My twins, Leo and Maya, turned five last April, and I swear the pressure to throw a “perfect” party nearly broke my spirit and my bank account. We live in a cramped two-bedroom in Logan Square, so space is tight and money is tighter, especially with two kids wanting two different things. Leo wanted Charizard;…
Glitter was lodged in the floorboards of my Logan Square apartment for three months after the twins turned seven. I found a stray pink sequin in my coffee mug this morning, a shimmering relic of the chaos that ensues when you try to host eleven energetic eight-year-olds on a Chicago teacher’s budget. My daughter Maya…
I stood in the middle of my kitchen in Atlanta last April, covered in what I can only describe as a neon pink glitter apocalypse. It was April 12, 2024, and I was trying to prep for my son Leo’s fifth birthday. I had this grand idea that the parents shouldn’t have to suffer through…
I spent three hours scrubbing blue frosting off my kitchen floor last Tuesday, but looking at the photos of fourteen 12-year-olds and six very loud adults, I would do it again in a heartbeat. My twins, Leo and Maya, hit the big 12 on April 5th, and they decided our tiny Chicago bungalow needed to…
The humidity in Austin was sitting at a thick 88 percent on the morning of April 5, 2025, when I realized that trying to host twenty-two children on a literal working ranch might have been my most ambitious mistake yet. My niece, Maya, was turning eight, and she had been obsessed with the idea of…
@violet95: Hey everyone! Violet here from drizzly Seattle. Hope you all had a lovely March. I’m already deep into planning for Easter with my granddaughter, Ruby. She’s 9 now, and we’ve been trying to up our game with some more involved DIY Easter Crafts for Kids this year. You know, beyond just dyeing eggs with…
Leo and Maya turned seven last November 14th, and my Chicago apartment still smells faintly of silver spray paint and blue frosting. It was loud. It was chaotic. My floor was covered in what looked like moon dust but was actually just cornstarch and gray food coloring that I definitely regret making. Eleven kids in…
The rain was slamming against my kitchen window in Lake Oswego last March while I stared at a pile of half-melted beeswax and three very confused kids. I failed. Again. The wax was everywhere. My 4-year-old, Ben, decided that liquid paraffin looked like apple juice, and my 11-year-old, Mia, was currently recording my breakdown for…
Twenty-three three-year-olds in a humid Houston living room sounds like the start of a horror movie, but for me, it is just another Tuesday in March. Last year, on March 14, 2024, I found myself crouched behind a kitchen island, desperately trying to reattach a dorsal fin to a fondant predator while “Baby Shark” blasted…
Thirteen eleven-year-old boys screaming “Arrr!” in a South Austin backyard is a specific kind of core memory that stays with you, mostly in the form of a low-grade ringing in your ears that lasts for three days. My nephew Leo turned eleven on October 14, 2025, and because I am the “cool aunt” who also…
