My living room looked like a scene from a technicolor disaster movie last Saturday afternoon. Bits of pink crepe paper were stuck to the ceiling fan, and I found a stray gummy bear in my shoe this morning. My daughter, Sophie, just turned six, and her Peppa Pig obsession has reached a fever pitch that…
Last Saturday, April 4th, I stood in my Denver backyard holding a lead-testing swab and feeling like a total nerd. Leo, my son, turned 12 that day. He wanted a “Modern Frontier” party, which is basically code for “I want to be a cowboy but with Wi-Fi.” The center of the universe for this event…
My daughter Maya turned 12 last Saturday, April 4, 2026, and I spent three frantic weeks obsessing over a y2k birthday pinata that wouldn’t send a kid to the emergency room or break my bank account. We live in Denver, where the wind can turn a cardboard butterfly into a dangerous projectile faster than you…
Living in Chicago with twins is a constant exercise in logistics, but when Leo and Maya told me they wanted a “Mission to Mars” theme for their 11th birthday, my bank account winced. I had exactly one hundred dollars to make twenty-one kids feel like they were floating in zero gravity. Finding the right space…
Twenty-two pairs of tiny, expectant eyes stared at me like I was holding the last juice box on Earth during a Houston heatwave. Last March, my nephew Leo turned four, and my sister—bless her heart—thought hosting nine toddlers in a living room during a spring thunderstorm was a “cute” idea. I walked in with my…
Ten-year-old boys are basically vibrating atoms of chaos, and my nephew Leo is the lead singer of that particular band. Last October 14, I found myself sitting on my kitchen floor in Austin, surrounded by neon green cardstock and a very confused golden retriever named Barnaby. I was trying to solve a riddle that has…
Easter Eggs Safety for Toddlers: My Brain is Melting! Hey everyone, Nora Reed here from San Francisco! My Lily is 11 now, so our Easter egg hunts have evolved into these elaborate, multi-stage scavenger hunts across the neighborhood that I track on a giant spreadsheet. We’re talking coded messages, maps, “golden eggs” with gift cards,…
Anyone else totally winging Easter decor this year? Asking for a friend (me). @nathandoescrafts: So, I gotta be honest, this year feels like Easter just snuck up on me like a rogue toddler after a spilled juicebox. One minute Sienna and I are planning Emma’s first birthday bash back in February, next thing I know,…
My kitchen floor is currently a disaster zone of blue streamers and half-eaten goldfish crackers because I just wrapped up my third “explore, rescue, protect” mission this year. If you are staring at a shopping cart wondering exactly how many plates do I need for a octonauts party, I have been in your shoes three…
The smell of burnt popcorn and the sight of silver duct tape stuck to my classroom ceiling usually means one thing: I survived another party. Last April 4th, 2024, I stood in the middle of Room 2B, surrounded by twenty-two vibrating second-graders and a dog named Chewy who was wearing a GINYOU EarFree Dog Birthday…
