It’s our birthday today! It’s hard to believe that it’s been a whole YEAR since we started this journey with all of you, but it’s true! Today we are taking a look at the past year in the life of the Iowa City Moms Blog and this growing community of moms and families that we are so lucky to be a part of! {Make sure to read to the end for a special surprise!!}
The Blog One year ago today, co-founders Sara and Kaitlyn posted a welcome to our readers, highlighting the purpose of this blog and our goal to connect moms in the Iowa City and surrounding communities. We also introduced you to our team of contributing writers, an amazing group of momsfrom Iowa City and surrounding cities who post monthly on our site. We are so glad to have their diverse, interesting and honest opinions on our blog and to have them as part of our team! Another thanks goes out to our faithful sponsors, who you can always find at the top of our site and on our side-bar. Be sure to click on their logos and check them out! We are looking forward to another year full of great mommy stories, yummy recipes, super fun DIY projects, and more on the blog! {Make sure you never miss a post by subscribing to receive Iowa City Moms Blog in your email inbox HERE.}
The Social Media We have to admit, our Facebook followers have really begun to feel like family to us! We love the way all of you interact with us on our Facebook page, and we are humbled at the thought that we reached both of our personal goals for our page (1000 likes by six months, and 1500 likes by a year) thanks to all of YOU! Thank you for each and every one of your comments, shares, and likes! Keep it coming! We love doing extra special giveaways for you on Facebook, too. Be sure to check the page often so you never miss out!
In addition to Facebook (admittedly everyone’s favorite social media outlet), don’t forget to follow us on all of the other platforms as well! We have really enjoyed watching your photos on our Instagram page, and thanks to everyone who participated in our February and March Photo-A-Day Challenges! It was so much fun to see what you came up with! Keep watch on our Instagram page; you never know what we have up our sleeves! Be sure to follow us on Twitter as well, and save the date for April 22nd for our first ever Twitter party! This is not only a Twitter party, but the theme is “Favorite Things”, and let’s just say you WON’T want to miss out on some of these prizes! This is a nationwide Twitter party with our entire City Moms Blog Network, and it will be so fun to interact with moms from around the country! {If you’ve never attended a Twitter party, no worries! Watch the blog for more details and how-to!} And, last but certainly not least, Iowa City Moms Blog can also be found over on Pinterest! {If you aren’t on Pinterest yet, you should be. But beware, you WILL lose track of time once you enter.} Check out our page, and start pinning our stuff to your boards! We’d love to see what you’re pinning, too!
The Playgroups Our very first in-person event for ICMB was a small playdate at Coral Ridge Mall, back in May. We were so excited to meet some moms in person, and we were happy to see so many of them come to future events as well! Needless to say, our playdates have grown by leaps and bounds in a year’s time! By the time August rolled around, we were hosting nearly 100 of you at Wilson’s Apple Orchard, and our group at West Music sold out so fast we ended up having two groups! Because of the huge popularity of the playdates, we decided to formulate some neighborhood-based playgroups in each community, to further meet your needs and to give you all the opportunity to meet moms and other kids in a smaller, more intimate group (although we are never giving up the big playdates, so don’t worry!). Watching these smaller playgroups flourish and the friendships that have emerged as a result has been so, so wonderful for us. If you have not joined the playgroup in your neighborhood, please do so by emailing contact(at)iowacitymomsblog(dot)com.
The Events Without a doubt, everyone’s favorite part of ICMB is the events, and we would have to agree! In June of 2013, we hosted our very first Moms Night Out at Kyodai Japanese Grill in North Liberty. To this day, we still talk about how completely shocked we were at the turn-out (seriously, we thought we may end up having dinner for two that evening, not for 100!) and how much FUN everyone had! In July, we hosted a Health Fair & Family Day at Morrison Park in Coralville. We enjoyed seeing you and your families stop by to chat with our vendors, do a little yoga, and have some snacks. In October, we all braved the unseasonable cold and came together in City Park for the 1st annual Blogger Dash 5K. Once again, we were humbled by the number of people who came for our race that day {secret fact: neither Kaitlyn nor Sara have ever done a race, and had absolutely no idea where to start, but thank goodness it all turned out ok!}.
Next up was our second Moms Night Out, this time downtown Iowa City at Iron Hawk. Another great evening getting to know all of you ladies, and seeing all of the friendships that are being made! That truly is what it’s all about! To begin the new year and celebrate our valentines, we hosted our first Date Night in February at Backpocket Brewing. It was so much fun to finally start introducing everyone to our significant others, and we couldn’t think of a better place for a date night! Just one week later, we co-hosted a super fun event with MidWestOne Bank called “Money In The Bank”. It was great watching the kids learn about money, win some cool prizes, and enjoy some quality family time!
Upcoming Events:
That being said, we think it’s about time to get back to the Moms Night Outs! As most of you know, we are celebrating today’s 1st birthday of ICMB with a huge Birthday Bash this coming Sunday (April 6th) at South Slope Community Center. This “slumber party” moms night will include dance music, wine, hair & make up, massages, yoga, prizes and goodie bags! More details to come soon, but be sure to get your tickets now, because ticket sales end THIS Thursday! {click here to purchase tickets and for more info} Next up: our Family Easter Egg Hunt! Join us at 11am on Sunday, April 13th on the Pentacrest East Lawn. This event will be FREE for the entire family, and in addition to the egg hunts (separate hunts for different age groups), we will also have face painting, pictures with the Easter Bunny, balloon animals, and more! {please RSVP for the Egg Hunt by clicking here}
We are looking forward to another year full of super fun events for you, your spouses, and your families. If you have ideas for events that you’d like to see/attend, please send us your thoughts at info(at)iowacitymomsblog(dot)com. You can also email that same address if you’d like to be added to our VIP email list! Looking forward to seeing you all at our events this year!
{GIVEAWAY}:
One of our favorite things to do through ICMB is giveaways for our readers. That’s why we’re excited to be celebrating our 1st birthday by doing a very special giveaway for YOU from one of our favorite businesses, Freshly Picked Moccasins. Susan is an amazing mom who makes adorable moccasins, perfect for your little boy or girl! (Speaking of one year anniversaries, it is utterly amazing to see what Susan has done in a year’s time! Did you see her on Shark Tank?!). Our girls love their moccs, and we can’t wait for your little one to love theirs too!
To enter this giveaway, please do the following (each item will get you one entry):
1. Comment on this blog post, telling us why you’d love to win the moccs and who you’d win them for!
2. “Like” Freshly Picked on Facebook and/or follow them on Instagram and Twitter. After you do this, come back here and leave a separate comment to tell us that you did! {if you already follow their social media sites, just leave a comment here that you already follow!}
3. Re-tweet the following: “@ICMomsBlog is giving away a FREE pair of @freshlypicked moccasins! Click here: http://wp.me/p4jZTh-12C ” {and then leave a comment here to tell us that you re-tweeted}
4. Share this blog post on your Facebook page, spreading the ICMB birthday love and telling your friends about the awesome giveaway! {and then leave a comment here to tell us that you shared it}
**Giveaway will end at NOON on Wednesday, and winner will be announced on our Facebook page.** Good luck!!
**Make sure you join us in celebrating our 1st Birthday this Sunday at 5:30 at South Slope Community Center!! Get your ticket now before they’re gone!! Ticket sales end Thursday at midnight.
*This is a giveaway post. We have been given something, either monetary or in-kind, to write it. However, the opinions are solely our own.
I already liked Freshly Picked on FB! 🙂