page–we’ll be updating it as we find cute new items for ourselves and our kids. As Annie said, “I always feel like I need to save my cute outfits and this is giving me permission to wear my cute stuff on normal days!” We all agreed! So thanks for giving us an excuse to get a little more fancied up than usual!
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads in our lives! We’ve compiled our favorite gift ideas for dads, grandads, husbands or anyone who has been a father figure to you. Brian, Ryan, Tim, Skip and Uncle Butter – I know you guys hang out on our blog all day long but you’re going to have to wait until June 16th to come back to this post 😉
Hi all! Emma here with a special Memorial Day weekend recap. I decided to go ahead and make my long weekend a little longer by heading home to Long Beach, California on Wednesday night. Because… treat yo self! My cousin and roommate, Frances, and I traveled to go visit my parents in California.
When I visit home, I make sure to stop at all my favorite places and even try some new ones. We decided to start off the weekend with a delicious lunch at one of our go to spots Belmont Brewing Company right on the water in Long Beach. My mom, Frances, and I continued the ocean-side fun later that day with drinks at Ballast Point. My beer of choice was The Sour Wench Blackberry Ale which is by far the prettiest beer I have ever had.
I continued my food tour on Friday trying some new places. I am very much a can’t do anything without coffee in my system kind of gal, and always on the lookout for fun new coffee shops. My dad and I had a coffee date at Lord Windsor coffee shop in Long Beach. We shared scones and stories and I had the most delicious oat milk latte. Later that evening we ventured down to Santa Monica and got happy hour drinks at a rooftop bar called ONYX. This bar sits atop the historic Shangri-La hotel right across the street from the beach. Safe to say I think I have found some new favorite spots to visit.
I had the pleasure of attending the Ben Platt concert at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Friday May 24th and this may or may not be the real reason we were visiting. Ben Platt has quite the voice, he can hit notes that make my head hurt just thinking about them. He is incredibly talented but I particularly enjoyed the atmosphere he created. I was in the very back row but felt so pulled in and a part of everything that was happening. We danced, we cried, we wondered how Ben Platt is single, and we confirmed he is a gift from God. He shared stories and gave hope and encouraged us all to strive to be our most authentic self. He talked openly about his journey, his anxiety, his sexuality, his family, and his faith. These are the themes that are so beautifully strung through his music, and as he sang and shared, a sense of comradery filled the room. Everyone could relate to him in some way and for me it was through his song ” In Case You Don’t Live Forever” which struck a chord in my heart as I looked down through my new teal vans and heard the lyrics “I have a hero whenever I need one, I just look up to you and I see one” I thought of my little sister cousin and how she too created a world for everyone to feel welcome, to connect.
After a lovely relaxing few days with family and friends I waved goodbye to gorgeous Southern California and the ocean and headed back to Denver.
Memorial Day is typically a day off people take to relax, well we did the opposite. We gathered 11 runners to participate in the Bolder Boulder which is a Memorial Day 10K that takes place in Boulder, Colorado. We ran for #MilesforMollie sharing in something she loved and challenging ourselves at the same time. It was definitely a challenge and at times a literal uphill battle. My boyfriend Dylan and I ran as best we could but at the same time stopped and engaged with the live bands and race-watchers handing out Doritos to runners. We even saw Elvis and a Pirate! We wanted to take it all in, running, sharing kindness, and having a good ole time just as Mollie would’ve. I didn’t think I could cross the finish line, but I did! When I crossed I saw my family cheering me on in the bleachers and I was overwhelmed with joy and relief. I think we should all do something that scares us, challenges us, do something because someone inspired you to do it.
After a jam packed 5 day weekend of good food and good company I am going to rest my noodle legs!
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