Lilo & Stitch by the Lake + Free Jazz

Hey, y’all!

Lewisville ISD starts back Wednesday. That leaves one more slow weekend before it is lunchboxes and car line again for y’all with school-age kiddos, and I suggest you plan on using all of it.

Saturday night is the easy call for families of movie lovers. Little Elm is putting Lilo & Stitch up on a big screen on The Lawn at The Lakefront, free, with the lake sitting right there behind you. Me and Tess are thinking of going early with a blanket and eating in the Lakefront District first.

Before all that, Friday night, Grandscape has free jazz on the lawn at 8. Vandell Andrew on sax, and the parking garage does not cost anything either. Get dinner from one of the restaurants around the green and spread out.

Then Sunday is the LAST day of the everyday season at Water Works Park in Denton. It drops to weekends only after that, so if the lazy river carried your summer, go squeeze in one more.

Pack bug spray for any of it. The mosquitoes have been rough this year, and Lewisville and Flower Mound are both handing residents free mosquito dunks for anything holding water in the yard.

Down below: where to grab those, plus the little Cajun place in Lake Dallas we cannot stop talking about.

- Jason

The Lawn at The Lakefront
125 Main St, Little Elm, TX
Saturday, August 8
7 to 9 p.m.
Free
Learn More

School starts Wednesday. That makes this the last Saturday night nobody in your house has to be up early for, and Little Elm has a movie treat for you families out there.

Big screen out on The Lawn, live-action Lilo & Stitch, FREE, with the lake sitting right there behind you. Show starts at 7. Get there before that, because parking and the good grass both go fast.

Low chairs and a blanket beat tall camp chairs, unless you want to be the family everybody's leaning around.

Pro tip: Eat first at one of the Lakefront District spots and walk over.

Bring bug spray too. Denton County has confirmed West Nile this summer and you'll be sitting in damp grass at dusk.

Then let them stay up late. School will still be there Wednesday.

Here's the little Cajun spot in Lake Dallas folks won't quit recommending. Now we get it.

It sits right at the entrance to Willow Grove Park, steps from the water, Mardi Gras beads on the walls, and owner Kevin Lively usually working the room himself.

Kevin cooks from old family recipes, the ones he picked up helping his grandmother Edith in her Louisiana kitchen. You can taste that history. This is a laid-back dinner after a lake day, not a white-tablecloth night.

The gumbo's the headliner, and reviewers call it award-winning for good reason. From there, folks go for the fried catfish, the crawfish etouffee, the boudin balls, the shrimp and grits. Start with fried pickles. Get the mustard greens on the side. Come crawfish season, they run boils that pack the place out.

A few heads-ups. They're closed Monday through Wednesday. It's dinner-only most days. And it's BYOB, so grab your own beer or wine on the way.

Price: $$
Hours:
Mon-Wed Closed
Thu 4-9 PM
Fri 4-10 PM
Sat 11 AM - 10 PM
Sun 11 AM - 8 PM

Wander Old Town on a warm evening and you'll spot it. The pretty little shop with the copper-toned tin ceiling and the chandeliers. Turns out it's an ice cream parlor, and it’s worth checking out.

Tanya Gilmore, a former teacher and wife of Lewisville Mayor TJ Gilmore, opened it in September 2025 and gave the place a Parisian feel that makes a $5 treat feel like an occasion. Wall sconces. The whole room's set up to make you slow down and stay a while.

The ice cream comes from Beth Marie's, the old-fashioned maker over in Denton, so the scoops are genuinely local. Butter pecan and cafe latte are the grown-up moves. Horchata sorbet's the sleeper. And the classics are all there for the kids. Reviewers keep mentioning the friendly counter service and how photogenic the room is. Tracks with what we saw.

Open late, too, until 10 PM Friday and Saturday, which makes it the natural last stop after dinner in Old Town or a splash park run. Work it into your Old Town routine before the weather turns.

