The wind in Denver doesn’t care about your aesthetic. On June 12, 2025, I stood in Cheesman Park watching a gust of 25 mph mountain air snatch a flimsy paper cone off my daughter Lily’s head and toss it into a fountain. She was turning six. We had fifteen kids invited, a pile of cucumber…
Zilker Park was vibrating with the kind of chaotic energy only twenty-one five-year-olds can produce on a Saturday morning in Austin. I was standing there, sweat beaded on my forehead, trying to keep a bunch of checkered napkins from flying into Lady Bird Lake. It was October 14, 2025, the day of my nephew Leo’s…
@scarlett_partymom: Hey everyone! So, my brain is already in full-on Easter planning mode. Yes, it’s April 17, 2026, and Easter is still a bit away, but with Milo (1) and Alice (9), I seriously have to start early or I’ll lose my mind. My biggest challenge every year is the candy. Alice gets SO much…
My living room floor was a sea of red and blue plastic, and the sound—oh, the sound—was like a fleet of tiny, caffeinated ambulances had descended upon suburban Portland. It was April 14, 2025, the day my middle child, Leo, turned five. I had this grand vision of a “silent” superhero training camp, but let’s…
Last April, my middle kid, Leo, decided he didn’t just want a birthday party; he wanted to go to Mars. Between my 11-year-old’s soccer schedule and the 4-year-old’s tendency to draw on the walls with eyeliner, I had exactly $70 and three days to make a budget space party for 7 year old happen. Portland…
Last June 14th, my backyard in Denver looked like a box of Crayola 64s exploded over the manicured bluegrass. My daughter, Penny, was turning five, and she had one demand: a rainbow. Not just a small rainbow on a cake, but a full-spectrum, outdoor rainbow party that would make a unicorn weep with envy. As…
The frosting was already weeping under the relentless Austin sun by 11:15 AM on April 12, 2025. I stood on my back deck in Zilker, clutching a box of artisanal cupcakes and sweating through my linen jumpsuit while my goldendoodle, Luna, barked at a squirrel. My niece Lily was turning four, and the pressure to…
I stared at the invoice for a local Denver arcade and felt my stomach drop faster than a player falling into a pit of lava. Four hundred dollars. That was the “basic” package for a two-hour slot, and it didn’t even include the cake. My son Leo was turning seven on March 12, 2025, and…
Austin in March is usually about SXSW crowds and hunting for the perfect patio margarita, but my kitchen was currently a crime scene of yellow streamers and half-eaten tacos. I was stressed. Totally, completely, hair-pulling-ly stressed because my nephew Leo turned nine on March 15th and I promised his mom—my sister, who was currently dealing…
I stood in my Atlanta kitchen on March 12, 2024, surrounded by enough hot glue strings to satisfy a giant spider. My daughter, Maya, was turning 12. She wanted a “Glamping in the Backyard” theme. I thought I was being a genius by making camping party hats out of actual cedar bark I stripped from…
