Every mom deserves a night out. This Monday, we took that to a whole new level in downtown Iowa City! The staff at Iron Hawk restaurant graciously closed their doors for our private, moms-only party. What a great night! Today we would like to say an extra special thank you to ALL of you who made this evening possible!
ICMB Contributor Team
We are SO grateful for our amazing team of contributors! To those of you who have been with us since the beginning, and to those of you who just joined the team recently, thank you so much for your help in planning, preparing, and executing such a fun event for local moms! Thank you ladies for checking people in, handing out raffle tickets and nametags, mingling with all of the moms who came solo, and helping set up/tear down before and after. We could NOT put on events like this without all of our faithful helpers!
Our Host: Iron Hawk
We were so happy to finally bring the Iowa City Moms Blog and our readers to the downtown district! Iron Hawk is literally smack-dab in the middle of town, and if you have not eaten there yet, we highly recommend it! Be sure to follow them on Facebook as well; they frequently offer fun contests and specials at the restaurant. For our Moms Night Out, guests enjoyed samplers of some yummy Iron Hawk appetizers, including chicken wings, pulled-pork nachos, and cheese balls. We also enjoyed free soft drinks and 1/2 price specialty drinks, always a plus! If you are looking for a place to watch the Hawkeye games, eat dinner with the family, or just grab a quick lunch downtown, Iron Hawk should be at the top of your list!
Our Sponsors
Robinson Family Wellness: We are so grateful for the continued support of Dr. Ron and Dana Robinson, and we absolutely love getting any opportunity to introduce moms to this amazing family! Ron and Dana are a driving force in this community to keep families active, healthy, and above all fun! Ron graciously donated a copy of his new book (which he co-authored) for each of our swag bags, and Dana provided one of our popular raffle items, a $75 gift certificate to Sweet Feet Yoga! Thank you, Robinsons, for all that you do for us!
Catherine’s: It just wouldn’t be an event in downtown Iowa City without the ladies from Catherine’s boutique! After 40 years in the downtown district, if you haven’t visited Catherine’s, it should be next on your to-do list! They have some of the softest, warmest sweaters you will ever put on, so head on over before the Iowa winter sets in! A special thank you to the Catherine’s girls for coming to our event and displaying some of the awesome products their store has to offer to local moms!
Our Vendors
Mary Kay: Special thanks to Karen and Katie for joining us again for another great night out! They had some fabulous products on display, and were gracious enough to send samples home in every swag bag!! Be sure to try your sample out and give them a call when you’re making your Holiday plans. They’ll make sure to keep you looking gorgeous through the Holiday season and beyond!!
Body Essential: It was so fun to have Connie and her Body Essential products at our event! How great is it to go home from a Moms Night Out with something both you and your husband can appreciate? 😉 If you didn’t get a chance to pick something up on Monday, be sure to give Connie a call!!
Origami Owl: We were so happy to have Tiffany and Betty sharing Origami Owl with us. These girls are a lot of fun and we love the way Origami Owl jewelry is customized to you. Visit Tiffany’s website to find out more!
Our Photographer
Dana, from LiteRite photography, has been so amazing to work with! She took the photos at our Charity 5K, Blogger Dash, and she also did our new headshots and group photos for the writing team. Monday night she took on the task of photographing over 100 moms mingling about, eating delicious food, and chatting it up at various vendor tables. All of the photos you see here, and that we will be posting on our Facebook page as well, are courtesy of Dana at Lite Rite Photography. You NEED to check out her website! {Oh, and one lucky mom was the winner of a free photography session with Dana! Lucky!}
Desserts
This was definitely a night FULL of desserts! After all, what is a party without an abundance of sweets?? We were so happy to have Yummys Gourmet Cakes, who donated beautiful (and more importantly, delicious!) cupcakes for the moms! AND we had two gorgeous trays of amazing desserts from Bread Garden Market! Two of the very best in town, if we do say so ourselves! As if that wasn’t enough, EVERY guest went home at the end of the night with a sampler box of treats from The Pink Umbrella Bakery! I’m sure it’s safe to say that everyone woke up with a sugar-hangover on Tuesday morning! Well worth it!
Swag Bags
In addition to the treat samplers from Pink Umbrella, every guest also went home with an AWESOME swag bag, courtesy of Underground Printing. We were so happy to have bags in our signature colors, with our Iowa City Moms Blog logo on them! Thank you so much! And what is a swag bag without swag, right? Here’s a list of our incredible swag, and a special thank you to ALL who contributed to these special extras to send home with each mom! The ladies were SO happy to pick up a bag as they went out the door!
Catherine’s Iowa City
Robinson Family Wellness
Mary Kay
Running Wild Iowa City
Arbonne
Stella & Dot
Happy Family
Mamma Chia
Whitties Knitties
Aspen Leaf Frozen Yogurt
Underground Printing
Beadology
Revival
Yummy’s Gourmet Cakes
Just Duckie Blankies
Usborne Books
Residential Mortgage Network
The Chait Galleries
It Works
KLM Photography
Thirty One
Home Educating Family Association
And, last but BY NO MEANS least, we want to extend a humongous THANK YOU to our GUESTS!! Since we started the blog in April of this year, we have continued to be blown away by the support from our readers and their sincere dedication to our mission to connect moms in Iowa City and surrounding communities. We could NOT have these events without you, and we are grateful for each and EVERY one of you for reading our blog, following us on social media, sharing us with your friends, and SHOWING UP to our events!! An extra special shout-out to all the moms who came solo last night, what a brave and amazing thing to do! We hope that you went home with lots of new friends!
We couldn’t have asked for a better night with all of you, and we look forward to the next Moms Night Out!
Photos courtesy of LiteRite Photography.
So sad i missed it 🙁