Thirty minutes before the final bell rang on April 12, 2024, I stood in my Houston classroom watching a paper rainbow wilt like a sad piece of lettuce. Leo, my sweetest four-year-old with a persistent dinosaur sticker obsession, was turning four. His mother had sent a beautiful, Pinterest-worthy vanilla cake. But Houston humidity has zero…
My kitchen counter currently looks like a yellow and blue disaster zone, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Last Tuesday, April 12, 2025, was my oldest son Leo’s 11th birthday, and if you think an 11-year-old is “too cool” for a Minions theme, you haven’t met a kid who appreciates the irony…
I’m standing in my kitchen in Atlanta, smelling what can only be described as a tiny chemical fire, because I thought I could make my own fairy birthday candles by dipping toothpicks in colored crayon wax. It was June 14, 2022. My daughter, Maya, was turning three, and I had convinced myself that being a…
Maya’s 8th birthday was a humid Austin Saturday, April 5th, 2024, and I decided we weren’t doing generic party favors. Instead, we spent exactly $72 on a DIY station for the perfect art crown for kids because 8-year-olds have very specific opinions about their royal status. My golden retriever, Cooper, spent most of the afternoon…
My kitchen table in Denver looked like a pixelated crime scene last Tuesday afternoon, covered in jagged scraps of green cardstock and rogue dabs of hot glue that refused to peel off the wood. My son Leo turned ten on April 12, and if you know anything about ten-year-old boys in 2026, you know that…
My classroom floor currently sparkles with the remnants of three different types of brown glitter, a permanent souvenir from the “Great Bear Bash” I threw last Tuesday. Teaching twenty-two second-graders in Houston means I’ve learned to pivot when the AC dies or a kid decides a bear backdrop for adults makes a great climbing wall….
I am still finding stray pieces of hay in the floor mats of my Toyota 4Runner, and honestly, I am not even mad about it. Last month, on March 12, my daughter Chloe turned eleven and insisted on a celebration that felt more like a sophisticated ranch retreat than a chaotic petting zoo, so I…
Maya turned eleven last April, and suddenly my “buy a grocery store cake and call it a day” strategy was dead. She wanted a budget barbie party for 11 year old girls that didn’t look like it was meant for a toddler. I am a single dad in Atlanta who barely knows the difference between…
I stood in my driveway in Denver last April, staring at a tangle of pink cardstock and cheap polyester string that was supposed to be a centerpiece. My daughter, Chloe, was turning nine. Most kids that age have moved on to Roblox or gymnastics themes, but Chloe has this ironic, nostalgic streak, and she insisted…
Chicago winters are brutal, but trying to plan a budget space party for 3 year old twins in a cramped Logan Square apartment during a sleet storm is a special kind of madness. I remember standing in the middle of my kitchen on March 14, 2025, surrounded by empty Amazon boxes and silver spray paint,…
