Older Kids + Indoor Easter Egg Hunt Ideas = Help! My 13-Year-Old is Too Smart Now. @tylerdoescrafts: Alright, GINYOU fam, hit me with your best shot. Tyler from Omaha here, dad to Leo, who’s officially a teenager at 13. My wife Kinsley usually handles the big Easter hunt, but this year, it’s all on me….
My kitchen smelled like a sodium-heavy nightmare on the morning of June 12, 2025. I was standing over the stove with twenty sheets of printer paper and a bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce. My twins, Leo and Maya, were turning ten. They wanted a high-seas adventure. I had exactly fifty dollars and a stubborn refusal…
My living room in Midtown Atlanta looked like a rainbow-colored crime scene on the morning of June 14, 2025. I was standing there, a single dad with a lukewarm cup of coffee and a glue gun that had just branded my thumb, wondering why on earth I promised my son Leo a budget cocomelon party…
I stood in the big box party aisle on October 12th, staring at a smiling cardboard dog that cost thirty-four dollars. Thirty-four dollars for cardboard destined to be beaten with a stick. Maya and Leo were turning seven in exactly nine days. Thirteen screaming second-graders had RSVP’d for a two-hour bash in our cramped Chicago…
I stood in the party aisle of the Target on Peachtree Street, staring at a wall of overpriced plastic garbage. My son Leo was turning ten in exactly four days. I just wanted to survive the weekend without emptying my checking account. Figuring out the best goodie bags for pokemon party had suddenly become my…
I stood in my Chicago living room on October 14th, staring at twenty-one muddy sneakers piled by the front door. The rain was drumming against the window panes, completely washing out the backyard firepit I had meticulously arranged at 6 AM. Normally, I pride myself on throwing an epic camping party under $50 for a…
I was standing in my Austin driveway on March 14, 2025, clutching a half-empty helium tank while a freak Texas gust threatened to carry me away. My niece Chloe had just turned 11. Tweens are weird. Instead of begging for a sophisticated Taylor Swift listening party or attempting complicated TikTok dances in my living room,…
I am still finding purple glitter in the grout of my kitchen tiles from March 12th of last year. That was the day we hosted my niece Maya’s 8th birthday bash right here in my suburban Portland living room. Because it was pouring rain outside (classic Oregon spring), eighteen screaming second-graders were trapped indoors. They…
The smell of burnt sugar and cheap plastic tires still haunts my Chicago apartment. On April 14, 2024, my twins Leo and Maya turned six, and I threw them a high-octane racing party that somehow only cost me $91 for 10 kids. I usually keep my kids’ parties strictly under $50. But this year, inflation…
Turning double digits in a cramped two-bedroom Chicago apartment requires a specific kind of architectural magic. My twins, Leo and Sam, wanted a full-blown demolition site for their 10th birthday. No clowns. No gentle petting zoos. They wanted destruction. As a mom who prides herself on throwing memorable bashes for next to nothing, pulling off…
