The humidity in Austin was already creeping up on April 12, 2025, when I realized I had exactly seventy-two dollars in my “fun money” Venmo account and a daughter turning five who insisted on sleeping under the stars. June is my wild child, a kindergartner with a penchant for dirt and a refusal to wear…
My kitchen smelled like a salad dressing factory for three weeks after Leo’s second birthday, and honestly, I’m still finding dried cornstarch in the cracks of my hardwood floors. If you’re hunting for science party ideas for 2 year old, you probably already know that “science” at this age is basically just a fancy word…
The first time I tried to put together a dinosaur party for my son Leo back on June 12, 2021, I failed so spectacularly that I still find plastic T-Rex teeth in my couch cushions. I was a single dad trying to overcompensate for my lack of “Pinterest-mom” genes by throwing money at the problem….
Nineteen nine-year-olds in a three-bedroom bungalow in the middle of a Chicago sleet storm make a very specific kind of sound. It is a high-pitched, vibrating hum of pure energy that vibrates the pictures on my hallway walls. Last March 12, for Leo and Maya’s double birthday, I decided to lean into the chaos instead…
The humidity in Houston during early April is basically like living inside someone’s mouth, but that didn’t stop twenty screaming five-year-olds from demanding more blue frosting and even more snowflake-shaped glitter on their tiny, sticky hands. It was April 12th last year. My daughter Lily was turning five, and because I am a glutton for…
My cat Jack almost ate an Easter lily! Anyone else have pet scares this time of year?! @the_real_emma: Okay, GINYOU Party Community, I need to share a *total* heart-stopper from this weekend! 😬 We were getting ready for our big Easter brunch, and Diego (my 10-year-old, bless his heart, he was trying to help!) brought…
Blacklights forgive a lot of dust. That was my first thought as I surveyed our basement in Logan Square on November 2nd, 2023. Twenty-one 12-year-olds were smearing glow-in-the-dark paint on my cheap drop cloths. The music was loud. The pizza boxes were glowing an eerie radioactive white. My twins, Leo and Maya, wanted a rave…
Twenty-two third-graders. One kitchen. Three bags of “oops” brand flour. My Houston home looked like a powder factory exploded on Saturday, March 12, 2024, but I survived. Being an elementary school teacher means I live for the chaos of a classroom party, yet planning a budget baking party for 8 year old students requires a…
My kitchen island was completely buried under a mountain of synthetic turf runners, half-eaten granola bars, and exactly forty-two tiny plastic trophies when I realized I had made a catastrophic tactical error for Leo’s 7th birthday last April. It was April 12, 2024, a day that started with a classic Portland “mist” and ended with…
My kitchen floor in Chicago usually looks like a disaster zone by Tuesday afternoon, but last April 12th, it was a whole new level of chaotic. We had bits of dried maple leaves and crushed marigold petals stuck to the bottom of our socks, and my twins, Leo and Maya, were knee-deep in what I…
