The Morales Family: Leah's Grad Party

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Leah's Grad Party

Grad parties are a BIG deal in Iowa. Since we moved here 12 years ago our kids have loved May because it means partying with friends! Last year Leah and I started talking about what she wanted her grad party to look like, and in May the highly anticipated day finally arrived! We had the party on May 10th, which made for a delightful stand-alone event that didn't have to compete with the excitement of graduation weekend. Leah had a great vision for a garden tea party-esque grad party, and I was able to bring it to life with the help of many friends and shopping trips.

The 18 photos of her cute face lining the driveway were everyone's favorite-

The party ended up being on the first near-90 degree day of the year, so we were desperate for shade.

These gorgeous cupcakes were made by a family Leah babysat for-

And I spent a good portion of the week making and freezing Leah's favorite cookies.

Not to embarrass her, but there were, of course, tense moments in all of the party planning, including one night when Leah saw me put milk chocolate chips into the mixing bowl along with the semi-sweet chips she prefers. They didn't get mixed up, and she insisted that we pick them all out, only to lament after the party that she didn't get to eat a single chocolate chip cookie. It's funny to look back on what feels so important in the moment- I won't say how many stores I went to to track down blue hydrangeas for the party, only to have 75% of them immediately wilt in the heat.

But we were all too busy partying to really notice those small missteps. I only took a few pictures because we had a steady flow of so many people who love Leah and love our family coming and going for hours. It was so sweet to see how many people really make up our support community.