Westside Dance Academy

By: Emily Heaston

I got a head start on the weekend by kicking things off Wednesday with a pool day with my girlfriends & our little buddies! When I got home, the cutest early birthday surprise arrived in the mail from Nicole!

That night, I met my girls for dinner at Lucca & drinks at The Republic–a good excuse to wear a cute new dress & earrings!

Thursday, Clare got to have her girlfriend over for a playdate! Kids begged to go to Backyard Adventures & Rita’s!

After Tim got done with work, we took the kids to the ITAgroup Summer Celebration–the kids had a ball with inflatables, face painting, carnival games, pizza & popsicles! The big kids had fun too!!!

On Friday, Nicole, Lily & Maeve came from Omaha! We hit the pool for lunch & swimming, then had to take all 5 kids to HyVee. I think we’re both still recovering from all the kids wanting to push the little green grocery carts! HyVee, I’m begging you to make those disappear!

On Friday night, Clarebear had her dance team tryout! These cuties have been working hard and are so excited for the upcoming year of competition dance!

Friday night was also Tim’s favorite night of the year–when 80-35 kicks off in downtown Des Moines! This music festival is his first baby. He was on the board of directors for years and years as they founded the festival and we’ve had so much fun the past 12 years working on set-up, hospitality, tear-down, fundraising, and meeting incredible artists! We have so much hometown pride for this event which is hosted every summer by the Des Moines Music Coalition + over 500 community volunteers! Tim had a blast this year and took some highlight pictures from Friday night.

Saturday, Nicole and I were up bright and early to hit Yoga + Gallery Talk at the Des Moines Art Center with Good Vibes instructor Ben Spellman!

After yoga, it was time to load up the kids for swimming lessons and afterward we hit up LifeTime Poolapalooza for a little bit! Kids loved seeing the mermaids, playing with friends, and Clare even won a hula hoop contest!

After the pool, we all got cleaned up for a night out! I was getting dressed when the mailman came, and the kids ran up to me with a new outfit so I had to change!

Kids had big plans with Grandma and Grandpa while Tim and I attended a shower for our friends Nick & Amber! Their shower had the cutest golf theme and we got to catch up with so many dear friends!

Teddy snuck off at Grandma & Grandpa’s and ate all the granola bars!

After the shower, we met up with friends at the Iowa State Fairgrounds for the Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation Corndog Kickoff! This was our first time at this event which features live entertainment, silent & live auction items, all your favorite Iowa State Fair foods & drinks, rides on the SkyGlider & fireworks! Tim & I couldn’t believe we’d been missing out on all this fun!

On Sunday, we got to sleep in a little until Teddy’s tball game! He is loving every second of it and its the cutest thing! This is his very first team and its so perfect that they’re the Giants–I had to get a picture of Teddy in Mollie’s favorite jersey.

After the game, we were all ready for some air conditioning and downtime! We watched some movies, played some Barbies & called it a wrap on a fun & busy summer weekend!

See you back here soon! xoxo, Emily

P.S. Just ordered this hairdryer for Prime Day! Only $39.28 at checkout and highly recommended by one of my favorite blogs, Somewhere Lately!

By: Emily Heaston

Whew! This month is crazy!! Our weekend was packed full of end of the year activities for our kids and family celebrations for a special graduate!

The fun started on Thursday night with a family dinner at Fire Creek. Then Nicole and Aunt Julie got to town on Friday. They brought lots of our favorite treats from Trader Joe’s!

I woke up early on Saturday to shop the vineyard vines® for Target collaboration! I shopped a little online and saw that most of the apparel was only available in store, so I ran to Super Target and snagged some cute summer outfits for the kids! I’ll share my online purchases soon!

Then we drove to Ames for Clare & Cate’s dance recitals! So proud of my girls for working hard all year!

Every year on recital day, we get lunch at Hickory Park!

Saturday night, we had fun with family at my mom’s. Clare, Cate, Teddy, Lily & Maeve were so happy to be together. Our family had all been in Grinnell for the day for two special statue dedications in Mollie’s memory.

Sunday brought Scott’s high school graduation! We’re so proud of him–Salutatorian, football captain and quarterback, Homecoming king, and a leader wherever he goes. Congratulations, Scott! We love you!

After Scott’s graduation, we all went for lunch in Grinnell. We were having trouble finding the restaurant and couldn’t get it to pull up on the map app either. Julie visited the restaurant’s website to get the address and I plugged that in manually to get directions on my phone…well it didn’t take us to the restaurant, but instead it said, “You have arrived at your destination…” at the location of one of Mollie’s statues. I really can’t do it justice how surprised we all were as we pulled up. We all had goosebumps! She must have known I was sad to miss the dedication the day before during the dance recital. So happy I got to see it with my family. Mollie has so many ways of letting us know she is with us!

Today marks the last Monday of the school year for my kids! I spent the day trying to get my house in some state of order after our many trips to Ames for rehearsals and recitals last week! Clare’s Daisy troop bridged to Brownies this evening, and I think we just have a few softball games left before we can enjoy a little break for the start of summer!