Price: $
Hours:
Mon-Thu 1 - 9 PM
Fri 1 - 10 PM
Sat 12 - 10 PM
Sun 12 - 9 PM

5 beds
4.5 baths
3,838 sqft
0.25 acres lot

A) $865,000

B) $999,000

C) $1,065,000

D) $1,165,000

Highland Village is deep in budget season with a real problem to solve. The projected general fund deficit for next year runs a little over $2.1 million. Property taxes are up a touch, but sales tax and interest income are both down. Mayor Charlotte Wilcox points to rising costs, state limits on how fast local revenue can grow, and the plain fact that the city's nearly built out.

Staff pulled more than $1.4 million in programs and initiatives out of the base budget and set them aside as "Decision Items" for council to keep or cut. Cut every last one and there's still about $676,519 left to close. Council started working the list in mid-July, and the talk runs through August and September. City taxes are about a third of a Highland Village homeowner's property tax bill, so whatever survives these meetings lands on yours.

Source: crosstimbersgazette.com

Denton City Council voted 4-3 on August 4 to come at data centers from two directions at once. One's a possible temporary hold on new applications. The other's a possible permanent rewrite of the city's development code. Council sets the moratorium hearing date on August 18, tentatively for September 22. A 90-day moratorium would require a super-majority, which a 4-3 vote is not.

Mayor Pro Tem Nick Stevens started this back in June, asking for a work session so council could see the numbers first. Denton has two data centers approved, Core Scientific and QumulusAI, and together they've contracted for roughly 411 megawatts. For scale, the city's own utility told council that anything over 75 megawatts is likely past what the system can carry today, and that Denton's transmission lines already run at or near capacity.

The three no votes wanted to skip the moratorium and go straight to the rewrite, partly because Governor Abbott just ordered a statewide halt on data center approvals pending an audit. Either way, that rewrite would require a permit for every data center in every zoning district, plus water studies and closed-loop or air cooling.

Keep this straight from the apartment moratorium we covered last edition. And Lewisville got ahead of it in June, allowing data centers only in industrial districts, only with a permit.

Sources: dentonrc.com | keranews.org | reuters.com

Crews broke ground in early July on one of Flower Mound's busiest intersections, FM 2499 at Flower Mound Road. The roughly $3.5 million job adds dual left-turn lanes, three through lanes, and a dedicated right-turn lane in each direction, plus new sidewalks, ramps, and signal poles.

It even carves out a dedicated right-turn lane into the Chick-fil-A driveway so the drive-thru line quits backing up onto southbound FM 2499. The $2.82 million construction contract went to Boyd-based 2L Construction, and Denton County is helping cover the tab through an interlocal agreement.

Completion's pegged for July 2027. And with Lewisville ISD back in session August 12, the school-run traffic through here is about to feel every bit of it. Build in a few extra minutes if this is your route.

Source: crosstimbersgazette.com

Denton County logged its first human West Nile case of 2026 in July, and mosquito traps in both Lewisville and Flower Mound have come back positive this summer. Each positive trap gets targeted overnight spraying, and you can expect more spray notices rolling through August. Peak season.

Here's the practical part. Dump the standing water around your yard once a week.
Wear repellent at dusk and dawn. And for the water you can't drain, a pond, a fountain, a clogged gutter, both Lewisville and Flower Mound give free mosquito dunks to their own residents. They look like little beige donuts, they float, and each one keeps killing larvae for about a month. Everywhere else around the lake, the hardware store carries them.

In Lewisville, grab yours at the Permitting Counter on the second floor of City Hall, 151 W Church St. Bring proof you live in town. Go early in the week if you can, because City Hall runs 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday but shuts down at 11:30 on Friday. Free while supplies last.

Sources: crosstimbersgazette.com | dentoncounty.gov

Some cats make you work for it. Butterscotch will, for about five minutes. He's an adult domestic shorthair at the Lewisville Animal Shelter, and the staff notes say he's a little shy at first and then he's all in.

Head scratches. Face rubs. The shelter's own write-up says he loves having his face almost rubbed off, which tells you just about everything you need to know.

The other thing they mention is that he loves to look out the window. So a sunny sill and a spare lap is pretty much the whole job description. And a grown cat is an easier lift than a kitten if your house has had enough chaos for one summer.

Butterscotch's adoption runs $90 and covers the works: neuter, vaccinations, microchip, and a year of city registration if you live in Lewisville. The shelter's at 995 E Valley Ridge Blvd, Lewisville, TX, open Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday noon to 5 p.m., Mondays by appointment. Call 972-219-3478 and ask about Butterscotch.

🎢 Water Works Park - 2400 Long Rd, Denton, TX | 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. | $19 (48"+), $14 (under 48"); discounted Monday-Friday 4-7 PM | More: dentonwaterworks.com
Everyday season ends Sunday, so this is the last Friday of daily slides and lazy river for 2026. Hit it after 4 for the twilight rate and beat the evening heat on the cheap.

🏖️ Old Town Splash Park - 535 W College St, Lewisville, TX | 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Free | More: playlewisville.com
Ninety spray features, no standing water, tucked behind Wayne Frady Park. Free and open daily clear through September.

💦 McCord Park Splash Pad - 1001 Witt Rd, Little Elm, TX | 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. | Free | More: littleelm.gov
Water runs on its own from morning to night. Nothing to push, nothing to pay. Good for an evening cool-down once the sun lets up.

💦 Doubletree Ranch Park Splash Pad - 310 Highland Village Rd, Highland Village, TX | 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Free | More: highlandvillage.org
Three wet-play zones with a little creek feel, plus shade and a playground for the breaks. Closed Thursdays, open the rest of the week.

🌳 A Day at LLELA - Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area, 201 E Jones St, Lewisville, TX | 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. | $5 per person plus $5 per vehicle, card only | More: llela.org
2,600 acres of trails, fishing, and paddling on the Elm Fork. Go early. Pack water and bug spray. Leave the dog home, since pets aren't allowed.

🏝️ Little Elm Beach - Little Elm Park, 701 W Eldorado Pkwy, Little Elm, TX | Open daily | Free entry, $10 per vehicle parking Fri-Sun | More: lakefrontlittleelm.com
Real sand, volleyball courts, and kayak rentals right on Lewisville Lake. No lifeguard on duty, so keep the little ones close.

🎪 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory at Cosm - 5776 Grandscape Blvd, The Colony, TX | Multiple showtimes | Ticketed | More: cosm.com
The 1971 classic splashed across Cosm's 87-foot LED dome, about as close as you'll get to standing inside the chocolate room. Runs through August 21. Check the calendar for showtimes.

🧺 Denton Community Market - Denton County Historical Park, 317 W Mulberry St, Denton, TX | 9 a.m. to noon | Free | More: dentonmarket.org
Producer-only farmers and art market with live music and food trucks. Summer heat hours wrap at noon, so go early and let the kids pick out a treat.

🎢 Water Works Park, Final Day of the Everyday Season - 2400 Long Rd, Denton, TX | Noon to 7 p.m. | $19 (48"+), $14 (under 48") | More: dentonwaterworks.com
August 9 is the last day of daily operation for 2026. After that, weekends only through Labor Day. Squeeze in one more lazy river lap for the summer.

🏊 Civic Center Pool - 515 N Bell Ave, Denton, TX | Noon to 6 p.m. | $8 ages 15+, $6 ages 3-14, 2 and under free | More: cityofdenton.com
Beach-entry outdoor pool next to Quakertown Park, with a slide and lap lanes. Same story as Water Works: Sunday's its last day of daily hours before it drops to weekends only. Chalk it up as another last-chance swim.

🥃 BENDT Distilling Tour & Tasting - BENDT Distilling Co., 225 S Charles St, Lewisville, TX | 6 p.m. | $10 per person, 21+, reservation required | More: bendtdistillingco.com
A 45-minute walk through the small-batch distillery that lands you in the tasting room with a pour flight. Walkable from Old Town. The booking page lists the current tour slots, so lock in your time when you reserve.

🎸 Austin Meade at Dan's Silverleaf - 103 Industrial St, Denton, TX | Doors 7 p.m., show 8 p.m. | $20 advance, $25 door | More: prekindle.com
Texas red-dirt rock in Denton's best listening room. Standing room. Loud in the right way. Pairs easy with dinner on the square.

🎶 Acoustic Jam Session - Medical City Lewisville Grand Theater, 100 N Charles St, Lewisville, TX | 6 to 9 p.m. | Free | More: visitlewisville.com
A weekly open jam and song circle put on by the Visual Art League. All acoustic instruments and skill levels welcome, and parking's free along Main and Church.

🎨 Summer Gallery Exhibitions - Medical City Lewisville Grand Theater, 100 N Charles St, Lewisville, TX | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Free | More: visitlewisville.com
Four shows to wander in one stop: Jacob Johnson's photography in Songs Without Words, the Visual Art League's Small Works, She Found Her Way by Crys Nelson, and fiber artist Marilyn Henrion's The Ninth Decade.

🎪 Mystère by Cirque du Soleil at Cosm - 5776 Grandscape Blvd, The Colony, TX | Multiple showtimes | Ticketed | More: cosm.com
Cirque's long-running Vegas production, filmed for the 87-foot dome, running through August 19. Check the calendar for showtimes and grab dinner at Grandscape after.

🎧 Late Nights at JĀKÖ Cocina y Agave - Grandscape, 5752 Grandscape Blvd, The Colony, TX | 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. | Free | More: grandscape.com
Live DJ sets and agave cocktails every Friday night, no cover. The late landing spot after the lawn concert lets out.

🧘 Tai Chi in the Plaza - Wayne Ferguson Plaza, 150 W Church St, Lewisville, TX | 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. | Free | More: visitlewisville.com
A free Saturday-morning session in the Old Town shade. No gear. No experience. Just show up.

🥃 BENDT Distilling Tour & Tasting - 225 S Charles St, Lewisville, TX | 1 or 3 p.m. | $10 per person, 21+, reservation required | More: bendtdistillingco.com
Two afternoon tour times if Friday got away from you, each one ending with a tasting flight. Minutes from Old Town for a late lunch after.

🎹 The Elton Johns: An Epic Tribute to Elton John - Dan's Silverleaf, 103 Industrial St, Denton, TX | Doors 2 p.m., show 3 p.m. | Ticketed | More: prekindle.com
A full Elton John tribute in a Saturday matinee slot, which is a rare and downright civilized way to catch live music. Check the calendar for ticket prices.

🎨 Summer Gallery Exhibitions - Medical City Lewisville Grand Theater, 100 N Charles St, Lewisville, TX | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Free | More: visitlewisville.com
Another chance to view the four exhibitions currently on display. Always free.

🍷 LaRue Winery - 1491 N Kealy Ave #1, Lewisville, TX | 3 to 11 p.m. | Free entry | More: lewisvilletxlive.com
Lewisville's first winery, open Saturday afternoon into the night. No show on the books this weekend, just wine by the glass and a laid-back room.

🎩 Magic + Comedy Night - Dan's Silverleaf, 103 Industrial St, Denton, TX | Doors 8 p.m., show 9 p.m. | Ticketed | More: prekindle.com
Stand-up and magic sharing one bill: Ritchy Flo, Joey Johnson, Danny McGough, and Javoris James. A fun blind pick for a Saturday night out.

🥬 Flower Mound Farmers Market at River Walk - 2560 Promenade Way, Flower Mound, TX | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Free | More: riverwalkflowermound.com
The Sunday market runs along the River Walk these days, with produce, baked goods, local meats, and honey.

Grandscape closes out the week with jazz on the lawn, and this Friday it's saxophonist Vandell Andrew and Friends on the Corona Stage. Music runs 8 to 10. The lawn is free. The parking garage won't cost you a dime either.

Grab dinner from one of the restaurants ringing the green, spread out a blanket, and let the kids burn off the last of their summer energy on the grass while the band plays.

One heads-up: no outside alcohol or coolers, so plan on buying drinks there.

A free Friday night that feels like a little vacation without ever leaving The Colony. Bring the lawn chairs and claim your patch before 8.

🚗 Get directions to Corona Stage & Lawn